I read something which made me think on my old school’s
Facebook page this morning as I scoffed toast. Someone from my year at
secondary school went to bed on April 29th and didn’t wake up the
next morning. An ambulance was called, he was taken to hospital where he died a
week later never having regained consciousness. A tragic loss for the family,
but for the chap himself? My mother went downhill for some time before being
taken to the hospice where she dragged on for two more weeks. When my father
had his stroke he then lay in a hospital bed clearly confused and frightened
for a fortnight before finally passing away. When my time comes I’d rather have
no notice at all; just go to bed as usual one night and let that be it.
On a lighter note I had a friend request from “Mars
Mary” who like so many made a total mockery of Facebook’s Community
Standards.
As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were talking
about the upcoming general election. All the parties are promising the
undeliverable. But I spent much of the day when I should have been working
thinking about who will get my vote.
Nominations for the upcoming general election have now
closed, and with a few minutes spare I did a little research. I’ve got the
choice of six candidates at next month’s general election. Taking the
candidates in alphabetical order:
There’s our current MP. I follow
him on Facebook where he regularly appears trying to take the credit for other
people’s efforts. Having been my MP for the last twenty-seven years the only
really memorable thing I can recall him doing is to have got caught looking at
filth on his works computer.
Then there’s the Reform UK candidate. He came
tenth out of eleven in the last election he stood for (in Lewisham) and
from what I can see he has absolutely nothing to do with the local area. But
he’s raised money for Paralympians so he can’t
be all bad.
The Labour candidate is a local
lad having moved to Ashford over twenty years ago and has worked for the NHS
for years. He’s already a local councilor so he’s not entirely inexperienced.
He’s promised all sorts of
things if he gets elected, but talk is cheap.
The fourth candidate is also a
local councilor. In the past he’s stood for election as a Conservative, but now
he’s not. Because of the finances of standing as an independent candidate for a
general election, he’s formed his own political party. There’s sod all on-line
about his party other than that it is registered to an address in Bath. He’s got a
twitter account which shows him posting leaflets in my road, and promises
regular updates. The leaflets don’t say much, and the promise of regular
updates was made in January.
The fifth candidate is also a local who is standing for the
Green party. What she says on-line is at odds
with the leaflet she has stuck through our letterbox the other day in which she
claims that as a Green she can act independently which other political parties
cannot do. Does she not toe the Green Party line?
And the last candidate is standing for the Liberal
Democrats. He lives in the Folkestone area and stood for local elections last
year when he came in eight place out of nine candidates. If you read his official statement I think
it’s clear he isn’t taking it at all seriously.
So which of these am I
going to vote for? The Tory chap is very good at taking the credit for what
everyone else has done, so he’s out.
The Reform chap isn’t a
local and doesn’t seem to know much about the area, so he too is out. Added to
which Reform means Nigel Farage who has a proven track record of being a
troublemaker; the last thing he wants is to be elected to anything he has to do
properly.
The Liberal Democrat
bloke can’t even be arsed to write a personal statement.
In theory my heart says Green, but in practice they have
proved they aren’t up to the job. The Greens jointly control the local council…
ask anyone about the debacle of bin collections in Ashford. If the Greens could
do just one thing you’d think it would be recycling, wouldn’t you? My local
councilor is a Green. I’ve contacted her a couple of times and she is rather
good at telling me that everything is somebody else’s problem. And one of the
local Green activists used to run the pub where we once had a family party.
Having paid up quite a bit of dosh in advance I was then twice asked for more
money as she’d undercharged.
So it’s between the
Labour bloke (if only he didn’t bring all the half-wits of the national
Labour Party with him), and the Consensus bloke… (if only I knew what he
actually stood for - I have tweeted at him to ask).
If I had to vote right
now, I’d be drawing a great big knob on the ballot paper (again).
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