Season Cycle

It struck me this morning that we're already a third of the way though 2010. It doesn't seem so long ago that the year started. I fear I'll go to bed tonight and wake up to Christmas.

This hasn't been a great year for me personally, so far, and summer has rarely been an enjoyable time for me (barring 1999 and 2005, I can't remember a good one) and recent developments in the political world have left me with a bad, bad feeling. I won't go into politics too much as a) I don't have the intelligence to debate any points on any meaningful level and b) many other blogs cover the ground I would in a much more articulate fashion.

However, I do wonder who the popular right-wing press will turn on now that Gordon is gone. Will they turn against their golden boy if improvements aren't seen soon? More likely, Clegg will take the flak for being seen as some kind of diluting force. I can't help but believe he's lost of a lot of voters with this move and it will be interesting to see how that translates into opinions and votes at any future election.

I do have some sympathy for Brown. The man clearly struggled with the media circus politics has become. I was wary of the whole TV Debate idea from the start, feeling it would promote image over content in the same way the Nixon/Kennedy debate did (TV viewers thought the handsome, dynamic JFK won, many radio listeners believed Nixon came out on top). I've no doubt Brown cared deeply about his job, but in the end, the biggest stick used to beat him was his discomfort with the public: something I can sympathise with.

With the country going through the first major political change of my adult life (I was 16 in 1997), I wonder if it will act as a spur to change in myself. I've half-joked to people that I should fear for my job (in the public sector) if big cuts are brought in and the truth is, I wouldn't particularly care if my job was axed.

It reminds of reading through old articles about the Clash. A lot of journalists resented them for their wish to progress and evolve, for not wanting to keep re-writing Janie Jones or White Riot, great as those songs are. What made the Clash great was that when they wanted to try playing jazz, or reggae, or blues, they did it. I need some of that spirit in my life right now: when I get home tonight, I think I will listen to Sandinista! all the way through.