This season, I will mostly be voting...

...Labour. Okay, so it's not the biggest shock ever. But seeing as this will be my first time voting in this country, I have been trying my hardest to make a genuienly informed choice instead of just following the herd. And for a while there, I had a serious flirtation going with the Lib Dems.

Still, after seeing Tone-Dawg himself (to quote Steve Bell) defending his position on everything from the NHS to immigration to Iraq during a grilling by Jonathan Dimbleby and various members of "the public" (who were all suspiciously well-spoken) last night, I'm more convinced than ever that voting Labour is the only real option. I won't get into all the ins and outs, as there are far better blogs out there that can tell you why it makes sense. But for me it's got something to do with experience, a little to do with socialism, and a lot to do with generally being able to improve difficult problem areas of the country better than any other party.

At the same time, spying the official policy advisor for Number 10 at The Crown on Clerkenwell Green yesterday - in jeans and t-shirt, running races through the churchyard with his two boys in the late afternoon sunshine - might have appealed to my cuddly side just enough to tip the balance in their favour as well. Awww.

But word to the PM, though. Once Thursday has been and gone, for the love of god, go get yourself a Reiki massage or something, or get Cherie to book you a trip to a health spa. I've rarely seen Blair look so tense and strung out as he did on TV yesterday. True, he did have a lot of explaining to do, but it wasn't pretty seeing him doggedly repeating the same explanations in five or six different ways, until even Dimbleby couldn't think of any other way to advance the programme. A change of leader midway through the next term looks more and more to be the likely - and necessary - option.