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I'm turning into a right cynical old git. Or at the very least, cynically cynical. And it seems to be getting worse. Hopefully it will go away after the election. As some people might know, I moved offices to Millbank earlier this week, and so have been seated within seconds of the Houses of Parilament. Yesterday, I saw (who appeared to be) William Hague being interviewed, and this morning I saw (who appeared to be) Diane Abbott. I've only ever (knowingly) seen three politicians in my life - the first being Douglas Hurd in Devon (we were on holiday) when I was about 12 years old or thereabouts. So it might be said, I'm on a bit of a roll of late. 8)
The inimitable chrisr makes an excellent point in his weblog as regards mailing lists (I mentioned in a previous entry that I left the bwsn list last week). To paraphrase (hopefully correctly) he said that in that in order to get the most out of a list, you've got to put something into it - you shouldn't start grumbling about it not being "right for you" unless you contribute. This is exactly as it should be of course - topics of discussion shouldn't be decided by a small, vocal minority for instance. If you're not happy with the direction of a list go out and post something ferchrisake, turn it into a place you'd like to be.
As regards bwsn, axe-grinding is all very well (I know I've done so myself on at least one occasion) so I wouldn't dream of criticising anybody else for doing it, as their views have every right to aired. It's not/wasn't even the predominant traffic on the list. But at the end of the day (when everyone's gone home apart from the sad gits who've stayed behind), I left Bluewave (and so "the loop") nearly two years ago, and therefore have, over this period, developed some lovely warm-and-fuzzy feelings about the place - and it's this general rose-tintedness I'd like to preserve (call me mad) - sometimes hard to do in certain circumstances. But since I also don't want to be a hypocrite (everyone has the right to get things off their chest as much as I do, and the list is an excellent venue for this purpose) it meant that I wasn't comfortable subscribing anymore and so I decided to go. I've just been out of the loop for too long. I hope I've not ruled out a resubscription one day - who knows what the future holds? And that if/when I do, it will be a fun place for me to catch up with old friends again?
Anyway, I won't drone on about the topic anymore, I'm sure it isn't really the kind of thing most people want to read about (or are interested in anyway - like there's anything interesting here anyway - hah!). So I'll move on. cough. Tactical Voting. I mean, if there's something so utterly pathetic as voting for someone against your principals, (whatever your political inclinations, if any), then I don't thing you even deserve a vote. We're not voting for ice-cream flavours, we're voting for real people who will represent our respective constituencies. By all means change your mind, but please do so for the right reasons (e.g. you vote for whoever is (in your opinion) best for the job, not your second choice. Who in their right mind would vote for their second choice? Better not to vote at all than do that.).
Like Sean Woodward parachuting into St Helens, Margaret Moran (the last vowel is prenounced in the same way as the penultimate one) was shipped in before the last election from Lewisham into South Luton and has been my MP for the last four years - something she'll likely remain for the four (to five). Yet her dubious record with regard to her representation of South Luton doesn't seem to mean a thing; by keeping quiet and remaining a "flavour", she's a sure-fire re-election success because she's the Labour candidate. Yet she's the only non-local MP standing. Labour could have put a sack of flour up for election here and they'd still have gotten in - but at least a sack of flour might actually useful for something.
Politics these days is about stifling debate and silencing dissention. Pay no heed to those men behind the curtain. They know what's best for you and your MP alike.
And people wonder why I'm cynical 8).
Time for bed, anyway.