Politics on the edge

It was somehow appropriate that I should finish reading Rory Stewart's Politics on the Edge on polling day. I cast my vote just after lunch, went for a drink with TSM, and came home to finish his book. It concludes with an account of the 2019 campaign to elect a new Tory leader in the wake of the resignation of Theresa May. According to Stewart's account this was about as edifying as a series of Game of Thrones with everyone gleefully stabbing each other in the back, lying, and dropping their principles in favour of some future job offer. It is perhaps the most graphic account of the lies, dishonesty, egotism and sheer infantilism of Boris Johnson, a man who has done enormous damage to the culture, economics, and integrity of Britain. But it also shows that the British media completely fails to focus on the right things and is indeed itself part of this Machiavellian obsession with the drama of politics over and above the needs of real people.

If I have one hope for this next phase of British politics it is that parliament will be renewed with a whole new set of people who are not drawn nearly as much from the playing fields of Eton or the Ivory Towers of Oxbridge. It is my hope that there is a chance for a fresh start, and whilst I am not naive, I can only hope that the future will be better than what we have seen in the last 14 years.

I shall be going to bed as soon as the exit polls are announced and getting up again at three in the morning with some strong tea and hopefully some positive results and outcomes to watch and mull over. If the Tory party is annihilated in the polls, I will shed no tears but neither shall I dance on their grave.  I will simply hope that things can only get better.