Exo-Politics

So, Ed Milliband is now Labour leader and my reaction is a resounding 'meh'. It has been interesting watching things like 'Alan Davies Teenage Revolution', 'This Is England' and Adam Curtis' latest documentary project (watch out for a link tomorrow folks!), all of which have touched on the way that politics intersects with ordinary life. I don't know if it is an inevitable consequence of getting older, but I feel disconnected from political life in a way that I never thought I would be. It's not a case of the old canard of becoming more conservative as the years go by, with me it's a case of becoming more apolitical.

The last election was a case in point, where after all of the hustings and policies banded around with promises of change, and the dust finally settles after polling day it is pretty much business as usual. The proposed cuts are a drop in the ocean next to the deficit - Labour spending £704bn vs Con Dems £698bn is peanuts, really. Similarly, when I see the Socialist Workers rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of some nice protests to go on, I think that for all of the rhetoric it is going to achieve absolutely bugger all in the grand scheme of things. Even the poll tax protests - arguably the high water mark of grass roots political action in the last century - only managed to replace Thatcher with Major and another five years of Conservatism before the only slightly less conservative New Labour.

Ah well, buggrit. Time to go and play some xbox, I think.