IMS_Blog

It was hot, er, a weekend or so ago (a week yesterday to be exact—it does take me some time to manage to write anything). Janet and I went for a picnic in Lloyd Park (the “wrong way” on the tram). We’d enjoyed our last trip there so it seemed a good place to head for armed with a bag full of sandwiches, chicken and wine. And of course because it was a picnic we just had to take Mr Ted!

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I was intending to write this post and take a position of talking about the wheeling dealing going on. However, circumstances and events have overtaken me, with Gordon just resigning and David finally getting to see queeny (or at least he just had when I started writing this). So now I can write from a position of at least knowing that there is now a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government, even if the details are unknown at present.

How quickly things change, and we can but hope that they keep changing. For what we have now, is broken.

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Or enough awakefullness anyway. Post election post coming, when I feel alert enough to think it through properly.

Is whether to vote with fear, scared that what one does want to happen will, or with conviction, following one’s actual thoughts and desires. That is the problem of the system we live with. Surely it should not be that I am voting in fear?

After the previous ramblings I though I’d jot down a bit more about my thinking with the big day tomorrow.

In the first election I remember actually really being motivated for I find myself terribly torn. Part of the problem (the major part of it actually) is that despite the possibility of my vote counting (this certainly being an improvement over the last situation in York) I seem to be caught in the wrong marginal. My instincts and desires point me towards a Liberal Democrat vote but I must balance this against the fact that this is a Labour/Conservative marginal. In my opinion the only way to get this countries mess sorted is to end up with a hung parliament and the only way to do that is probably to prevent the Conservatives gaining as many seats as possible (which also happens to fit nicely with me, as there at the bottom of my personal list of the big three). So do I vote tactically, giving my mark to Labour in order to prevent a Conservative victory? Certainly I will be fairly upset should Labour lose this seat by a small majority, left thinking that if only I and a few others (for I don’t doubt I am not unique in this thinking process) had voted tactically we could have made a difference.

However, that just feels wrong.

Then I come to thinking, what if enough people really are in the position I am, such that they are leaning towards LibDem. Could this be a three horse race here, in which case if the Liberals come close but fall short I will feel probably worse if I’ve voted tactically, whatever the outcome.

The situation is not helped by the incumbent MP now being an independent (and re-standing as such) having originally taken the seat for the Conservatives. Presumably this mixes up those longer term residents loyalties even more.

I really don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow evening come time to mark an X, but I do know that for once I seem to care.

In four days time the UK holds a general election. Whether as a result of the debates of actually living somewhere where my vote matters, I actually feel quite invigorated. I doubt that this time I’ll abstain (I did actually vote in the London Mayoral election, though failed to mention it here, but that was more to get rid of the odious Ken Livingston than anything else).

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Oh look, it must be that time again, the start of the month and I get all excited with a brand new, sparkling post. So let’s get on with detailing of my life

Prudhoe Castle

After the excitement of a first castle visit in far too long Jan and I had a chance to visit one further north. Having popped up for Easter we had a trip vaguely in mind but ended up going almost by accident on the Sunday, having headed to the Metrocentre only to discover it’s about the one day of the year it’s closed. Luckily the transport links were still running (cinema open if nothing else) so we could get a bus into Prudhoe just along the Tyne.

The castle itself isn’t the most spectacular, but provides an interesting mix of the original and restoration/updating (the bailey is now dominated by a nineteenth century house, though it does blend in nicely). It did feel a little strange to walk down a hill to reach a castle for once, though I suppose its position reflects the proximity to the Tyne and the changing layout of Prudhoe.

As well as the castle we did have the chance to wander into to a christening party at the local pub (the rather bizarely title Dr Syntax). The bus didn’t come then, so we had to have a drink in the other pub (the rather more commonly named Fox and Hounds). So all in all not bad

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