Sometimes I wonder why I bother....

***

Sometimes I wonder why I bother....

Yesterday a local resident rang me to complain. The matter of his complaint is not significant but his political response was...

“You’re all useless. You can’t get a simple thing sorted out. I won’t be voting at the General Election.”

Now if this was a solitary event, I would put it down to the heat of the moment but this comment is ever more common. It goes along with:

“If I could, I’d be off to (inset foreign country of choice) tomorrow. This country’s finished.”

And:

“I’m half inclined to vote for (insert chosen unpleasant right-wing party) just to make a point.”

Or:

“You politicians are all the same. Just interested in yourselves, getting big wages and fiddling expenses. Don’t care about ordinary people.”

The population – or that part of it willing to articulate its feelings – seems to be in one big grump. And now we’re facing the prospect of a General Election that will be characterised by nasty personal attacks, smears, innuendo and the construction of straw men to knock down.

The chances of a real debate about the economy, schools, health, soldiers dying in other people’s wars....the things that do matter? Don’t hold your breath!

This weekends nastiness fest around Gordon, bullying hotlines and yah-boo "you're bad, we're good" politics has left a rather nasty taste. His Grace has it about right.

...I guess I will bother but it will likely be more because I'm helping friends than from any real enthusiasm.

...

Dave, stop shooting the messenger...

***

Here we go again...shoot the bloody messenger. The only reason we consumer "excessively" is because of evil advertising. Now not only is this complete tosh (the fact that we like having all that stuff has quite a lot to do with us buying it you know) but I'm getting royally fed up with the pig ignorance of our political classes.

Here's Dave holding forth....

"In a speech at an event hosted by the Demos think tank, Mr Cameron said that children were being "sold the idea that the path to happiness lies through excessive consumption". He said that it was "high time" advertisers curbed their practises, although he added that the Conservatives did not want to resort to regulation. "But we will make it clear that if business doesn't exercise some corporate responsibility, we will not be afraid to impose it," he added"

Sorry Dave but you're wrong. Children are not being encouraged towards excessive consumptions - most of them (and their parents) would like half a chance to have a quarter of the goodies you're able to give your kids.

Instead of protecting children from advertising you should be protecting them from the brainwashing they're getting at school.

...