Different flavours of Vanilla.
Well the election results are in and surprise surprise we have not been able to choose a clear winner. The Tories have managed to win the most seats, but good old Mr Brown is still bolted firmly to his seat of power at number 10.
The first-debate-impressive Mr Clegg turned out to be not so impressive after all and Mr Cameron sadly found it difficult to capitalise on one of the biggest financial crises in history, which should have found him first past the post by default.
One thing is clear to me. This country needs a change. Not simply a change from one flavour of Vanilla to another but a much more fundamental change away from partisan politics where politicians are allowed to be real people with their own opinions supporting their own views instead of running toward whatever policy will win them votes or away from the party whip.
With polling stations turning away voters and a leader who has clearly lost his majority hanging on to a throne that is not his I find myself asking what kind of people are in power. But one question plays on my mind more than any other. It is simply this: why bother with the Lib Dems at all?
I accept that a coalition of some form is needed. But if you think about it, ever since good old Tony Blair turned his ship toward the middle of the political ocean forming New Labour (or Tory Lite as I prefer to call it) the two main parties have found it increasingly difficult to define themselves. The result has been more often than not for them to take opposing stances in a bid to be different; to the extent that the Tory campaign for the election could be summed up as Don't vote for Mr Brown
Even though Mr Brown has successfully run Mr Blair's ship aground if he were to look ahead of him he would actually see the tory ship which ran aground some years previously sitting right next to his. If the two main party leaders were to be less partisan and let their egos to one side for a minute (which I admit would be rather challenging) then they may be able to see this one simple fact:
The balance of power is only the trophy of the Lib Dems because they are by default in opposition with each other.
So I wonder if it is possible to have a Tory/Labour pact for the good of the country rather than more to-ing and fro-ing for the sake of narrow-minded party politics.
The first-debate-impressive Mr Clegg turned out to be not so impressive after all and Mr Cameron sadly found it difficult to capitalise on one of the biggest financial crises in history, which should have found him first past the post by default.
One thing is clear to me. This country needs a change. Not simply a change from one flavour of Vanilla to another but a much more fundamental change away from partisan politics where politicians are allowed to be real people with their own opinions supporting their own views instead of running toward whatever policy will win them votes or away from the party whip.
With polling stations turning away voters and a leader who has clearly lost his majority hanging on to a throne that is not his I find myself asking what kind of people are in power. But one question plays on my mind more than any other. It is simply this: why bother with the Lib Dems at all?
I accept that a coalition of some form is needed. But if you think about it, ever since good old Tony Blair turned his ship toward the middle of the political ocean forming New Labour (or Tory Lite as I prefer to call it) the two main parties have found it increasingly difficult to define themselves. The result has been more often than not for them to take opposing stances in a bid to be different; to the extent that the Tory campaign for the election could be summed up as Don't vote for Mr Brown
Even though Mr Brown has successfully run Mr Blair's ship aground if he were to look ahead of him he would actually see the tory ship which ran aground some years previously sitting right next to his. If the two main party leaders were to be less partisan and let their egos to one side for a minute (which I admit would be rather challenging) then they may be able to see this one simple fact:
The balance of power is only the trophy of the Lib Dems because they are by default in opposition with each other.
So I wonder if it is possible to have a Tory/Labour pact for the good of the country rather than more to-ing and fro-ing for the sake of narrow-minded party politics.
