Politics is a dirty, dirty business full of infighting, back stabbing and shadowy deals. As the old adage goes “Politics is just show business for ugly people” and looking at the House of Commons on some afternoons it’s a view that’s hard to disagree with. There is a huge disconnect between “normal” people and those in Westminster and a lot of this can be blamed that on people aspiring to and becoming career politicians without having had any real experience of the outside world. This can produce a certain breed of socially maladjusted person that is so enraptured with the machinations of politics that they effectively stand for nothing apart from themselves. If politicians were to at least try and pretend to be human people might identify with them more and listen to what they have to say. If they were to actually answer questions rather than bleat out stock media trained responses they might get people to trust them more. If they dropped the phrase “Now let me be perfectly clear….” and actually were perfectly clear instead, then perhaps people would respond to them better. If they stopped distracting us with that weird new thing where they gesture with a fist with one of their thumbs clamped firmly down on top ( a move which is neither a thumbs up – too positive…. nor a fist – too aggressive )  then maybe we’d take them seriously. That’s why I hope that the above piece of graffiti is the work of Shadow Education minister Stephen Twigg, it would show us that Twigg is an irrational human being, a flawed human being, a human being with feelings…one of us.

Spotted by Dominic Simpson

Sadly I think this is just wishful thinking, that politicians have no interest in changing and in fact things might just get worse. Watching a BBC2 documentary on young Oxbridge Tories I think we’re in for trouble in the future. Just look at the kind of books this future leader of tomorrow likes to read! Be afraid, be very afraid.