A Little Bit Of Politics

It's happened at last. Gordon Brown called on the Queen this morning, Parliament will be dissolved next Monday and there'll be a general election on 6 May. So far, so good. But who on earth do I vote for?

It's a problem, as there's no obvious party to back. Would it were as clear cut here as it was for the US voters in 2008! The Democrats - it had to be. A no-brainer. After the disaster that was Bush, a Democrat pygmy could have got in. But the Democrats held all the cards, the ace being Obama: a man of stature, dignity, charisma, sincerity, conviction and intelligence. They had a giant.

I don't want to make any personal remarks about Brown, Cameron or Clegg - good men all, I'm sure - but I really am failing to find any inspiring vision or charismatic leadership from any of them.

The background to this election is grim. Let's go back to 1997, when Blair and New Labour swept into power with by far the biggest Labour majority in history. After 18 years of the Conservatives (11 of them under Margaret Thatcher) the country had been aching for a change. Blair also scooped the next election in 2001, again with a large majority. All was sweetness, all was light. Exciting, optimistic times.

Then it turned sour. Blair cosied up with Bush and took us into Iraq, an act for which I and many others have never forgiven him. His majority slipped in the 2005 election from 167 to 66. Blair saw the writing on the wall and stepped down, leaving the poisoned chalice to his Chancellor, arch-rival and now successor - Gordon Brown.

Poor Gordon. To begin with we gave him the benefit of the doubt. He'd managed the economy all right, hadn't he? He was a good Presbyterian Scot of impeccable moral integrity and social conscience, wasn't he? Well, he may be all of these things, but he couldn't help the fact he presided over a jaded government about to face the biggest economic crisis since the 1930s.

Swift action avoided total financial meltdown - but, nevertheless, we're still completely lacking any strong and enlightened vision for the future. Brown always seems in the background, in hiding. And now he's had to apologize for misleading the Chilcot Inquiry with massaged statistics. What's more, some of his former cabinet ministers - Hewitt, Hoon, Byers - have been caught out employing various shabby, corrupt and self-serving practices. Overshadowing all of this - and this cuts across the whole party spectrum - is the MPs' expenses scandal. Not good, not good.

It's true the Conservatives look more electable than they have done for years. Their biggest asset is their new youthful and energetic leader, David Cameron. But he's untried and untested, and his shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, looks even younger than Cameron does - inexperienced, and without the gravitas of Alistair Darling, the current Labout Chancellor. And, anyway, can I really bring myself to vote Conservative? I don't think so.

The truth is I - along with a great many others - am disillusioned with politics in general, politicians as a whole. There's no easy, straight ideological choice any more. Although, of course, there are obnoxious extremes in both main parties, the two parties have tipped to the centre ground - and the poor Lib Dems are left struggling to define themselves. (Nothing new there then.)

In the end people are going to vote for the party which appears to have the best strategy for getting the economy back on its feet and for repaying the deficit without too much pain. This will be achieved by a balance of taxes, public spending cuts (or efficiency savings if you see it that way) and incentives for growth. It's a question of which party convinces us it has the right mix. But pain there will be.

So I come back full circle to my original question. Who on earth do I vote for?

Foot And Mouth

Foot and mouth disease was confirmed last night on a farm near Guildford, Surrey. My great sympathy goes out to all worried livestock farmers throughout the UK. The last outbreak in 2001, badly handled by the government, became a devastating year-long epidemic which resulted in 6.5m animals being slaughtered and thousands of farmers losing their livelihoods. I'm sure plans are now in place to control far more effectively any possible spread of this highly contagious disease. Already Gordon Brown and Defra seem in charge of the situation. All movements of cattle, sheep and pigs have been banned throughout the country. Containment is the key and what happens during the next few days will be crucial. The last occurrence also led to a huge loss of tourism revenue when footpaths were closed and access to the countryside restricted. I'm convinced things won't spiral out of control this time - if everyone stays calm and rational.

Bastille Day

Today, 14 July, is Bastille Day. The Storming of the Bastille has become known as the symbolic event which heralded The French Revolution (1789-1799). Without Rousseau and his towering work, The Social Contract, claimed Napoleon, the Revolution would not have happened. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity! William Wordsworth was captivated: Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive/But to be young was very heaven! But he soon cooled off when entered on stage Robespierre, The Reign of Terror and The Guillotine. Of course, it's easy to be wise after the event. But we never seem to learn the lessons of history. After Marx then Lenin. After Lenin then Stalin... Saint-Just said: "Nobody can rule without guilt". Take note, Nicolas Sarkozy! Gordon Brown, beware!

Out With The Old

As Tony Blair makes way for Gordon Brown today, it got me thinking how many of our MPs are genuine hill-goers and wilderness walkers. I couldn't think of many. But three names came to mind: first, the late John Smith, leader of the Labour Party from July 1992 to May 1994, who took up Munro-bagging after a coronary in October 1988. By the time of his fatal second heart attack he'd climbed 108 Munros. Then there's the late Robin Cook, who never really fit into the Blair spinning machine and resigned from the Cabinet over the Iraq war debacle - and who also died of a heart attack, descending from Ben Stack in Sutherland in August 2005. Finally there's the most dedicated hill walker of them all - Chris Smith, now Lord Smith of Finsbury, former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and current President of the Ramblers' Association, who was the first MP to climb all the Munros. He's also completed the Pennine Way and walked abroad extensively. Apparently his favourite walk is the circuit of Beinn Alligin. Somehow this all seems a bit more authentic than fox-hunting-friendly David Cameron's self-conscious posturing and image-making when you see him cycling home to his so-called "eco-friendly" house. Perhaps he should escape the suffocating corridors of Westminster for a while and spend a long weekend back in Scotland with tent and backpack - and experience the true meaning of wilderness (instead of the wilderness that is the Conservative Party?) and the importance of preserving it. And, for the sake of balance, Gordon Brown too, for that matter...