OK, so I’d just about reasoned myself around to voting no. But every time I get there I run into some nightmarish turdpool of mendacity from the no campaign. I may just not be able to stomach doing anything that George Osborne, John Reid, Robert Edmiston, Dan Hodges, and “Tom” “Newton”-“Dunn” agree with. I’d abstain, but that’s no solution.
To summarise yet again, the arguments are as follows, net-net:
Yes: It’s crap, and it doesn’t afford an immediate kick at the Lib Dems, but there might be some angle to be had from it and anyway everyone hates the Lib Dems.
No: Inchoate lashout.
I’m actually quite keen on policy based on gut hatred – there have been quite a few occasions over the last ten years when allowing yourself to be guided by tribal loyalty, practiced trigger-movements, and aesthetic revulsion would have put you in the right when a lot of people got it wrong based on reason. But the rules are the rules, and surely the fear and loathing factor must respond to the sheer horror of the no campaign.