I always do vote Labour but that doesn't mean I don't have reasons - like I'm tribal and all that - and since the national papers are now declaring their hand, I feel that normblog should declare mine. Not to make a meal of it...
(1) The Conservatives are the party of the rich - always have been, still are.
(2) As the Guardian says, even in announcing its own support for them, 'The Liberal Democrats are a very large party now, with support across the spectrum. But they remain in some respects a party of the middle and lower middle classes. Labour's record on poverty remains unmatched, and its link to the poor remains umbilical.'
(3) See above at 2, Labour's record on poverty unmatched - and social justice trumps other considerations unless these are of an exceptional and urgent kind.
(4) Labour is the party most closely associated with the doctrine of liberal interventionism, a doctrine which should be supported.
(5) The Guardian has come out for the Lib-Dems - and the Guardian is now a moral swamp, where poisonous vapours are allowed to circulate freely.
So... Gordon Brown notwithstanding, and my support for electoral reform ditto, normblog recommends voting Labour.