The Queen supports the idea of UK democracy. Just don’t steal her castles.
You have had in the US I believe your mid term elections and now the long grind starts towards the selection of a president and er the other guys.
Over here in the UK we are starting our ‘well I guess we best get going then’ pre-election build up which is generating a vast amounts of indifference despite the recent energised Scottish referendum. As a Bipolar, I have stopped watching political debate. One time when much younger I was a very political animal, but then there were causes to fight and two principle parties in our parliament that were ideological oceans apart.
Not today.
Today, most UK politicians are media trained which if you watch their mannerism, their facial expression the way they stab the air with their thumbs and not forefinger convinces you they were trained by a dog handler. No time for ideology and real politics. Just a bun fight to see who gets the most votes.
The younger self was so motivated by the idea of fairness and change that the current political situation is seems such a parody of what it was. It depresses me greatly. I did watch a political debate last night, and it had to switch off. It wasn’t that my side lost to the other side. It was that neither side were offering much of anything and what they were offering was pretty well what the other guys were offering.
I suppose that this young ideologist has grown up, but many people older than me can still remain motivated and engaged. But I can be come seriously down if I listen to this stuff to often. It really effects my bipolar. I can equally become very manic when listening to one or two of my fellow country spout what I believe is inflammatory, racist and misogynistic rhetoric. ‘bring back the empire’, ‘we are the greatest country on earth’. all dreadful, horrid rubbish and then seeing them attract people to their cause. Really. I become judgemental and angry. People can be such sheep. These thoughts the provoke a bout of depression. ‘This is my country and the UK political scene is unlikely to change anytime soon – live with it’. But I can’t.
the long and short of it is that I will try and avoid election coverage as much of it as possible. I will spend more time on the BBC or CNN World News section or sport. I’m keen to learn more about American football. Maybe this is my change to do so. ‘Come on you Seattle Salmons’ – a lot to learn I suspect, but it will cheer me up. Oh and I’ll take at least 400gm of Paradarapdingdong or what ever it’s called to calm the mind on election night when nothing short of hiding in the cupboard will allow me avoid it. Oh, and the Benzo’s I take to calm the nerves. Appropriate? probably not, but it’s better than drinking.