It's been a while... right now I'm sat in the home of the family who've put me up so I could move to my new place of work, surrounded by the washing I failed to do over the weekend and which now urgently needs to dry before I leave for Italy in two days. In the oven downstairs are my chocolate and ginger cupcakes. In a flat across town is a table full of half-addressed envelopes and wedding invitations. In the office a few miles away is an incomplete draft of a PR article that I've been having a complete mental blank about. In Lincolnshire is my great grandmother, who this evening warned me not to go anywhere in Italy by myself, because "you never can be sure in these foreign countries". In my head is the thought that she could be a casual racist, but then again she is in her eighties and maybe Italy wasn't so safe last time she went there.
These are the strings of my life for the moment, or at least those most immediately memorable. In the background, buzzing like a fly I can't bring myself to swat, is the thought that the abandonment of this blog over the last few months has been more than just distraction. Maybe I've lost some of the urge to engage politically since I "settled" into a "regular work routine". And actually, I never intended to be a bludgeoning maniac here anyway. Brown may have called me a bigot if he'd met me, but I like to think it would only be because I was right, and not because I was obnoxious. There's more to politics than the 'big P'.
So I've been thinking a little about intentions and declarations this week. In the light of the Lib Dems' complete turnaround on tuition fees, it seems appropriate to consider the compromises we make. Admittedly mine have less national consequence than the government's... ladening the next generation of degree-holders with even greater debt is hardly comparable to my occasionally failing to wash my hair because I stayed up too late watching Strictly on iPlayer. On the other hand, if I were more disciplined and determined, especially in other more significant areas of my life, perhaps I would have a greater positive impact on those around me.
Politics, whether national or personal, never comes down to positive thinking or crowd-pleasing, whatever we might think. In the end a compromise has to be made one way or the other - do you stick with what you believe to be right, or do you bend with the most favourable wind? The reason so many people my age are not interested in what our government does except to whine about it is probably this exact problem - a lack of consistency. Don't the decision-makers think we can see through their bluffs? Inconsistent politics, and inconsistent living, put people off and make them cynical. Yes, somebody needs to pay for the cost of higher education, and if it's not feasible to make it free or subsidise it anymore then we have to come up with a plan. But I do wish people wouldn't make promises they cannot, or will not, keep.
On a lighter note, my cupcakes are done, and I'm going to ice them. I intend to bring some 'positive impact' to the workplace tomorrow... :)
Watch this space for "Vive le Nomad: summer reminiscence" in a week or two...
