I am more than a little concerned about the impending General Election. My concern is that I’ll get so angry about it that the Ranting Nappa site will implode. To soften the blow I might as well summarise the whole thing now - in rather less than the billion words that the British media will give to the event:
* Labour will of course win with a substantial majority.
* The overall turn-out by the electorate will be a record low. (“Who cares? It won’t make any difference, I’m off to the pub…”).
* The Conservatives will fare badly (probably badly enough for Michael Howard to resign). Liberals will fare not much better. UKIP, etc. won’t even figure.
* The only point of interest in the entire proceedings will be the “Gordon Brown” question. Will he remain Chancellor (no)? Will he become Foreign Secretary (possibly for a short while)? Will he be Prime Minister in five years time (almost certainly)?
The real issues will be ignored or swept aside. Why has the New Labour Government seen fit to add nearly 900,000 people to the State payroll over the last nine years? Seeing that these additional people are not doctors, nurses, military personnel, teachers or policemen, what are they doing? Why has the cost of “government” (MPs and associated costs) trebled in the period? Why are there still so many homeless on the streets, when Mr Blair (when he originally came to office) vowed that New Labour would sort out the problem for once and all? And, as for immigration…?
That’s it. I won’t say another word about the election or political matters until the end of May. There should be plenty of other things to rant about – Tim Henman, Manchester United, Jeep Dealerships, The good old Church of England, Charles and Camilla, Wheelie-Bins and Recycling, Family Matters (and there are enough of them), the French Connection, the strange incident of the shrinking steak (and other local restaurant issues), the Business Plan, Countryside Matters (no, they’re counted as political nowadays), Car Insurance, and the Swiss.
That lot will keep me busy!
Old fogey, less-than-totally-successful bookseller, husband, parent and grandparent holds forth on his own issues of the day.
About Me
- Rumbling Nappa
- Sometimes referred to as the Rumbling Nappa I occasionally return to blogging. This time it is to comment on the Languedoc marriage of my neice, Louise Ticehurst to Rich Astley.