Had a Damascan conversion last week – I joined a political party for the first time in my wretched, fence-sitting life. The Green Party. I’ve been pounding the streets of Camden and Kings Cross this week, putting Green Party leaflets through doors.

I thought about who I wanted to get in on Friday morning. And then realised that whether Labour, Conservative or Lib Dem gets in, I won’t feel any different.

I understand why some people vote ‘tactically’, but I can’t do it myself. Ye Gods, there must be more to democracy than voting for Least Evil. I feel physically sick about the deaths in Iraq, and wish I could take back my vote for Labour in 2001.

I can’t vote Lib Dem, because I don’t believe in them. I believe in voting with my heart, and my heart does not belong to Mr Kennedy. His glassy stare doesn’t convince me one iota. And I believe in voting for a party you believe in, rather than the Least Worst of, here we go, Who Could Actually Get In. Oh, that dreaded phrase.

I feel sick, sick, sick, sick, sick about all three of the hypocritical opportunistic whelks. The last Labour campaign simply said, “Vote Labour, or wake up on Friday with Michael Howard.” Is that really what it’s come down to?

So, yes, after voting Labour for years, I’m now a Green voter and indeed a Green member. Apart from anything else, it’s criminal that the Greens don’t even have a single MP in Westminster yet, after thirty years of existing. An imbalance that badly needs correcting. I want to shake things up. I want things to be different. To be interesting. So that’s another reason why I refuse to vote for one of the Big Three parties.

I speak to my friends, and it turns out most of them aren’t voting at this election. For the most part, they’re just not registered. It’s shocking. Some of these friends go on protest marches against the war in Iraq, yet won’t sort out getting on the electoral roll. What a waste of time. March all you like, but politicians only really understand the ballot box – ask Mr Blair.

Voting Green is not a ‘wasted vote’. All votes are counted, and recorded. All votes that are counted are votes that count. There has to be a way forward. But not with any of the current top three.