Well, with no swearing at anyone, the filthy deed is done. In dappled sunshine to congenial smiles and light banter in a Victorian school hall; a very English sort of democracy. Saw a friend on the desk who rulered our names, and saw another friend on the local ballot, who I put a cross by. To all those actually trying to get stuck in, bloody good work. Because you are quietly leading by example.

We live in times more seismically shifting than we often recognise at ground level, pottering past the Tesco with the plastic lottery monolith near the windows. But we still currently live in the historically astonishing light of an actual half working democratic liberty – so the time for indulging our grumpy disaffection with a miserable scribble on a scratch card must be done. Navels go everywhere with you, so you don’t have to worry about leaving it at home. Time to get up, man up and make a mark. Join in, broken or no. You and the system. Because we need you. We need us. Now go. Or banks and oil giants and other monolithic engines of mindless profit will smother everyone’s humanity under piles of little discarded cardboard dreams. Which is bloody poetry, mate. Yeah. More empty rhet’ric.

Personally, I’m sick of tactics and the habitual cultural grind of the politico-media ‘conversation’. It’s not even poetic. It says nothing of any meaning at all. What’s needed is a serious talk – us ordinary lot. Or whatever weirdos we can find instead. What we really need, as our new century opens out, is a whole new way of seeing where we are. The real imperatives and the real opportunities – all unprecidented, and happening in our times, right now. You there. Finger. Nose. Stoppit. ..So I voted for vision.

The real challenge will be seeing what we all do AFTER we’ve voted. There’s the dirty truth. How do we each lead by example?

Bugger. ..Cup of tea?

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