Vote pro-life in 2005

Pitfalls of recommending candidates

There are a number of difficulties in creating a site like this as regards pro-life issues. I'm listing them here for information, and no doubt someone can let me know of any others.

Lack of information

This is probably the biggest problem. Because an election is called with such a rapid timetable, it is impossible for me to question all the candidates. I would realistically expect to only to be able to obtain data on about half the seats for this election, and I hope to do better in future elections.

In addition, the number of votes I'm showing here is very few. There have been no votes on abortion in the last session of parliament, although there was an EDM in support of it. Some MPs have voted in support of the 1990 HFE Act, and a smaller number have voted in favour of the 1967 Abortion Act. I did not omit these because they are unimportant, but simply because there are fewer and fewer MPs that have signed these. If you would like these to be added, then I will add them when I have time.

Better the Devil you know?

In a lot of cases all the candidates for a constituency are as bad as each other. You might be considering therefore sticking with the sitting candidate in case another candidate would be worse.

I've had it suggested to me that you might prefer instead to spoil your ballot paper by writing your views on it, eg "you have the blood of millions of unborn children on your hands", or something equally subtle. All spoilt papers that go into ballot boxes are kept. In the event of a tie or a close run vote, all the candidates are asked to look at the spoilt papers to see if any would be a vote for them. All I can say to this idea is that it is "interesting".

Certainly the candidates here that are recommended not to be voted for can be described as being very bad.

Spoilt for choice?

In some constituencies there may be more than one candidate that is "pro-life". A recommendation to vote for a candidate does not mean that they are the only "pro-life" candidate, except in the case of seats contested by the ProLife Alliance.

In that case you'll have to either press the candidates harder to check that they are, or find other issues that would help you decide. If you are in such a constituency, I'd love to hear from you, as I believe that these are extremely rare indeed.

Lack of information?

Any recommendations being made here on whether to vote for a particular candidate are based either what a candidate has said, or both said and done in the case of past and present MPs.

My MP is not standing again

There are 78 MPs that are not standing again. I think that must be a record. In this case question your candidates whenever you can, and please let me know what they say.

My MP/Candidates have mixed views on these issues

Your MP or candidate may, for example, be opposed to abortion on demand but in favour of so called "therapeutic cloning". If you can speak to them to show them that "therapeutic cloning" (or whatever fancy name it has this week) is still cloning and persuade them to change their views, that would be great. If you can't, then you have some difficult decisions to make.

I would say in this case to beware of any candidate who is uncertain on the issue of euthanasia as this is likely to be brought up in the next parliament. I've heard one candidate speak of "freedom of choice". These candidates are extremely naiive and do not realise that voluntary euthanasia will inevitably lead to involuntary euthanasia, as the Dutch experience has already shown. Do we really want the elderly in the UK to carry cards saying "please don't kill me"? After the tragedies caused by Dr Shipman, I really don't think we do.

My MP voted in error

It is possible, although unlikely that an MP voted in a way that was not their intention and this gave the wrong impression. This can only be verified by checking with them. Please, in this case please let me know.

But the pro-life candidate has no chance of winning

There are for example, 36 seats being contested by the ProLife Alliance, some of which are marginal seats. Obviously, it is better to be able to vote for a candidate that has a chance of winning that is pro-life, but that shouldn't deter support for "lesser" pro-life candidates. So if for example a marginal constituency was lost because the ProLife Alliance swung the balance of the vote, it would be a wake up call to the major parties. They would see that the issue is important to voters and I personally hope it happens!

Conclusion

Given all these difficulties, you are probably asking "Why bother"? Well, the simple answer to that is that the right to life is the most fundamental right there is. People of all different faiths and of none at all consider this to be so important that the issue should be raised on the political agenda.

Please note that although every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility can be accepted for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the data on this site.

To correct errors, or to give any further information please use the email address johnairey@prolifevote.org.uk.

Last Updated: 31/05/2001 18:05:15

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