Crikey.
It’s only … so many days since Parliament broke up and it’s been wall to wall politics ever since.
I try and avoid politics and politicians as much as possible. Decoding what they say and judging whether or not it’s trustworthy is massive effort.
We have a pretty bankrupt political system over here. The two main parties are entrenched, not in ideals, but in the search for your vote. And they’ll do anything, say anything to get that vote.
No – I don’t trust them. But I also judge them by their outputs :
Conservative – have steadied the ship after the economic chaos of the last decade but … I’m a civil servant (see below) and I haven’t had a worthwhile pay rise (1% each year only, which is effectively a pay cut) since they’ve been in while the MPs have (don’t mention expenses).
Labour – are why the country was in such bad shape. Leaving notes like “there is no more money” on the desk for your successor to find is … irresponsible, idiotic and a sign of your own incompetence.
Liberal – ruined themselves with this coalition. Both from the broken promises and the reality that some of them are raving lunatics.
UKIP – just as I was talking about the raving lunatics.
And that’s just the big ones, there’s also the SNP who will have an influence on the next parliament. There are the Greens and Plaid Cymru (the Welsh nationalists) as well.
Note – those are all my personal opinions. I said above that I’m a civil servant, which puts certain limits on me at these times because we’re supposed to be impartial at work. That’s true, whichever group gets in, I’ll ignore them all the same as the last mob. I’m at a certain level that lets me get away with that. It’s rare that the politicians get involved with us although I’ll dig up info for questions and their decisions affect whether we get to buy the stuff we want to get.
So I’ll not tell you which way to vote, I’ll not even say anywhere which way I’m intending to vote. But I will advise :
Make up your own mind.
If your vote is affected by prejudice (including location), examine that prejudice.
Listen to what they say …
… ignore the spin the media put on it …
… decode whether or not to believe it.
And most of all, don’t think the way other people want you to think.
(This path leads to sheepishly voting in people who are not your preference, they’re the preference of who you listened to).
Yep. After this post, I’ll hopefully ignore election type stuff here. You’ll be sick of that from the main media … hmm … already probably !
But there’s better things to think about today (and I needed a pic for the thumbnail) :
Happy Easter everyone !
Oh ! Before I go … I have a couple of amazing songs for you. Both Bunny themed.
First – Bat For Lashes with “What’s A Girl To Do”
Second – The Cardigans with “For What It’s Worth”
Both are amongst the best in my library.