Electiontime....hopefully not just yet

A leaflet from the local Conservative Party candidate arrived the other week, which set me off wondering if this is the first, albeit unofficial, sign of the election campaign ahead. Fortunately it's not been followed up by bumpf from any other party, so hopefully it was just an early attempt to put the party in play in the local area. I must admit I don't know who the local MP, although I believe he/she/it is Labour, which is surprising as I would imagine this area would normally be pretty blue on the political map, and I believe it was until quite recently.

The leaflet that arrived was hardly a representation of 21st century Conservative Party ideology and thinking. Rather it was a moan about how terrible the District Line is. I don't personally have a problem with the old green line, and of all the weeks it's taken me to my evening class I've never been late. That's not to say it's never had to stop along the way, but it's yet to seriously inconvenience me. I don't generally take the District line that much though, as I prefer the addition impression of speed that the mainline trains have. If anything the line into Waterloo stops and starts as much as anything, especially on weekends.

However on the whole I'm a bit disappointed that a more substantial topic wasn't chosen to take on the government. Perhaps the District line is worse than I think, or maybe everything is generally rosey and the Tories are pushed for cause to complain, yet I think the absence of ideology in modern politics plays no small part. The parties seem to all too often bicker in an attempt to point-score as there is otherwise an absence of a broader idea. Perhaps we are better without the big ideologies of old. Let's face it, it doesn't often seem to have done the world as a whole a lot of good, but now with moving to the other extreme of reactionary and uncoordinated spur-of-the-moment ideas, there seems to be a general lack of direction. Having some dreams can't be bad, can it?