I normally avoid current affairs blogging. There are so many experts, and ‘experts’, filling the air that I just can’t see how my opinion, scattered on the top with all the others like so many hundreds and thousands, is of any use to anyone.
But I’m scared.
It is childishly cynical to say ‘I don’t trust the lot of them’, but at times it’s not far from the truth. Not because I think every politician is evil – I don’t – but because as far as I can see (and from books and media and all the gossip in between) the kind of person you have to be to survive in the House of Commons is the direct antithesis of someone who will open-heartedly fight for the rights of X or Y at grassroots level. Once your personal mandate has downshifted from belief in an issue to the raising of yourself and the doing-down of others, simply in order to keep your position, true values are lost. (See also: offices).
We cannot have the Tories. The concept makes me want to cry. (Confession: my parents were diehard Thatcherites. They barely benefited a penny from her years in power, yet their devotion to conservatism was frightening.) But we cannot have Labour back until the current lot have gone. Iraq and the bankers alone should make any sane person think twice before voting for them, at least in their current incarnation. But the Lib Dems? There is a sense of an exciting new dawn about them, partly because the other two are so untenable, but they have a lot of work to do on themselves.
And where are the women? Where are the goddamn women? And why are there only two black woman MPs? OK, I’ll stop there. There are too many really huge questions around this election that are actually far, far bigger than party politics. In my part of the mediasphere, I know of two women who are standing, Anna Arrowsmith (LibDem) and Suzanne Moore (Independent). Power to them, and can we please have more?
Sorry, but there may be more posts like this. Please bear with me.
rpg
May 1, 2010
the kind of person you have to be to survive in the House of Commons is the direct antithesis of someone who will open-heartedly fight for the rights of X or Y at grassroots level
answers
And where are the women?
IMHO.
rpg
May 1, 2010
I should add that’s not because I think women are neither passionate nor ambitious. Simply that I think women tend to have a firmer grasp on reality and are less duplicitous, and therefore more likely to realize what a complete bastard you have to be to be a polly.
Me? I’m voting for Boris. I don’t care if he’s not standing; I’ll write him in.
taniaglyde
May 1, 2010
I’ve met some women who fit my latter description very well, in fact – we all have. But in general women approach these things differently – the thought of wasting time having to endlessly jockey for position puts me right off the whole thing. Mindless presenteeism and backslapping – it’s all very excluding and does nothing for the people that need help the most.