In restaurants a useful rule of thumb is that the more choices there are on the menu the worse is the cooking. Does the same apply to political choices at elections?

The new issue of Socialist Resistance is out next week. Our editorial calls for a vote for candidates who will maximise the left vote such as Respect, left Greens like Caroline Lucas, candidates of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) and acknowledges that in some areas there is no choice but to vote Labour.

As Gordon Brown clings on to the last available minute before risking a general election, it is becoming clear that despite the public anger against him, Blair, and New Labour, the widely-predicted Tory victory is no longer by any means a certainty.

The strident pronouncements by David Cameron and his public school buddies that working people have to face massive, immediate cuts as soon as the Tories are elected – and more recent reactionary Tory rumblings over marriage, immigration and of course scrapping inheritance tax for all but the super-rich – have helped to undermine Cameron’s carefully-constructed (albeit unlikely) image of the new Conservative Party as socially liberal, and instead reinforced memories of hard-faced attacks on public services under Thatcher.

The Tory campaign effort appears unwittingly to have reminded people that there is now a significant difference between the two parties which so recently appeared like Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Tweedledum now clearly wants huge cuts and painful measures at once, while Tweedledee has been ineffectually trying to buy his way out of the crisis, and wants to impose the cuts more slowly over four years. Who in their right mind wants to vote for cuts now, if the cuts could be postponed?

Cameron’s setback and the increasing prospect of a hung parliament or even a narrow Labour win will have a political impact: Brown’s authority will be increased within the Labour Party as more MPs realise they may still be looking to him for promotion after the election, and fewer are inclined to voice criticisms.

And many voters – egged on especially by right wing union leaders who have already effectively pulled down the shutters on any campaigns critical of the government until after the election – will be more wary than ever of casting a vote which they may fear could accidentally allow Cameron and his cronies to gain ground.

So where should the left stand on voting? It’s clear that the narrow margin between the two main parties is not the fault of the left, but flows from the wretched policies of New Labour in government. Voting Labour against the Tories is right where there is no left alternative and as a short-term option, but the long-term task is to create a new, principled left wing alternative to Brown and New Labour, which will embrace a programme reflecting the needs and demands of the majority of society, not centred on the preservation of capitalism, the banking system, and imperialist alliances: a policy for the millions, not the millionaires.

Simply urging workers to ‘vote Labour’ is to effectively gag the political debate, and further postpone the necessary fight for something new and better.

The most developed and successful left challenge to Labour has come from Respect, which already has councillors in Birmingham and East London, and an MP, George Galloway. Respect will be standing in at least 10 parliamentary seats and over 100 local government seats in these elections.

Respect Party leader and Birmingham councillor Salma Yaqoob came a close second in the last general election, and seems well-placed again to challenge in Birmingham, with the Green Party having agreed to stand aside in her favour.

Even though these seats may be viewed by Labour as marginals, we call for a vote for Respect: and we also call for a vote for Respect in the seats it will be contesting in East London, Manchester and the North West Bradford and elsewhere.

In other constituencies we call for a vote for candidates who will maximise the left vote, where credible candidates stand opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, opposed to neoliberalism, cuts in public services and other anti-working class measures. In some areas this means supporting candidates of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC): in others the left vote should go to the few campaigning left wing Labour MPs (notably John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn), and in some areas for Green Party candidates where they run on platforms to the left of the Labour Party. In Scotland we call for a vote for the Scottish Socialist Party in those seats it is contesting.

We strongly support Caroline Lucas in Brighton Pavilion where she has a real possibility of a breakthrough. Her election to Parliament, as is the case with the three Respect candidates who have a real possibility of wining, would be a victory for the whole of the left and progressive politics in Britain.

Of course in a number of areas the additional factor that cannot be ignored is the danger of the far-right, notably the BNP, exploiting the situation created by over a decade of New Labour failure.

We accept no responsibility for the social problems that have arisen and even worsened since 1997: but we are not neutral on the issue of the far-right. Even the worst New Labour hack is less of a threat to working class solidarity than a BNP electoral victory. So in any constituency where no established left wing candidate is already running against the far-right, the only sensible solution is to call for a vote for Labour.

In Scotland and in Wales, however, the issue is more straightforward: we support the SSP as our first preference in Scotland, and we call for a vote for Plaid Cymru, which has pushed the Welsh Assembly government to the left, against New Labour candidates.

Voting – and campaigning around elections – is a part of a much wider process that must take place if the chronic weakness of working class leadership and left politics is to be addressed. We might have hoped to be in a stronger position on this already: but some serious work in the next few months can hopefully strengthen the left as a political force in the longer term.