Either of you have use for this?

*jumps up and down, furiously waving, trying to draw attention to himself but failing*

Is inanity the secret of Mr. Secretary Prescott’s popularity?

Um, not according to my mp. She was elected to represent the labour party. She told me so.

Coo, politics really gets the blood going doesn’t it?

Perhaps the most enjoyable thing a human can experience. Simmer gently to keep the taste, steam if you can, but if you must boil, make it quick.

Absolutely! First past the post may have been a glorious tradtion, but it’s outdated and needs changing to a fairer, more representative system. The problems with FPTP are so glaringly obvious I’m going to assume you are playing devil’s advocate.

And yes Jax, I’m up for a petition!

It isn’t so much that i’m apathetic, though i lack interest in politics really because i see little opportunity to backtrack, more that i simply don’t believe anyone would be doing anything any different. I think the minute 9/11 happened and it would have happened whether we had Labour, Tory or Liberal in government, it gave our government carte blanche to tighten up our freedoms in the name of security. And let’s face it, they get hung whatever; if they erode freedoms, it’s bad, if something happens that only happened because it is possible to have a free and subversive thought in this country, they are picked to pieces by the media to see if they’ve negligently not protected us from it.

If a 9/11 happened in London today, the media frenzy within days would be “why were these people here, were they living off our taxes, did MI5 know, had they ever been in Police custody, how had they downloaded bomb making info from British servers, how had we not spotted they were in contact with other known dissenters.” All things which we cheerfully outrage against as being abhorrent to the culture of freedom. But part of my freedom is being able to believe that i live somewhere safer than average, in a culture where we don’t willfully imprison on a whim but we don’t stand side and watch people prepare to do damage either. Part of my freedom would be to live in a country where i need not be afraid of dissenter or government. But let’s face it, they will always provoke one another to damage; it seems to be human nature to fight and control.

We want our cake and eat it in this country, which might be all very well but it doesn’t actually make legislating for the populace a particularly clear job. And wearily, i’m of the opinion that if governing a country was easy, more people would do it better. But i don’t think there can be a country in the world where a population believe they are being perfectly run.

If it is apathetic to concentrate on the small, then yes i am. The things that make a daily difference to my children; decent midwifery, the right to home educate, the right to know their parents won’t get carted off because of a lifestyle choice or a political stance, the right to know that their world won’t be untenably polluted by their adulthood. The right to watch television as adults and not cry as dying sisters carry starving baby sisters on to a camp where food has already run out. There are places in the world where writing this blog would mean you never saw the light outside a prison cell again; i’m sorry, but i don’t believe Britain is even on the same pathway as places like that. There are places where government spending on arms and the rich means the food runs out in a weeks time. Honestly, i simply can’t get a bitter taste in my mouth about Britain in comparison. Maybe i’m blinkered, maybe i’m not cynical enough. I don’t know. I think there is a middle line though.