Never trust a Hippy (or a Politician)

Keep your eyes on the pies!

Last night I played five a side football, had a beer after at The Bridge Tavern and went to bed. As there were no London elections, I hadn't been paying too much notice to the whole business. I am one of the small breed of people who would rather people who believe that people should vote on local issues, and I refuse to canvass outside of my Borough. I find the whole concept of a team of activists coming over from East Cheam to Mill Hill to tell people to vote for a party on local issues rather off putting.

When I awoke, I was reminded what a quaint and antiquated viewpoint this is. The party I have been a member of (on and off), since 2009 did rather well. I guess I should be elated. As a sane rational person, I am anything but. I am pleased for the candidates who have worked their socks off and done a sterling effort reminding people that most Lib Dems are sane rational people who want the best for the UK. Many of these newly elected councillors, like me care passionately about their local patch. Although people would say that "he would say that", I think it is pretty widely recognised that Lib Dems Councillors generally work harder than those of the two bigger parties (yes I know there are fine examples of hard working Tories and Labour Councillors in Barnet Council, but they are the exception, not the rule).

But the reason for the rise of the Lib Dems in the shires seems to for a completely different reason. If is because the Tories and Labour have no clear picture on Brexit. The only two parties that have a clearly understood position by the general public are UKIP and The Lib Dems. When asked what the Labour position was, a rather dopey Labour spokesman said "it's complicated". As to the Tories, their position seems to be "it's all Labours fault". I was surprised that UKIP lost councillors, I can only assume its because they were too disorganised to run a campaign. Although I disagree with them, I think that the clarity of their position should have got them a better return. I have spoken with a prominent local UKIP member recently and I was quite surprised that he agreed with my assessment of what has happened since the referendum. He passionately disagrees with my views, but when I told him that I thought the Tories and the establishment would ensure that those who support UKIP would by completely stiffed and it is likely to result in an even worse situation (from his perspective) than he believes remaining gives us, he said "I can't disagree".

Back in the heady days of punk, there was an old maxim "Never Trust a Hippy". The generation that were hippies in the 1960's are now the people running the country. Some of them have never grown up, they remain deluded dreamers. Those that have, and became the political class, are a completely untrustworthy bunch who have managed a decline in our society, where whole swathes of the country have been abandoned. The Grenfell fire was just one example. This lays bare the contempt for which the ruling classes view the poor fools banished to the margins of society in death trap social housing such as Grenfell.

It is no surprise that the electorate duffed up the main parties. It is interesting to see the Green Party making substancial gains. I wonder if the Extinction Rebellion protests had any bearing on this? Like many people I have a lot of time for the general aims of the Green Party, but as soon as you delve into the details of policy, I find to hard to see how this could form a platform for a government.  I suspect that having Green MP''s and Councillors is a good thing, as we need matters of environment put on the agenda. In truth, I am heartily sick of party politics. What is happening at the national level is nothing short of a scandal. What we are seeing is the death of trust in mainstream politicians.  That is not a good thing, but is completely understandable.