Blair or Howard?

First off, let me make clear what I would like to happen in the general election.
Ideally, I'd like the Liberal Democrats to win. Blair or Howard? I'd answer no and no. I don't want either to be the next Prime Minister, and I suspect that a majority of UK citizens who are eligible to vote would agree. (Remember that 25-40% won't vote at all.)

Realistically, I'd rather have Labour in power than the Tories. The UK has already moved too far to the political right for my liking. I want to be in the middle of a broad debate. I don't want to vote Liberal Democrat because they are the most left wing mainstream party, I want to vote for them because they are the party in the centre and because I support Proportional Representation. So, what I'd like is for Labour to win but with a much smaller majority than they currently enjoy. And I'd like the Liberal Democrats to have a lot more MP's in parliament.

This still means that Tony Blair would be Prime Minister which, for me, is a problem. Tony Blair is a... sums up my feelings on the subject. In case you don't have time to read it, I'll say again that I believe Tony Blair is a liar. I thought he should have resigned when it became clear that there were no WMD in Iraq. Mr Blair wants people to stop talking about Iraq but I, and many others, feel very strongly that he is a liar, and as such I don't think he deserves a third term. Blair won't resign because he believes that Labour will win the election anyway, and he's probably right. I find this very frustrating.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the prospect of a "Martin Bell" type independent candidate standing against Blair in his Sedgefield constituency.
A letter in the Guardian got me thinking about this. I also read this article: Blair may face Sedgefield challenger, Guardian, 02:03:05. To me, this seems like the best solution as Blair is defending a massive majority. An independent candidate has a much better chance of achieving something than the Liberal Democrats or the Tories. See Sedgefield result, 2001, UKPOL magazine.

So far, I have read about 4 independent candidates who are intending to stand against Blair. I list them here in no particular order:
David Shayler, Ex-MI5 agent to run against Blair
Jonathan Cockburn, The Blair Must Go Party
Cherri BlairOut-Gilham, The Blair Out Party
Reg Keys, Red Cap's father to take on Blair

I'm not giving my opinion on the 4 candidates. I genuinely do hope that one of them can force Blair out of office.