"Look, just answer a straight question," said the interviewer. The politician proceeded to answer a different question, attack his opponents and talk about something else. We get a lot of this. In fact, we don't get much else, especially during an election campaign.
"Can we expect it to be a good natured campaign?" asked the interviewer, wrapping it up. I could hear the upturned corners of his mouth.
"Oh of course," replied the politician, smarmily. Neither of them really believed it and nor did they believe that the rest of us would believe it - unless by 'good natured' they meant not resorting to fisticuffs.
I can't bear all this flannel. It feels like a control mechanism we're all being forced to believe is the best possible way to do it. The politicians are polished and primed to toe the party line - they're all required to defend the indefensible, to twist themselves out of difficult questions and convince all of us that they're on our side and not their own. Their job depends on their ability to do this. The interviewers and journalists and radio presenters know that they have to keep asking the questions that we ought to be asking them, continually opposing their guests and skewering them with a hand-picked list of awkward topics. They know too, that despite the fact that they're required to ask those questions, they are not going to get the answers. Not really.
This results in a sort of anxious equilibrium in most political interviews. While the politicians obfuscate and their interrogators poke them, we all have to sit at home, trying to decipher which particular group of squirming public servants are the least despicable and will represent us the least badly in the House of Commons.
I turned the radio off shortly after all of that.
By the way, I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't vote at all. We have a democratic right to contribute to our governance yes, but we also have a democratic responsibility to vote. Personally I think you forego your right to complain, comment or criticise those in government for the duration of the next parliament, if you fail this responsibility.
I guess I'm just a bit fed up with the system, if anything.
Another thing that I'm fed up with is products which pretend to be a bit more than they actually are. There's a whole load of them out there, pretending to be your buddy or continually telling you how amazing you are. Louise had a box of 'Detox' teabags today and she showed me what was written on the side:
The preciousness of time - there are only a few occasions in modern history that have changed time such as the sixties. Yogi Tea was a pioneer in the west when it was first served in 1969. Yogi Tea began with the purpose to build a conscious relationship with oneself and the goodness within and by that became part of a new world renaissance where cultures opened up to exchange and share wisdoms to support the new rhythm of life.
Teabags. Forget Flower Power, 'Free Love' and The Beatles. It was all down to teabags, man; teabags that can 'build a conscious relationship' with you and usher in world peace while they're at it.
Maybe those politicians could do with a cup or two.
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