Would we know how to have a revolution? This is a serious question about a nation that is audibly angry with its leaders, its systems, with corruption at the highest level and with lack of honest representation from the perceived inept.
Calls for a General Election at this time of high emotion and lack of rational thought may prove to be a dangerous thing. And what does it say of a society that used to criticise America for putting faith in celebrity, even at the highest level wit
h Ronald Reagan or Arnold Schwarzenegger, but would quite happily see Esther Rantzen or Joanna Lumley "enthroned" as the great hopes for political direction. Any country should require the finest well-educated and politically aware minds to be at the top of the democratic process, despite the temptation to install heart-warming institutional personalities, which is precisely what they are: Nothing more, nothing less. So, where do we go from here? I think we need to approach any crisis with a clear mind.
We need to remove the overwhelming and intellectually bereft blame culture. I say that because I've recently asked myself if I could cope with being a teacher, social worker, politician, local councillor, or police officer, and the answer to all of these is a resounding no.
It has also seemed to have been completely forgotten that we live in a monarchy with the Queen as our head of state. Perhaps we should have the most dramatic and, yes, exciting change in politics in this country since Cromwell, yet in reverse…this really would be revolutionary! There's nothing 'wishy-washy' about this one. We need Her Majesty to turn up at the House of Commons, to sit in the Speaker's chair, and to dissolve her Parliament, and to demand that it shall remain closed until the people of her country can get their act together. Yet I know none of this will happen. The British way seems to "wait 'til it all blows over" and everything will be all right.
Mind you, the thought occurred to me that one of the most beautiful things about living in Britain is that if one did not read a newspaper ever again, or listen to the radio or watch the TV, life might just go on regardless but with a little less stress! Maybe what's happened in recent months is a healthy reawakening of political awareness in the UK, which could serve our nation quite well.
