I'm Kyle from South Park

My recent spurt of posts have been a touch mean-spirited. Describing the "types of people," in not altogether flattering terms, that exist in the various UK political parties. I don't like being cynical and overly-critical, (though I definitely have that in my character), so I was wondering why I'm being like that at the moment.

When I thought about it I realised it was because I'm annoyed about the shenanigans!

When I think back to how I was after the last general election I was in zen mode. It wasn't the result I wanted, but I was happy to accept the result and show some good faith. "Four or five years of Labour. It's not the end of the world," I thought, "In four or five years' time we might get Reform. So let's just make the best of it."

I didn't think there would be any shenanigans, because the political class had gotten their own way. They wanted Starmer. He was their darling. In the previous years we did have shenanigans. Boris, elected with a huge mandate, ousted before he could serve his term. Then Liz Truss got a similar, but speedier removal. Of course, before that we had Theresa May and the Brexit goings-on.

Now, alas, we have another round of musical chairs. Any thought that we might go back to electing a guy, letting him govern for a full term, then appraising him after that, quickly dashed. It is annoying, and, of course, anyone with any basic degree of intelligence can see that it looks a bit dubious. Even if, like me, you're not entirely sure what's going on. People kind of know that this isn't the normal way of doing things.

So, though I don't want to be cynical, I do think I have a bit of an excuse. Although, saying that, it might now be time to dial it back down again and be a bit more forgiving.

One final observation though..

Let me make one final little observation. I can't really resist this one.

Recently I've questioned the role of Restore. The other day I saw this post on Twitter. (You can see from the little blue mark in the corner that I bookmarked it.)

Note the image. Carl is wearing a brightly-coloured, vaguely-Hawaiian style shirt. The guy in the suit has bright, clearly dyed hair. This is 'clown' apparel. Anyone who's watched the Lotus Eaters will know that Carl always wears a suit, including a tie. He understands the importance of presenting an image. Yet out with Restore he's in the leisure wear.

I should say that I'm not saying these things look bad in general. The orange shirt looks perfectly nice, and the young gentleman with the floppy hair would look the part at some avant-garde indie night. But in politics, especially on the right, this is the equivalent of wearing a bright red nose and clown shoes.

For instance, if you were up in court and your lawyer turned up wearing the shirt Carl is wearing you'd have your head in your hands.

So they're definitely not getting 17% of the vote. That's for sure.