Futility Reviewed

Well, that didn't turn out as anyone anticipated, did it? Very specific political commentary is not what I do here, and is almost certainly an unChristian vice anyway, so I will reply to my post of yesterday in relatively short order.

The Conservatives deserved what happened to them last night: it was just and proportionate. It is wrong to treat the nation as your own personal property which it is your inalienable right to govern. I am glad that was knocked back. I'm also glad that so many people defied the rage of the newspapers and the condescension of the media, and made up their own minds. Eric Pickles was on the wireless just now, commenting very candidly that he'd been doorknocking and pavement-pounding up and down the country in the Tory interest for weeks, and didn't pick up on what was going to happen in the slightest. I find hope in that: there is still an independence of mind among the English, even if it's often inarticulate.

I find myself satisfied, but not happy: the situation is too chaotic and hazardous for that. I wondered why I felt such a particular sense of investment in the result this time, such heart-pounding edginess, and think it's because humane and progressive thought has suffered so many cruel blows over the last year or so that another would have been hard to swallow. 

In the middle of the afternoon PJH came to my rescue, mentally. She and Egyptian musician Ramy Essam whose music helped galvanise the Egyptian revolution of 2011 have collaborated on a song to raise awareness of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and funds for a particular charity working in the field. There's a world outside these damp islands, and whatever happens here, there is good that can be done.