Cut it out

I'm not cut out for this blogging lark, he said, rather stating the bleeding obvious.

As I potter about my life, I think of things I just MUST blog about: stuff that happens to pop into my normally empty head. Sometimes in a day I will come up with a dozen topics that would make great little blog entries. Some amuse even me. But as soon as I get back to Apple Mac land they fly out of my head, without so much as raising a speck of dust on their way out.

I think about blogging, but I don't do blogging.

Also, frankly, I am not open enough. I am secretive. Not in an insidiously unpleasant way, I hope, but I just don't want to bang on too much about personal stuff, and this is a very personal medium. And I couldn't bear to share the minutiae of my life with you. It would be duller than no posts. See how good I am to you?

Anyway (abrupt change of direction as we veer a little too close to the personal), this morning's thought has just popped into my little empty head. Tony Blair is ten today. Or maybe this week. Like ILTV he has a birthday. Unlike ILTV his is not a celebration of his day of birth, but a celebration of ten years in charge.

I'll be honest I didn't vote for Tony. I didn't vote at all in that election, nor in the subsequent one. For me that was as important a decision as to whom I would allocate my vote. I decided to not allocate it. But, notwithstanding, I can remember the huge depth of the well of excitement that bubbled over. I felt it and enjoyed it and rejoiced in it. The time was right for a change, I just couldn't support it with my franchise. But, after the result was announced, support it with my heart I did.

My, but how ten years has changed things. What was the result of that excitement and, most importantly, that hope? It's all gone really flat now, and now ten year after, as it were, we desperately need a change. It never ceases to amaze me how the party in power loses the plot, lacks energy and drive. Power does not only corrupt, it saps.

Michael Portillo was right this morning: he said time will show Tony Blair in a kinder, fairer light than now. And his role in Northern Ireland should never be ignored or forgotten.

And if you want to feel really glum about the future, think of Tony's replacement. Brown is the most disliked politician in England, by some distance. I find the thought of his crowning so depressing that I can't really express it: you would think me hysterical and ignore my comments. But I loathe the thought of this hand over as if by some divine right to someone who is so utterly wrong for PM. Can't we persuade Tony to stay, and to be braver and finally make some of the changes that seemed to be in the air of hope ten years ago this week? I can only hope, I suppose.