08 May 2010, Posted by admin in Ashley,Thoughts, 1 Comment. Tagged anecdotal, Ashley, british, deeper meaning, politics, Thoughts
Hung By A Thread
Image by Ashley
Words by A. Stewart Dent
The overwhelming onslaught of party broadcasts, speeches, campaigning, ribbons, posters, polls, political-pop comedy and sycophants with leaflets is finally over: The election has come and gone. With the conclusion, as most presumed, that we are very well hung – or is that hanged, I forget.
The national disillusionment of politicians is still prevalent; there have been no champions, no great spine-tingling speeches, and no new found hope. The precedent set by the media and spurred on by the people (or was it the other way around?) was that the country needed reform, a redesign, a remodel, a revamp, a rework, a revolutionary change: Re: Obama anyone?
Unfortunately for us Brits and our love-to-hate them press, this is not America, we are not Americans, and as much as we would like to believe we could have seen the great spectacle that was the race for The White House occur in the same way for Number 10, it just wasn’t going to happen.
If people thought a tour-bus, a forced smile, a twitch and a bigoted woman blamed on Sue was going to get the country’s libido for politics going they were very much mistaken. Obama’s campaign set the bar very high – how was Brown, Cameron or the other one going to compete with such a narrative for celebrity?
I was already sick of the election fever that had gripped the nations media a month before it ended. For the key demographics – young, student, swinging voters – the bombardment of media from parties was more confusing than enlightening. To be honest I couldn’t tell the difference between the main three parties in the end and so in grieving apathy I decided not to vote.
Don’t I care? Didn’t I want my voice to be heard? Do I not respect the men and women that fought to give me to this option to vote? Of course that is not the case. I just do not find scripted, formulated, concoctions of supposedly avant-garde wannabe Obamas very appealing.
Even for those who decided to vote, some were turned away at the polling stations. The populace is disenfranchised, uncounted, and our voices have not been heard whether we voted or not! A democratic country should have the right to referendum, plebiscites, and to vote on matters that need changing, but if this government could manage its most basic task and govern then why would such a great change be needed. Why can’t the government govern so that we don’t have to – there is a reason I am not a politician, and that is because I do not want to be!
Unlike the uncanny feeling of hope on that spring day in 1997, I awoke on May 7th 2010 with exactly what was promised – Change. Not the change I was hoping for however; no belief, no confidence, no trust, no hope. Instead, I felt a new found disillusionment in politics – a belief that change will not come whatever colour ribbon the well trimmed sound-bite is enveloped in.
