Tomorrow, we are invited to vote in an unexpected European Parliament election and many will do so to make a statement about where they stand on the big constitutional question of the day - party allegiances cast aside to make a statement, one way or another.
It just seems a terrible shame that we will have to do so by the party list system, which means we cannot list our preferences but will have to accept who the parties chose and the order in which they put them.
The terrible conundrum is that the many good people who will make their voice heard for Leaving the EU and will vote for the Brexit Party will have no choice but to elect Claire Fox. It seems that in the rush to have inclusive lists of those of left and right, the Brexit Party hierarchy gave no thought to the fact that their North West list is headed by a woman whose party (now morphed into the "Institute for Ideas", which she runs) defended the Warrington bombing that killed two children and later attacked the IRA for signing the Good Friday Agreement which ended such violence.
Democracy defeats terrorism, voting tomorrow, whichever way one decides to vote, shows a face of defiance to those who thought it was a good choice to kill children at a concert. It is just a crying shame that thought would not be given to the families of 12 year-old Tim Parry and 3-year old Johnathan Ball. 16 years later, on the anniversary of little Johnathan's death, his mother, Marie Comerford, died of a fatal heart attack. Claire Fox has never apologised for the stance she took and, because of this, one of the other Brexit Party list candidates, Sally Bate, resigned.
On this day, we stand tall against terrorism and voting tomorrow will make a strong case for democracy. Nonetheless, it will feel really horrible on Sunday, when the counts begin, if the first name announced as elected is that of Claire Fox.
