So here we are - the race to number 10 has started.Unfortunately I can feel no excitement for the forthcoming campaign and will be glad when it is over. Labour/Tory/LibDem ?

For me it is like Sunderland vs Leeds - I wish they could all lose. We’ve had 2 and a half years of Brown stumbling on after his initial honeymoon period with gaffe after gaffe and the man just seeming totally out of his depth.

We’ve got as Tory leader in Cameron who despite the awfulness of the current incumbents just cannot get enough support in polls to suggest he has sealed the deal. We’ve had Labour MPs caught in lobbying firm stings. We’ve had the Tories dodging the question about whether Ashcroft paid UK tax on his income until forced to come clean. We have LibDems seemingly wanting to be all things to all people with their main hope to be holding the balance of power. Does their willingness to give the vote to prisoners still stand?

We’ve had the expenses scandal that finally showed us how deeply into the trough so many had their noses. If it wasn’t for the fact that The Tories would have got in earlier and therefore benefited from actions that many of their own MPs took then I would have wanted the election last year to get rid of those guilty of the worst excesses.

It is important to vote because people gave their lives in order for us to have that democratic right but which one of our main parties are deserving of it?

Is the reason so many people are not taking part in the democratic process one of the reasons we have 2 BNP MEPs and them talking of winning control of at least one council in London ?

The recent Corus closure showed our Labour MPs to be slow out of the traps at best - and still there in Bell’s case as far as I can see - but I don’t recall a great Tory or LibDem effort to do anything other than blame Labour. Peoples’ lives are affected by this and the Secret Millionaire programme showed how the knock-on affect can mean (for instance charities suffering as people losing their jobs have less to spare for donations) - so why weren’t representatives of all parties getting together and showing a united Teesside front to try and save those jobs from the 1st minute?

So who would people recommend the people of Teesside vote for? What improvements will any of the party’s make to improve the lives of ordinary people? Maybe it’s just something that happens as you get older or maybe our politicians are getting worse but I used to feel that the result of the election was important in that I felt one of the parties was better than the other but that’s been ebbing away for a while. Last time I voted for the party that seemed best for me before thinking about the country so I guess that was when disillusion was beginning to set in.

My vote? At the moment unless one of the main parties was in a 2 horse race with the BNP for a seat I can find little enthusiasm for any of them. I’m fed up with Labour , don’t trust the Tories and have seen very little to make me want to vote LibDem.

My prediction? Well my late father said before the 1992 election when Labour were favourites “The Tories will always get their vote out” and he was right then. I think that is why they’ll walk it - along with polls indicating they not only have a national lead but that they will also do even better in marginal seats that will make the difference in a close race.

(Typed up by Chopper, acting PPS to the Right Honourable TeessideCleveland)