mike[space] dot net

Okay, this is going to be quick and off the cuff, as I have to leave to catch a train in 10 minutes. But I just wanted to moan once more about the shower of shit that we currently have to suffer as a political class. Charlie Brooker does a brilliant job of talking about how he's finally reached the point of no return Bring on the summer of Rage:

Having pissed in the public's face, Straw went on to shake the final drips down its nose, writing a defence of the government's civil liberties record in this paper in which he claimed "talk of Britain sliding into a police state is daft scaremongering, but even were it true there is a mechanism to prevent it - democratic elections . . .

I think I reached it when watching John Prescott shouting about the banking crisis in this latest vlog of his:

For the first time in some time I was rendered speechless at the sheer audacity of his rhetoric as he described how Labour provided an amazing economy that greedy bankers fucked up. I actually quite like John Prescott, but he's gone completely off the reservation at this point. Labour's inability to take responsibility for its actions continue to astound, as witness this weekend with the rumoured vengeful changes to the law to cover up for their mistakes in how they took over banks on the verge of collapse. If you fire people for gross misconduct, I think you'll find their contract doesn't really hold up. Otherwise, of course we're left with ambiguity, and it's your own bloody fault for not having the balls to do the thing properly in the first place.

I had a lengthy conversation with a friend yesterday about the process of getting labour out of power, and I still can't quite find it in myself to vote Conservative. Sure, it would be great to get rid of the people who sat idly by, encouraging record levels of consumer debt and allowing the housing market to get completely out of control. But the Tories (a) wouldn't have done anything differently and (b) will remove all the good that has been done in terms of improving investment in health and education (and yes, I know some of this has not gone where it needed to but I still maintain that things are vastly improved over what they were and would have been had the Tories stuck around). I trust the idea of compassionate conservativism as much as I would trust a civil servant with my personal details on a USB stick.

The things that really stick in my craw are that if Labour had actually stuck to their manifesto promise, I would be able to vote for the lib dems with a feeling that my vote might actually help change the political makeup of westminster. But they didn't, which then leaves my ire for the Lib Dems themselves.

Quite how they so completely failed to capitalise on the best opportunity there's ever been to genuinely create a 3 party political system I will never really understand. The Tories were dead and buried, the Lib Dems looked to have a perfect opportunity to set themselves up as the main opposition, especially with their position on the war. And what's happened? Absolutely fuck all. It's all fucked, and I am almost certainly going to have to vote Tory just because I can't stomach another 5 years of Labour saying "What?! No it wasn't me guv, it was all the bankers and the like."

ARRRGGGGHHHHHHH!