When I was younger I was absolutely sure about my political views. I always knew which party to vote for and I knew absolutely my opinions – which policies I was in favour of, which I wasn’t. It was all very black and white.

Now I seem to be less sure. We have European and local council elections next month and I still don’t know which way to vote. I’m certain of only two things:

1. I will not vote Labour. I realise local elections shouldn’t be about national issues, but I can’t vote for a party that has so badly let the country down over the past decade. The 10p income tax rate abolition, the encroachment of the nanny state on personal liberty, the proposed introduction of unnecessary ID cards (and all the lying and hyperbole surrounded the reasons we ‘need’ them), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers act (appropriately RIP) and the recent situation where they shamefully tried to deny Gurkhas the right to settle in Britain. I could go on. No, Labour will not get my vote as long as Jacqui Smith remains Home Secretary to that dour Scotsman we inherited (and never asked for) at number 10.

2. I will not vote BNP. I could not bring myself to vote for such an openly hateful group of bigots. They can have their say and I’m pleased that they can get airtime on TV and aren’t censored. I like that they can spread their hateful message. Not because I like them or what they have to say (I hate them AND what they have to say) but because I firmly believe in free speech. They have the right to espouse their opinions and we have the right to call them racist biggots, laugh at them and ensure they remain a fringe organisation supported by people of low intellectual calibre and low moral fibre.

So that rant out of the way I’m torn between the Conservatives who want less control from Brussels, no ID cards and more policemen on the beat, the Lib Dems who want to save local schools and have a sensible, liberal approach to drugs, and the Green Party who also have sensible policies and think we should take care of the planet.

The problem is they all have policies I support and each no more so than the other.

Then there are the issues I’m not sure about:

Proportional representation. The Lib Dems have called for it for years. On the one hand I can see it enfranchises more of the public as our MPs are more representative of the general population. It gives smaller parties a greater say in government. On the other hand it gives fringe parties more of a say and can lead to idiots like the BNP gaining seats in parliament. It can also lead to situations like Italy and Israel where there are so many smaller parties that no party wins elections outright and no party has a mandate to govern, leading to coalition governments that can’t agree on anything and, in Italy’s case, a new general election virtually every year because the previous government has broken down. Back on the other hand again, at least this stops governments churning out useless legislation because they have a large majority in the commons.

Or the House of Lords. On the one hand it’s an anachronistic, unelected institution full of partly deaf, rich, upper class pensioners that stinks of advantage. On the other hand they’ve admirably kept the Government in check recently over issues like detention without trial (Jacqui Smith’s fault, again).

So you see my problem.

I thought with age we became more stubborn, but in my case it seems I get less and less sure about the things I thought I knew.