Rainbows in dark skies - some election thoughts

Not even the election has called me back to this blog recently - it seems there's enough words being written about it to over fill our ears. Tweeting felt like it had a point - almost like voting - you pitch your 140 character opinion into the mass and maybe just maybe it'll be part of a wave... and who knows how these twitter waves have resonated beyond our tweetdeck screens. (I can talk about this because anyone who hasn't yet 'got' twitter will almost certainly still have been told about its part in our election.)

But, it does feel necessary to say something right now. Even just to be another person recording that yes, the last few hours have actually been fairly momentous and emotional. Not exactly Shakespearean, but definitely a couple of drama cuts above soap opera.

I've read quite a few people say that they felt a bit 'teary' watching Gordon's final speech. Well my first moment of 'teariness' was watching Cameron drive up to Buckingham Palace to be accepted as PM by the Queen. It was a rather different sentiment - one of complete disappointment in my country. Angrily, I pictured all those election maps with their swathes of blue England and thought jealously of the yellowness and progressiveness outside of England, in Scotland and Wales. Those MPs had been part of making a genuinely progressive alliance seem possible, but in the space of a few hours today, it all came crashing down and just as we'd anticipated, Cameron - smooth faced (as an airbrushed poster) and as concerned for us (as a car salesman) - got into number 10.

Looking out of my window at that moment, there was a rainbow in a very dark sky. I smiled at it. Really, outside of rare moments of the ridiculously optimistic belief that Nick Clegg would perform a miracle, this was the best I had hoped for. And it's much better than the worst which I had expected. Not only do we NOT have the Conservative majority government we all completely anticipated only a few weeks ago, but they've had to make concessions to the Lib Dems, who it sounds like will have cabinet seats, and already (it seems) are managing to change Tory plans regarding how to tax the wealthy and how to tax the poor... To everyone bitter with Clegg and the Lib Dems for his 'pact' with the Tories - surely to believe that a Tory minority government, hopefully doomed to failure, would have been better is to succumb to party political interests? This way, the liberal left has much more of a voice than otherwise.

And Gordon... Over the last few days I've felt almost guilty about my post-election affection for Labour, my too-late memory that they do actually stand for 'the people' in so many ways. Not that it would have changed my vote to remember this sooner. Tickbox, big brother culture scares me for a start....

I think I'm still on a tiredness lag from staying up all night for the election. Can't imagine how those politicians are feeling. I hope they sleep well tonight, they deserve to. They've had a difficult few days of it, trying to work out how to form the 'stable, reliable government' that is most 'in the nation's interest'. Guess that means all of us. This evenings shenanigans seem to have made a lot of people more disillusioned with politics. In general I'm torn. But right now, I think it has actually had the opposite effect on me - Gordon's speech about the honour of holding the PM office because of the possibilities it brings to make things better actually ring true. Knowing that Caroline Lucas being elected to parliament could make a difference, is empowering. And I do actually believe that politicians DO want to make the world a better place. It's just a shame that some of them can't conceive of how radically different and difficult a world without their privately educated advantages can be. (I think of Cameron's words about helping those who do the 'right thing' and I shudder everytime.) And of course, none of them really have radical enough ideas to solve the major problems we face on a global scale (like, climate change.) Oh no, now I'm going to go to sleep not just depressed that Cameron and the tories are in charge but about everything. Pah. Best in life to focus on the rainbows, I find.