Coffee, vomit and European elections

Today, I vomited all over a bunch of politicians. Or, rather more accurately and less sensationally, my cafetiére vomited coffee over a pile of pre-election literature.

The normal pile of bumf was pushed through the door a few days, and both our downstairs neighbours and us studiously ignored it for a good 48 hours. Finally I cracked, brought it upstairs and made myself a nice pot of coffee to enjoy while I read through their electoral lies promises. The coffee had other ideas, spilling out all over the pamphlets, as picture (right). Rapidly, they became unreadable mulch, and have now been consigned to the compost bin.

So, all I was left with was first impressions. You know what? The local LibDems come out well again. They were the only party that put the name of their candidate front and centre on their literature. All the others were too busy exhorting us to vote for the party to actually detail the candidate.

You know what? I’m old fashioned. I like to think that I vote for someone to represent me in one of several layers of Government, rather than picking a party to run my life. I know that’s not a popular view right now, but I think that disengagement from the local aspect of politics is one of the reasons voting turnout is in such dramatic decline.

Candidate first and party second, if you please.