The election is just round the corner so probably time to write something.
My own political views probably don't make sense to many of you as when I was young I chose my allegiance and have no plans to change it, in the same way as in football I will always support West Ham despite them being a bit crap at the moment I will also support Labour despite them also being crap at the moment.
I remember getting really depressed in 1992 when for some reason the British public voted for a 4th term in office for the really crap Conservatives? I could never get my head round that one? how can so many people be fooled by reading Tory comics telling them who to vote for, don't people have minds of their own? 1997 came around and I finally got my Labour government although it really wasn't the Labour party that I had always supported just seemed like a watered down version of the Tories.
Thirteen years of new Labour hasn't been that great but I comfort myself by thinking what a disaster it could have been if the Tories had remained in power, I think Gordon Brown's biggest mistake was not calling the election a few years back when it was being hotly tipped he was going to, if he had he could have got out just in time before the banks crashed and the credit crunch took hold and we could have all blamed smarmy git Cameron for all the worlds problems.
That decision rates up with Scargill not having a legal vote for a strike at the beginning of the 1984 Miners strike when support for a strike was almost total and he would have walked it and hopefully would have led to the beginning of the end for the Thatcher government.
As for this election I was once again feeling depressed at the thought of the Tories taking power, I'm not a millionaire so what have they got to offer the likes of me? just 5 more years of the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, workers rights being eroded even more, public services being cut back to the bare bones so some fat cat can make even more money.
The recent TV debates have at least breathed some life into the whole process, I haven't seen them as I work 2-10 shifts and the thought of 3 more politicians talking bollocks for hours didn't inspire me to record it, but today’s superficial public seem to have been inspired by Nick Clegg for some reason.
I saw Clegg on a Sunday morning politics show a few weeks ago being ripped apart by an average interviewer and some selected public reading out basic questions, he fluffed about and looked totally ill at ease so assumed he would be crucified by Cameron and Brown but obviously they must have been even worse.
I am getting a feeling from talking to a variety of people that maybe the Liberals do have a chance? millions of people have probably considered them in the past for the simple reason they weren't Tory or Labour but didn't vote for them as with the current voting system it would be a wasted vote, but with the current image driven system a whole batch of "floating" voters might actually vote for Clegg and all those "would vote Liberal if they had a chance" type voters possibly will vote for them this time.
It's been nice recently that the usual smear campaigns run by the Tory press usually directed at Labour but now at Clegg have been treated with the disrespect they deserve and seem to have backfired.
My own vote will be Labour even though in my area it is definitely a wasted vote as the Tories have won Southend for ever, even during Labour landslides and despite the current Tory council being the most incompetent bunch we've ever seen.
The only Tory policy I liked was Cameron's speech about being able to sack your MP, so if the Tories do win I'll look forward to getting rid of that useless bastard David Amess who is probably more familiar to the people of the Maldives than those of us in Southend who never see him around here. Of course I know my chances of getting him sacked despite all his undeclared freebies are non existent.
Oh well roll on the 6th of May to see which bunch of crooks get the keys to number Ten, I'm sure I'll be disappointed whichever way it turns out, a hung parliament sounds good ..... get the Gallows ready.
