There are several themes or threads running concurrently in my internal narrative at any one time. Herding them and focussing on the important ones is the eternal battle that I have fought my entire life - in fact if I'm honest it is my life. My personality has been described as a "Butterfly" and for this rare bit of descriptive parsimony I thank that person. On occasion I take a quick look at the external narrative, since in the modern era we have an accessible and apparently permanent record, and I gloss through my Facebook history, my Twitter stream and now the building archive of this blog. What strikes me is that the things I think were important to me don't appear in the records anywhere near as much as I would have imagined before taking a look. There are some elements that are censored for obvious reasons, very personal relationships, work and related private information has remained, well, private. Out of the other elements that I thought would feature more, games is at the top of this list. I play games once per week with a group of friends, I have collected over 100 board games I have introduced many friends and their families to a broad variety of modern board games. So to celebrate this, and in the spirit of keeping an electronic record, I have added a "widget" on the side bar of the blog to show recent games as recorded on the Board Game Geek website. I shall try to keep this up-to-date.
more art from Derek here
And another thing, currently I am trying to decide which way to spend my 0.17 of a vote. I have skim read the manifestos and, more characteristically for me, I have reviewed the manifestos on my iPhone. So I know what the politicians want us to think. I have listened to the media so I know what Rupert Murdoch wants us to think. I have endured the cringe fest of the live debates so I know which contestant I'd phone in for! but actually I have paid little attention to what I actually want. So I need to sift through the untidy bedroom of my brain and find the key issues on which I should judge each party. My current thoughts are:
1. A government and leader with statesmanly integrity and presence - showing the UK as a leader on the international stage.
2. Equitable, balanced governance steering the country with high levels of integrity displayed throughout.
3. For major issues like immigration and taxation: clear, fair rules consistent with an evolved, just and benevolent democracy that are policed openly.
4. Macro economic policies that ensure the wealth of the UK whilst we contribute to the global distribution of wealth.
5. Education and learning, not just vocational training, embedded at the core of our society.
6. Smaller central government, more power at a local level.
I've spent no longer than about 5 minutes drafting this list. It may seem like nonsense but these were genuinely the first six things to form more clearly out of the morass. I shall let them stew for a while before I settle on my final list, then I shall see which party measures up.
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