I have nobody to vote for

I would like to vote for some who is opposed to the smoking ban. And opposed to random breath testing. And opposed to the ban on cannabis and other drugs.
I would like to vote for someone who shares my opposition to compulsory safety laws like the seatbelt law or the helmet law, and the precedents that these set.
I would like to vote for someone who opposes the wholesale extension of the power of the state that is going on all over the western world, whether it is on grounds of security, the so-called 'war-on-terror' or the tabloid inspired over-reaction to crime.
What I want is a philosophy where people are allowed to take their own risks. It's called freedom.
But there is no candidate standing in this election, anywhere in the state, who is prepared to fight the growth of state power.
Now you may say that the big issues are the state of the health service, education, pensions or the economy, stupid.
Well they are indeed big issues. But I don't honestly believe that either coalition alternative is not going to make a lot of difference on these issues.
Look at the situation that will exist over the five years of the next government. Ninety-five percent of the laws of 2007 will still be in place. A huge swathe of laws and policies are determined by the EU. Most of our economic and social policies are determined by the partnership talks.
And if all that weren't true, the ideological ground in dispute has narrowed to almost nothing. All over Europe the concept of right and left is almost redundant as political parties compete to occupy the middle ground.
There's a great website online called politicalcompass.org and the purpose of this site is to determine your position on the political compass. It not only measures right and left but also the range between authoritarianism and libertarianism.
You answer a series of questions and the site places you on the political compass. You can see how you compare to people like Stalin, Thatcher, Mandela or Hitler.
They even have a page showing the positions of the Irish political parties.
We know that the western world has settled, more or less, on the social market economy model to run society. So there's really not much to choose from in terms of ideology. If people were honest the battle is mainly about personalities and banalities. Spin, a la Blair, if you like.
Meanwhile, the political movement along the other great political axis, between liberty and state control, is all going in one direction. We are sleepwalking ourselves into a police state.
And none of our political parties has anything principled to say about this. Over the next twenty years the ability of the state to gather information about people and to process it will expand tremendously with computing power, especially with wireless computer chips.
The usual thicko response is: "if you're not doing anything wrong, you've nothing to fear." The word 'wrong' here means a refusal to comply with laws on your personal safety that you have never been asked about or that are imposed by a majority on a minority. I don't want to live in a society like that but our political parties don't mind.
I think I'll have to start my own party for the next election.