I combined Rocky's walk this afternoon with a visit first to the Polling Station and then to the butcher's. The train was late arriving as usual. I read the large print instructions for voters on the notice outside, fastened Rocky up to the iron gate and walked in. Two old biddies were sat behind a collapsible table, and I handed one my polling registration card and she initially read my address wrong as a lot of people do. Then she realised her mistake and corrected it in her mind before she gave me my ballot paper. I scanned it quickly and was pleased to note that none of the four choices on offer represented the BNP. I feel that there should have been a fifth choice namely None of the above. Approximately 75% in Hull vote for this last one.
On the ballot paper there was a Labour Party chap, who's name I cannot remember. A Tory candidate who's sex and name I did not bother to look at, but the motto go green vote blue caught my attention. A bit confusing because there was also a Green Party candidate. Shouldn't it be a tick instead of a cross to indicate who you think is right? Perhaps, its from a period when most of the working class couldn't sign their name and just put a cross there instead.
Decisions, decisions, decisions. What influences you at a time like this? I was greatly impressed by the Bob Piper post on his blog. "Everytime you vote Tory, God kills a kitten". It was such a sweet picture of a sweet kitten, and it was headed "We defy you....". Perhaps, it was a bit extreme having four dots. I feel that dot, dot, dot, would have sufficed. I thought of Ron's Knees Rants and Raves, and I know that he is a cat lover. When you are casting a vote, it is the important things like this that matter.
It's a secret ballot, even though it was possible to see the black cross and the printed choices through the folded ballot paper, so my choice will remain a secret. As I walked outside the LibDem Councillor Mark Collinson had just arrived in his poster-plastered car, and his almost totally yellow garb, including boots, made me think of a clown turning up at a fancy dress party. As he rounded the back of his car and I was releasing Rocky from the iron gate, Rocky lunged at the LibDem candidate and took exception to his boots by barking at them. "Obviously, a Labour dog that", Mark Collinson said. Rocky is a good judge of character, and has good taste, he caught a whiff of some bits of chocolate Easter egg some kid had dropped and dragged me in that direction so he could scoff the someone else's loss is his gain.
At the butcher's there was an autopsy on John Hayes MP the Tory who's performance got the chop from the butcher. His verdict was "what a complete tosser!". I replied, "funny you should say that, I posted to this effect on my blog". A carrier bag in each hand, I left the butcher's and finished Rocky's walk by going through Pearson Park. I made a mental note of the drug dealer selling his wares from a Black BMW with darkened rear windows. It might have been heroin or it might have been crack cocaine. And, this used to be such a nice neighbourhood...
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
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