Two short political stories from yesterday.
Firstly I got a phone call from my local Labour Party. They were interested in my voting history and voting intentions. The conversation went something like this:
LP: Can you tell me who you are going to vote for this time?
Me: To be honest I have no idea.
LP: Do you usually use your vote?
Me: I always vote.
LP: And can you tell me who you voted for last time?
Me: Labour.
LP: And who do you usually vote for?
Me: I have alway voted Labour[1]
LP: What local issues are making you reconsider your vote?
Me: It’s not local issues, but national and international issues.
LP: Ok, so what issues have made you reconsider your vote?
Me: Oh, the standard stuff. The illegal invasion of Iraq. The new Prevention of Terrorism Act. Stuff that the real Labour Party would never consider.
LP: Ok, well I think that’s all I need for now. Thank you.
Sounds like they’re getting a bit worried. Which is nice.
Then about an hour later, I was watching Michael Howard talking to the Tory Party conference. He was talking about schools and the health service and saying how the Tories has plans to remove unnecessary layers of management in order to make them more efficient. He was harshly criticising the Government for imposing the these unnecessary restrictions on hospitals and schools. Of course he completely failed to mention that these restrictive changes were first introduced by the Tories when they were last in power. Do they really expect people to have such short memories? Well obviously they do. And, luckily for them, most of the population do seem to have the memory of a goldfish.
[1] This is a slight lie as I dabbled slightly with the Greens in the mid-80s.