Polly Toynbee urges Guardian readers to abandon principle.

Not that I am surprised, but Polly Toybee's rallying cry for Guardian readers not to vote for what they believe in but for what they are against is really rather silly. In fact it reminds me of the tactics of the BNP - vote for us because you hate the other lot.

Her reasoning sums up precisely the mentality of the Labour Party at the moment which is harming it so much, calling upon the "anti-Tory" brigade to vote according to that highly negative motivation. The very fact that Toynbee urges voters to vote based on what they are against rather than one single policy they are for sums things up very nicely in terms of where the left and Labour are today.

If the Labour Party want to survive for very much longer, they need to buy in to some set of principles and stick to them, as do the two other old parties. If we get Proportional Representation after the next election then the wasted vote argument goes out of the window. If the likes of Toynbee and Labour (as well as the Tories) are left with nothing to stop people switching to parties like UKIP and the Greens, they need to have a message and a cause far more powerful than "we'll keep the other lot out".

It is this tittle-tattle, ping-pong politics that is helping to cause a breakdown in confidence and interest in politics. People want policies and action they can buy into and support, not glorified slagging matches and negative campaigning.