Even by My Standards That Last Post Was Rubbish!

Put it down to Monday morning blues but that last post of mine was a particularly thoughtless piece of grunt-and-grumble.  If one is minded, as I frequently am, to rip into our democracy and its political practitioners then the very least one could do is to come up with something better.  Alas, from time to time I have pondered upon it but produced exactly nothing.  The Romantic in me sometimes yearns for those mythical days when only gentlemen of means went into parliament because they could afford to and thus, in theory, they ruled without personal gain being a priority.  However, the fact is that even in those so-called ‘halcyon’ days, had I been alive and as cantankerous as I am now, then I would have grunted and grumbled in exactly the same way.  And anyway, stupidity is never in short supply!  We all know, do we not, that rule by a single dictator or a single dictatorial political party is a short cut to hell – well, we know it but of course the Russians still haven’t learned which is why Putin and his thugs are slowly putting leg-irons back on them.  However, the Chinese are learning and the democratic push from below is giving their government some very real headaches.  In this day and age of global communication it is increasingly difficult for dictators to operate – although that will not stop them trying.  As for us ‘over here’ and the cousins ‘over there, enjoying the chance to turf the rascals out every few years is a right not to be discarded lightly – even if you only get back more of more or less the same!