Now the manifestos are out, the guys behind the Who Should You Vote For test have updated the question set to try to make it more accurate. Here's mine:

Take the Who Should You Vote For? England quiz

Liberal Democrat		102
Green		88
Labour	-18
UK Independence	-26
Conservative	-32

You expected: LIB

Your recommendation: Liberal Democrat

Click here for more details about these results

Now, it's better than it was, and has given me a stronger distinction between LD and Green, which is good. But, I don't think that distinction is strong enough, and there's very little to nothing in there about science and technology policy (where, naturally, I agree with Evan), nor is there much in there about Green specific policies. You might be of the opinion that a deliberate policy of stunting economic growth, a massive increase in the overall taxation take, a 50% hike on alcohol and tobacco duty (which is already high) and a substantial increase in food costs are good ideas. I don't, at all. But this test doesn't ask me anything on those ideas, ergo it looks like I'm a moderate supporter of the Woo, which, y'know, I'm not.

But given my local Green candidate came as close as she can to saying vote Lib Dem tactically, I think we're doing OK:
How I learned to stop worrying and love Nick Clegg « Kate Sweeny

Now, remember, just a bit of fun, but, y'know, useful fun.

Who should you vote for? UK General Election quiz

Liberal Democrat		67
Green		59
UK Independence		10
Conservative		0
Labour	-4

You expected: LIB

Your recommendation: Liberal Democrat

Click here for more details about these results

Not in any way a surprise here, but crucially this year they appear to have takn on board criticism made last time (well, the guy who coded it read my post) and the issues appear to me to be a fair spread of party policies.

However, last time it biased in favour of the Lib Dems, and I got Lib Dem, which, y'know, I should; anyone from different parties wanting to critique it are welcome to post in the comments if they don'[t want to blog it themselves.

IM represents 'new linguistic renaissance' | The Register

I still dislike using IM, but the snobs are wrong: far from ruining teenagers' ability to communicate, IM lets teenagers show off what they can do with language

(tags: language linguistics)
Science and SF articles needed

For the science writers and reviewers out there, Nick Mamatas needs feature articles for his Clarkesworld magazine. He'll even pay you.

(tags: writing nick+mamatas)
La conductrice qui jouit

Note to train drivers - if you're going to have a wank after making an announcement to the whole train, turn off the intercom first? (from Popbitch, natch)

(tags: humour masturbation)
Girly B Icons - Various Academia Quotes

There are some rather good ones in this set, haven't figured out what to yoink yet but will definitely grab something

(tags: icons livejournal)
Who to vote for - The Public Whip

Not a bad little tool, biased against the Govt but not horribly so, picks 14 issues of the last few years and you get to compare your opinion to the party voting record, includes stuff like the smoking ban and fox hunting, not all dry stuff

(tags: politics predictions public+whip)
redscharlach: Blackadder II mini-icons: Two spikes would be an extravagance

These are brilliant

(tags: blackadder livejournal icons)
Liberal Conspiracy Â» Forza, Viola

Jarndyce is spot on with this one: The notion that sport and politics should never mix is a curious, and also deeply political, one. Sport, after all, is just the waging of international politics by other means

(tags: sports politics)

absinthecity has done the new US version of the Who Should I Vote For quiz, and has results similar to but not identical to mine:
Who should you vote for?

Mike Gravel		63
Dennis Kucinich		54
Barack Obama		27
John Edwards		3
Hillary Clinton	-21

You expected: Dennis Kucinich
Your recommendation: Mike Gravel
( Mike Gravel Bio—nice touch )
It's appears to be a lot less biased than the 2005 UK version that I wrote an analysis of back then, curious that both Abs and I both get negative scores for Hilary, it confirms that I am very opposed to her on the issues but I pretty much knew that already. Question is, are the issues selected and the weight given to them fair to each candidate? The problem with the previous version was the policies selected and the weight given them, made it very unlikely to get a Labour result. So is our mutual negative for Hilary because she's a really bad candidate with daft policies, or is it because her good policies aren't options? Any USians (especially Hilary fans) care to give it a go and tell me?

Bootnotes: might as well do the other two versions.
( Republican )
( Independent/undecided )

OK, after a lot of people commented, I ran a brief analysis of the thing. I wrote it up here on

ukpolitics [ETA: Now copying and pasting in here below so I've got the analysis, 19/1/2008].

I've put a Tab Delimited Text file up on my storage site (for those not used to TDT files, open with a spreadsheet or database programme like excel, and re-display the columns. Excel filters then let you choose parties and their preferences).

Essentially, many of the policies chosen are popular (or are supposed to be) LibDem policies. But the Labour policies chosen are not that popular, and not what they're really campaigning on. UKIP gets its two main issues easily highlighted at the top (for those curious, if you put in a neutral result for the two Europe Qs, but are opposed to, for example, ID cards, you're likely to show a soft positive for UKIP. Tories also get a number of their headline policies.
( More detailed analysis )
So, the test, while fun, is unlikely to show you as a Labour supporter, and is very likely, if you're on the "left" to show you as a LibDem; 3 of Labour's 7 positive areas are also LibDem areas.

Is this a problem? Not if, like me, you're actively out campaigning for the LibDems. But if you want an impartial way of finding out who you should go for, one that allows for choices on all policy issues should possibly be chosen.

( Remainder of original post )

Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome:

Liberal Democrat

Your actual outcome:

	Labour 2
Conservative -45
	Liberal Democrat 72
UK Independence Party -23
	Green 14

You should vote: Liberal Democrat

The LibDems take a strong stand against tax cuts and a strong one in favour of public services: they would make long-term residential care for the elderly free across the UK, and scrap university tuition fees. They are in favour of a ban on smoking in public places, but would relax laws on cannabis. They propose to change vehicle taxation to be based on usage rather than ownership.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

Let's face it; card carrying members should agree with the policies they voted for, right?

ETA: The test is biased, follow up analysis here.

matgb: Artwork of 19th century upper class anarchist, text: MatGB (Default)

British Liberal, house husband, school play leader and stepdad. Campaigner, atheistic feminist, amateur baker. Male.

Known to post items of interest on occasions. More likely to link to interesting stuff. Sometimes talks about stuff he's done. Occasionally posts recipes for good food. Planning to get married, at some point. Enjoying life in Yorkshire.

Likes comments. Especially likes links. Loves to know where people came from and what they were looking for. Mostly posts everything publicly. Sometimes doesn't. Hi.

Mat Bowles

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@wsyvf updated: now with extra policy detail +13 comments
Who Should You Vote For test +24 comments
Icons, voting and a conductor caught in the act +7 comments
Who Should I Vote for US-style +2 comments
That who to vote for test +1 comment
Anyone surprised? +6 comments

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