Sunday, May 23, 2010

Bulimic Britain

Our society is mentally ill. All societies are to a greater or lesser extent – France, for example, famously has a something like a quarter of its population on Prozac. The United States appears torn between unreflective belief and Liberal self-loathing. Italy has the mother of all mother complexes. Iran? China? Japan? Germany?

Continued at UKSpirituality

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Our Liberal Democrat life class

Seeking to draw what consolation I can from the Liberal-Conservative victory in the recent General Election, I am reminded it is a life of surprises.

As Prefab Sprout put it:

Darling it's a life of surprises
It's no help growing older or wiser
You don't have to pretend you're not crying
When it's even in the way that you're walking


Few "progressive" voters really believed the Liberal Democrats would actually go in to coalition with the regressive forces of conservatism, despite what the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg had warned.

Indeed subsequent polls indicated that most Lib Dem voters, on a scale of 4:1, wished for a coalition with the Labour Party.

Yet how much was this actually a case of wishful-thinking?

Continued at UKSpirituality

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Back to Labour

Well, it's been a strange election. It seemed only a couple of months ago that the Tories were a shoo-in. Then came the televised debates where people were tempted by a third choice - the Liberal Democrats - and the competition became up for grabs again, with the possibility of a hung parliament that would leave no one party in power and could mean coalition government and proportional representation if the Lib Dems got their way, which would bring us closer to a kind of democracy.

Two months ago I was going to vote for Jenny Sutton, of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Alliance , who were the most Left wing party standing.

Then I, like many, was attracted to the Lib Dems because I don't like the sitting Labour candidate very much and I would like to see PR, so my vote for an obscure Marxist party can one day count for something (it's a safe Labour seat, so my vote currently counts for nothing).

But on refection, I'm going to stay with Labour, especially now it looks like the Tories are likely to win a majority and go about asset-stripping the country, embedding inequality and lining the pockets of their City friends, all in the name of austerity, yah?

Because when it comes down to it, I will always choose the side of the working class. As it currently stands their only genuine hope is Labour and in the months and years of recrimination to come I want to feel I did what was right, despite everything.