You could say I was a little out of touch with things. Out of Australia for the last four years, I hadn't really paid too much attention to anything besides the Wallabies, Powderfinger and the sometime aggressive policing of our marine borders. Something's changed.
After last year's Federal Election I said, "one down, two to go," thinking that if Howard, Bush and Blair got re-elected then we'd have something to worry about. It was inconceivable to me that the populaces of Australia, the US and the UK would all re-elect leaders who had so obviously misled and lied to them, who had led them into wars which so many people, myself included, were against. I was wrong.
Being in a democracy is not supposed to be like supporting a football team: it's not where we sit back and watch while waving our flags on the sidelines; it's not where we let the success of our team dictate our mood, from week to week, from term to term; and it's not where between matches we chat with Hoo Hah and So-and-So about how we think our team's performing. It's not supposed to be like that. Feels a bit like it though, doesn't it.
Gonna have to get m'self a pig gun, uh huh.
Hi. Thanks for letting me come play.
Unfortunately, a lot a people don't give a rats about issues if they don't directly effect them; a hard lesson for a lot of us.
I suspect Tony Blair will make it a trifecta.
Welcome to the sty, BTW.
Hi Mark
It didn't show up in the election results but there is a good body of people out there who really do care about things and hate what Howard and his mates are doing to this country. I met so many before the election adn BTW one of them is uncle to Melanie Howard's husband! Lots of country people are deeply unhappy with the direction in which we are being taken. There is a 4 page letter I wrote to our local MP that is still being sent around and producing reactions.
Hold the faith!
But yes I'm afraid Tony Blair will win again - a lot of that's to do with almost no opposition worth counting. The Tories can't seem to pull themselves together the idiots. I do find the Howard, Bush, Blair an incongrous collective.
The one decent thing about the UK elections is the power struggle, recently 'settled', between Blair and Gordon Brown. I've a lot of respect for Brown, and the situation smacks a little of the Hawke/Keating thing. Keating was a good egg. Perhaps a leadership challenge sometime after New Labour win?
Hope the letter keeps getting reactions, thanks for the welcome.
Interestingly, I've heard the UK electorate views the Conservatives a bit like the Australian electorate views Labor.
Where here the locals remember hard economic times under Labor, in the UK they remember the divisive times under Thatcher, and it colours their voting intentions.