Monday 22 February 2010

Sometimes I wonder why I bother....

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Sometimes I wonder why I bother....

Yesterday a local resident rang me to complain. The matter of his complaint is not significant but his political response was...

“You’re all useless. You can’t get a simple thing sorted out. I won’t be voting at the General Election.”

Now if this was a solitary event, I would put it down to the heat of the moment but this comment is ever more common. It goes along with:

“If I could, I’d be off to (inset foreign country of choice) tomorrow. This country’s finished.”

And:

“I’m half inclined to vote for (insert chosen unpleasant right-wing party) just to make a point.”

Or:

“You politicians are all the same. Just interested in yourselves, getting big wages and fiddling expenses. Don’t care about ordinary people.”

The population – or that part of it willing to articulate its feelings – seems to be in one big grump. And now we’re facing the prospect of a General Election that will be characterised by nasty personal attacks, smears, innuendo and the construction of straw men to knock down.

The chances of a real debate about the economy, schools, health, soldiers dying in other people’s wars....the things that do matter? Don’t hold your breath!

This weekends nastiness fest around Gordon, bullying hotlines and yah-boo "you're bad, we're good" politics has left a rather nasty taste. His Grace has it about right.

...I guess I will bother but it will likely be more because I'm helping friends than from any real enthusiasm.

...

2 comments:

Obnoxio The Clown said...

Sorry, Simon, but you have to look to the leaders of the mainstream political parties for the reasons for this. They have not disciplined their wayward MP's, they are not offering anything different from each other in terms of policies and they're all doing their level best to insulate themselves from us.

It's not at all surprising that people feel the way they do.

Plus, the recent revelations about council employees' salaries hasn't helped your cause. Nice house you have there. :o)

Simon Cooke said...

Just to be clear on the house front - two private sector directors salaries paid for it!

...but I guess no-one believes me :o)