The Day of Reckoning

So tommorrow we go to the polls to elect the government of the UK.

To talk to most people, you'd think the election was an annoying TV reality show that they've all seen before. No one is taking any notice, elections are so last year.

No one wants to engage in any serious debate of the real issues, preferring a weak kneed desire to 'protest' at something or other that they usually haven't really thought through at all. Usually it's the 'war', and whether it was 'legal'. Sometimes it's the mess in the health system, or the convenient political hobby horse of education. But no one THINKS THINGS THROUGH. We can't be bothered.

In reality of course, things are always much more complicated. But we all want to leave someone else to think about such dull details, we're too busy with our important lives to get involved. Essentially I'm the same, I think everyone in 'Old Europe' is the same - we take our democracy completely for granted.

The signs are there, clear to see: falling voting figures, lazy methods of registration, slack delivery of polling cards, total lack of visible signs of candidates in the streets, low level of leaflet posting, hardly any handbills in people's windows, I could go on.

I live in a marginal seat, so I was bracing myself for all sorts of doorstepping and leaflet bombardment, but I got hardly any at all. I only saw one lot of politico's in the street [Tories], and a brief sighting of Ken Livingstone [London Mayor, Labour], whom I stood next to while I got some cash out of the auto-teller. No one spoke to me, even though I consider myself very approachable. No one wanted to speak to me, or anyone else for that matter. They [the politico's] were all sealed off from reality, in their own little bubble, a private club that we weren't part of.

I have a very bad feeling about the future. Politicians by nature are anal dull types most suited to civil service employment and lots of rules. We all know that, and I think that's part of the problem. Great intellects in politics are unusual to say the least, and with so little charisma or idealism on offer, wow, you'd almost think you were watching a pop chart show. Lifeless turgid predictability.

We need some new leaders. And if the vacuum that exists isn't filled with real brilliance, it will be filled by fanaticism and religion - it's already happening in the States, Holland, Denmark, Germany, France and elsewhere.

Of course British cynicism acts as a protector in a way, though God help us if apathy let's in the Tories, then we'll remember the good old days of Labour Government.

Labour ain't perfect, but they're the best we got buddy.