A General Election

Today, Gordon Brown finally announced the date of the General Election for May 6th. So now we will be bombarded with spin, the like of which we have never before experienced. It seems from the BBC men and women stumping around the country that people are showing considerable interest but still are far from certain for whom they will vote. It is not surprising. New Labour had made a God awful mess of running the country and we are now saddled with debts beyond all comprehension. Then there are the matters of Iraq, Afghanistan, immigration failure [on an awesome scale], pension failures, failure to protect savers, surveillance, destruction of civil liberties, ID cards, excessive benefits payments to vast numbers of the economically inactive and so on. At the same time they have chucked vast sums of money about to bale out the banks run by modern day robber barons who have had no controls imposed on them as they stoke up their ludicrous remuneration packages like never before. Then there is government waste in the health service; the failures of an educational system that produces results on paper achieved by children who can hardly read or write but get the right to choose their own teachers and decide what they will be bothered learning; and there is waste on the bureaucracy needed to support the legislative diarrhoea that they have suffered from over 13 years. I could go on and on. The Blair/Brown government of the last 13 years remains in my mind as far and away the worst government of my life-time. The Tories ought to be miles ahead in the polls. But they are not because many, like me, do not have any great faith in David Cameron and we just feel that he will be Blair Mk2. At the same time, we have to ask if we really want our country run by a cohort of Old Etonians each worth a few million quid and without any real experience of doing anything other than political spin.

Locally, Mrs Muppet has decided at the last minute to throw in the towel, clearly expecting to lose. Her majority of 37 is not defendable. So the local Labour Party has now to choose a new candidate. Three local Labour stalwarts have put their names forward and central office has parachuted in two more. I assume from the names that the two from HQ are from one of the lists of the politically correct and ethnic diversity. I wouldn't vote for either of them and the three locals are not impressive. I think Tory candidate Henry Smith will have an easy ride to a 7000/8000 majority.

We will be swamped with propaganda. There will be a great deal of noise and fire but little illumination. Somewhere along the way we, the electorate, will decide and remember just how atrocious the spin doctored New Labour has been and we will elect a Tory government. I think we will get a re-establishment of that old adage that it is governments that lose elections, not oppositions that win them.

/