on the starting grid.

well its time for some plain talking with no links.
lets try it from a voter point of view.
do we start with natonal?
or local?
makes no difference really, both will end up the same way.
how about we try for "who we used to vote for?".
sounds good.
well,, i used to vote labour, both local and gneral.
why?
dunno really.
no big master plan, just did it.
so what did i gain from voting labour?
well,,, not much really.
so why not vote conservative?
because when conservatives were in power, strange laws were passed, and stranger laws were proposed.
geofrey howe was active back then.
along with several others just like him.
they passed the seat belt laws.
they passed the motorcycle laws.
they had margaret thatcher with them.
so much oppression and constraint was placed on the general public as a whole that it hurt.
things in general started to rise in price too.
generally the cost of living went through the roof.
good old margaret thatcher (the lady's not for turning!) strutted her stuff, and all her minions were terrified of her.
generally known as "the handbag snatcher!" she ruled for many years.
it wasnt so much a comong together of minds, more a coming together of many different minds.
there was some in house fighting, and some harmony.
much was done, much was not done, and plenty was planned!
there was life and death in the party.
and through it all,,, labour could not better themselves in any way shape of form.
me?
i voted labour throughout.

recent past?
what comes to mind?
tony blair comes to mind
with him came new labour.
with new labour and tony blair came power.
labour made sweet music to its lifelong supporters.
finally, our time had come.
tony blair wasted no time, he got straight down to work.
he sent troops to iraq.
much to the disgust of a handfull of DO-GOODERS!
what was in it for me?
i was a carer, caring for a very sick terminally ill relative.
labour made sure i had all i was entitled to.
sure, i saved them a packet, but i got recognition for it, i got status, and i got security.
things ran smoothly for us.
indeed, they ran smooth for many years.
we wanted for nothing.
we had everything we needed.
being a carer had quite a high position in life.
we felt secure in our work and our reputation.

in summary,,

we had confidence in the tories, with indecision towards the end.
we had strength in the labour party, coupled with great leadership and un flinching ability to lead with conviction.

in short, it was like the 70s with its space hoppers, chopper bikes, klackers, and the bay city rollers.
all of it was confidently comfortable and fun to experience first hand.

so,,

what do we have now?

we have a party that now resembles a shambles in anyones language.
we have a scruffy dishevelled leader with failing eyesight, a lack of confidence, and an inability to show strength and solidarity with the party that he leads.
to be fair, party life has changed.
the parties now are not so "voter" orientated, except maybe on a minor level.
doing right by the country seems to have gone clean out of the window.
instead now, its "catchphrase city" and who can make up the next one first.
things like "there is a raft of" and "we will roll out the following" and "downturn".
its allmost like the political digestive transit has backed up so badly that its no longer a transit, its more like a digestive sideing or halt!
lets face it, the parties hit the buffers a year or so back.
when it hit them, some of the lower life forms died on impact, the rest crawled from the wreckage in a bad way and some have not made it back from the edge! it would be interesting to see how some of them fare with a shove over that edge.
reference was made recently to the possibility of s coalition government.
the idea was instantly scoffed at.
personally i dont think that there could be one single mix of more than 10 different people from cross party selection who could get together and exist in harmony.
trouble is, they all want to make a name for themselves, even Brown himself is only there so he will be called "ex prime minister".
there is constant squabbling between brown and cameron.
its easy to see too who is the lame polititian between them.
it is of course brown.
while cameron goes on about many different negatives associated with the labour government and its leader,,, while the labour leader only goes on about the "say no" party.
sadly,,, times up gentleman.
labour you did what you thought was your best.
conservative, start your engines.

Benny