I've not actually voted in any election since I've been in Singapore. If I did vote it would be for Labour and since the constituency my vote would be counted in is rock, rock solid Labour there has never seemed much point. And that, I suppose, explains the mystery of why I would vote Labour, even today, if I did vote. It's a sort of inheritance. It's akin to supporting the better team from Manchester. It's something visceral, in the blood. Voting Conservative would be a physical impossibility and whilst I could contemplate a vote for whatever brand of Liberals/SDP sit in the middle it would be without any great enthusiasm.
In fact, voting for any would-be politico would involve no enthusiasm as I don't trust any of them. I accept they're probably necessary, but it's fairly obvious they have more in common with each other than they do with any of us.
I suppose the honourable tradition of radical dissent has appeal. But that died with the advent of PR men - as so much that was culturally vital did.
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As a British citizen, I am perfectly happy to be watching the election from home and wondering (as in some oft-repeated ritual since Paddy 'God Calls Me God' Ashdown's time) why first-past-the-post is optimal for Britain.
It's Nick Clegg now, and same old, same old. Life coverage on the Beeb is fun. I'm hearing 'mysterious, unsettling, inexplicable, Tories struggling, Labour unhappy' blah blah blah.
The results from Vale of Glamorgan just came in. The level of detail is extraordinary, 'very fastidious reporting officer, unlike some of the others' says the Beeb. The Tories won. I'm hearing the results for Montgomeryshire in Welsh. Tories by about 1100 votes there.
Loved the 'thereness' of this. Sounds like the Beeb at its late night best. Even the missus has been paying attention to it all for some obscure reason.
I wrote an essay for an 'A' level exam back in 1974-ish that would have put an end to the first-past-the-post system had I been listened to. Just think - we would have been spared Mrs Thatcher. I also wrote another one that woould have finished the monarchy. It's just too sad to contemplate just how much that would have spared us all from.
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