Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The election - what a depressing set of options

So, the election is underway. I spent some time in Paris - more about that in a moment - but here, the usual low-level slagging off of the 'other side' seems to be making its presence felt as ever.

The thing is that despite some of the flowery rhetoric, there really isn't all that much difference between the parties. No wonder a dispute about a piddling increase in VAT makes the headlines. The Tories appear to have hit on this pathetic idea about everyone suddenly becoming socially involved and giving up their time for nothing. I already do, and its bloody hard work to get new people involved. And these sort of initiative need time and money. Do they really think that people in the inner cities are suddenly going to say ' oh, these services aren't provided any more, so we are going to provide them for ourselves'. its like the bloody Boy Scouts writ large, and it just shows how woefully out of touch they are.

But Labour? The manifesto was sub-Blairite wishy-washy lack of inspiration. Some reasonable points made, yes, but severely lacks vision.

I'm also not convinced by the LibDem switch to the right - indeed, the free market orthodoxy seems to be universally applied across the parties

The poison of globalisation.

We have been switched into a safe Labour seat (Bootle). I won't vote for the homophobic vaticanist MP who at 78, should have retired. There isn't a Green candidate. Listed on their website is a Trade Union and Socialist candidate, Pete Glover. Perhaps by default I will have to vote for him?

No comments: