Maybe it`s just me (again!)   But most of the country has just had the elections for local councils and the odd Mayor.   Mercifully, for reasons that escape me, we here in Dibley only have local council elections once every four years and so we have avoided the trials that have blighted the rest of the country in the past few weeks.


Now whilst I confess that in a former life I may have had a bit to do with local elections, there are aspects of these events that continue to puzzle me.  As well as the Victoriana of things like poll cards, red tape, sealing wax, black tin boxes and ungodly hours, I have witnessed the change in people when they are either candidates or supporters.   Whereas under normal circumstances they behave, well, normally, once they get to the count on election nights they seem to morph into something quite, well, abnormal.   


They seem to adopt a pose of superiority, assuming  almost a master and servant relationship with those charged with the task of officially conducting the count for them.   Then there are the rosettes, the party colours and the infernal whooping and hollering when they or their candidate has won and their behaviour tends more towards the football terrace than a bastion of the democratic process as they taunt their rivals and play to whatever gallery may be at hand.


It all makes me wonder about their motives and I find it difficult to escape the notion that, with the odd notable exception, they are in serious need of getting as life.   Anyway, in my bumpkinesque political naivete I had always assumed that local councils were about dustbins, food regulations, looking after streets, education and stuff like that whilst all we have heard about and all the electorate seem to have voted for are things for which only the national government is responsible.   And so we have seen hundreds of councillors voted out of office up and down the country, not for any shortcomings on their part but all to do with the fact that people are fed up with the national government and wanted to show their disapproval.  


Maybe they`re right - I`m not sure I wouldn`t have entered a `protest vote` if I had had the chance - but in a lot of ways I`m glad that Dibley has remained untouched by the deluge of political nonsense recently displayed.   On second thoughts, maybe I should just keep calm, stop ranting to myself and get a life of my own.