Stuart Weir (Cambridge, Democratic Audit): I have long believed that we should all have a vote in the US Presidential elections. It is not just that the choice is too important to be left to Americans, it is that their President exercises more power over our lives (deaths and injuries) than he or she does over theirs. But who is the "we"? Obviously, the UK is part of the "we", being a quasi or satellite state of the US anyway, but all Africa, Latin America, Europe, Australasia, much of Asia should qualify too - perhaps every country apart from China, Russia and possibly India. Up to them.
Obviously, too, the choice of candidates should not be restricted to Americans. Nor can the US courts which allowed Bush to steal an election be trusted; nor come to think of it, can their election administrators. And oh dear, they would have to change their electoral system; it is not fit for purpose for them, let alone us.
Just to get in the mood, I decided to test their candidates against my political position on the 2008 SelectSmart selection guide. The nearest candidates to my views were a Democrat, Dennis Kucinich, who has alas withdrawn; then Alan Augustus, a Green whose campaign is "suspended"; and then another Democrat, Christopher Dodd, who has also withdrawn. Barack Obama was the highest of those I have heard of, with a 81 per cent overlap with my views. Hillary Clinton came in below him with a 78 per cent overlap, which rather surprised me as I prefer her position on health-care to Obama's. But then I had a 29 per cent overlap with the Republican, Mike Huckabee, with whom all I knowingly have in common is that we are both male and white.
To be honest, I wrote the above as a tease of sorts. I certainly do not mean to suggest that elections and politics in the UK are superior. The primary process shows how seriously many American voters take the choices that are before them. And in many respects, the United States is an admirably open society and their choices for November are far wider than anything we will get here. But there are two buts. Last night I saw Haditha, Nick Broomfield's drama-documentary about the incident in which US marines killed two dozen innocent Iraqis, men, women and children, in reprisal for an IED that had killed one of their own and seriously injured two. First, Broomfield cannot distribute his thoughtful and balanced movie in the US, as others before him have found. So this is a closed society as well as an open one. Secondly, the leading Republican candidate is committed to continuing the carnage in Iraq. Of course, it is right that Americans are given a choice in November between McCain and a Democrat who is committed to withdraw. All I am saying is that the rest of us deserve a vote in a decision that will affect us all, that may continue to crush humanity in Iraq and that may do irretrievable damage around the world.
