I'm voting for Chuka Umunna, the bright and likeable Labour candidate who is standing in Streatham. Clever, since I live in Richmond upon Thames? Well, I've swapped my vote. Talking last week to a close friend who lives in Streatham, I confided that although I want to boost Labour's share of the national vote, it is more important to deny the Conservatives the chance to seize Richmond Park, the constituency where I live.
Here, the Lib Dem MP Susan Kramer has a tough battle against Zac Goldsmith. Goldsmith has a touch of celebrity about him, loadsa money and is the greenest of green Tories. But he admits that he hasn't much chance of turning a Cameron government green.
Kramer has been a good constituency MP, and shares the same decent instincts of her leader, Nick Clegg. Yet still I want to vote Labour. Luckily, my friend in Streatham is in a similar dilemma. He supports the Lib Dems, but knows the candidate there has no chance. And he too is impressed with Umunna and would like to see him in parliament.
So we've agreed a deal. I will vote for Susan Kramer, on his behalf, and he will vote for Chuka Umunna, on mine. Can I trust him, in the secrecy of the ballot box? I think so. And frankly, even if he rats on the deal, I'm still happy with my decision. That's because Peter Hain, and Labour's tribalist, Ed Balls, are right. The only way to secure the new politics, and in particular, electoral reform is to deprive David Cameron of an overall majority. Nick Clegg has already signalled that he may drop his insistence on electoral reform as a precondition to a deal with Cameron. He is no fool, and knows that there are some things Cameron just won't give him.
So it's all the more surprising that Clegg is dismissing Labour's suggestion of tactical voting as "desperate". What will be desperate is a Lib Dem attempt to get any one of their policies – yes even half a sentence of their progressive manifesto – into a Cameron Queen's speech. Senior Lib Dems are talking privately of their worry that Cleggmania will hit Labour harder than the Tories, and will give Cameron those crucial marginal seats that he needs for an overall majority.
It is in the Lib Dems' interest, it is in Labour's interest and it is in the interest of all those "undecideds" and "fed-ups" who want a different electoral system next time round to vote tactically this time. And honestly, it really doesn't hurt that much.