In the next 100 days or so, there will be a general election (most likely to be delayed as long as possible however by Mr. Brown). I turned 18 about a year and a half ago and got overly excited when the European elections came round last year. In that instance, personally, it was an easy choice as I knew who I thought would be best for my local community. However with general elections it obviously goes further than what's best for your local area. So, as the Conservatives have done, I'm going to prepare for the next election early. Here is what I think are the troubles for first time voters. We want to vote, mainly just because we can, but who to vote for?

First of all, Labour. Now unless you've been living under a rock for the past few years, in which case what you're doing reading this is beyond me, you will have noticed that the Labour party has taken something of a PR dip. Well, describing it as a PR dip is a bigger understatement than saying a hurricane is 'a bit of a breeze', or Heather Mills being described as 'quite disliked' by Beatles fans. Needless to say many people don't like Gordon Brown for seeming completely useless in the face of a crisis and the Labour party in general for taking the country into a war that it seems no one wanted. It would seem the Labour vote is going to be mainly comprised of hardcore supporters who are keeping with tradition and people who feel sympathy for Gordon Brown. Sure he was PM when the banks collapsed, but he was also the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the economy was prospering under Blair. Besides, people don't trust politicians with different coloured eyebrows to their hair...we're looking at you Darling!

So what are the alternatives, Lib-Dem? Well in honesty they could come up with whatever policy they liked and I still don't think many people will vote for them. I know many people who just think the party would have no idea how to run a country when they haven't been in power since the early 1900s. Nick Clegg seems like a nice enough chap, and they certainly have more credibility than Labour considering they did not want to go to war. My guess is many will be voting Lib-Dem next election, but not nearly enough for them to win. When it comes down to it, can you really envisage 'Prime Minister Clegg'? It seems more unlikely than Susan Boyle having a record-breaking debut album of ballads...what...? That did happen?! Well maybe there's hope after all.

If the Lib-Dems are the Su-bo of political parties, then the Conservatives are the smug rich guy who tries to connect with youths, or Westwood as he's more commonly known. The favourites to win the election purely because they promise "change". Yes, by the amount of times you heard David "call me Dave" Cameron utter the word "change" you'd think he was sponsored by a brand called "change", or maybe he has a best friend called "change", or possibly it could be his rap alias, maybe that’s why in interviews he says "it's time for change". After a while "change" becomes a tiresome word. One that sounds much less appealing after it's been repeated constantly over the past year or so. I'm starting to think change isn't exactly what I want, especially seeing as they never say WHAT they're going to change. See, this is my underlying problem with the Conservatives, they’re a great opposition for questioning Labour, but they can never come up with any solutions themselves. It seems their main policy is that ‘we can’t go on like this’ and that Cameron will ‘cut the deficit, not the NHS’ without explaining how. Perhaps if he’s elected he’ll stop spending party funds on photoshopping his shiny face. Or perhaps he’ll cut down on Youtube videos, even though they are low budget, it would certainly make me feel a lot better. Or perhaps he’s just hoping for a miracle where a mutation starts making people excrete money. Whatever the case, I personally dislike Cameron (in case you couldn’t tell). At the end of the day he’s a posh Eton boy who tries to hug hoodies, patronising them and saying how misunderstood they are, a few months after antagonising rap music for making youths violent. Yet people will persist on voting Tory, most probably because they want change and despise Gordon Brown. It would be fair enough if Cameron wasn’t a hypocritical, shiny faced man born with a silver spoon in his mouth. In his own words “too many twits make a tw*t”, if that’s the case then David Cameron is the King of twits. Unfortunately for me it seems like he will be our next Prime Minister, so the joke is on me I suppose, unless he does worse than Brown of course…as crazy a thought as that may be…

Then of course you have the parties that aren’t regarded amongst the three main parties. Probably a wise choice with the expenses scandal still prominent in the minds of many when it comes to voting. Honestly, I don’t want any of the leaders of the three parties to come into power. Thus, the dilemma for first time voters is this: Labour and Brown are unreliable and appear to have dragged us into the worst recession for years and a war no one wants, the Lib-Dems and Clegg don’t seem to know what they’re doing and the Conservatives and Cameron promise change yet won’t say how and are out of touch with a lot of the population. The alternatives are much like the Lib-Dems really, most people won’t vote for them because they’ll see it as a wasted vote on a party that won’t win. Obviously you have the extremists like the BNP, but I personally don’t see much of a link between discontent at politicians and voting for racists. In spite of all this I’m still going to vote, as much as I don’t like any of the parties it’s my first time, would be a waste if I didn’t. Perhaps if as many people voted for political parties as they did for ‘Jedward’ on the X-Factor then the turnout might not be so bad this year. Maybe ‘Jedward’ should make their own party, it would probably be more popular than the current Labour administration anyway, and a better grasp of politics to boot.