The art of being political

Blame them for war and peace . . . and leafletsPolitics makes the world go round. It’s behind every decision that affects our lives and it shapes society. It’s the motivation for war and peace, deals and disagreements and it’s responsible for leaflets. Lots and lots of leaflets.

In this country we have democracy which is said to be the best of a bad bunch and it means that as responsible adults, we all get to choose who runs the country.

It also means the majority of people who can’t be bothered to vote can sit at home and whine about everything without shouldering any blame.

There’s no point being political if you don’t intend to make a difference. You need a desire to improve the world and it also helps if you like the sound of your own voice and know a lot less than you think. Humility isn’t recommended and you certainly won’t be expected to admit when you are completely wrong.

Politicians get a bad press and it’s no surprise when you find out what some of them get up to in their spare time. The latest journey along the sleaze highway has been over MPs’ expenses.

Do you think the Home Secretary’s husband is still in the doghouse? And is it a doghouse that the taxpayer is providing for him while he rents out his own doghouse to someone else? Wait a minute, I’m getting stories muddled up.

For political animals no time is quite as exciting as an election when it’s possible to catch a glimpse of a creature you may not have seen for a while, the Lesser Spotted Candidate.
You’d be forgiven for thinking you hadn’t heard anything from them since, well, since they got elected last time but to generalise in such a way wouldn’t be fair to those councillors who you can’t keep out of the newspaper for love nor money.

If you don’t fancy the quest for public office, it may be because you’re so busy with office politics of your own. “He said this so she said that then I said this and you won’t believe what she then said about that.”

There’s generally the victim, the stirrer, the backstabber and numerous fence-sitters and floaters. If you can’t decide where you fit in then you’re most likely a fence-sitting floater.

Scandals aside, I think that politicians do generally have the best interests of the community at heart. Being a local councillor can be an especially thankless task and if you’ve ever sat through a full council meeting and managed not to top yourself, you’ll know the pain they suffer on our behalf.

Admittedly, most of the pain is self inflicted but still, someone’s got to do it and rather them than me.

Next week: The Art of being a Movie Star.