it was cold – the ruts

i hate this fucking place. it's freezing all summer because of a union demand back in the seventies; from the first of october to the first of march, the underfloor heating's at a brutally satanic level. throughout the "winter", everybody's in shirtsleeves, thin cotton, light shoes.

from march onwards, it's big jumpers, heavy trousers, even bigger boots.

they just seem to accept it. even the ones who complain the most bitterly about fifteen years of labour rule and the stranglehold of the unions, blythely get on with it.

it's funny now, with this month's election fever and the subsequent country-wide split, how everybody's so polarised. as if there were only two parties. no third force, no far-left-or-right, no loonies or independents.

i read somewhere once that all political thought could be filtered through an individual's relationship with kink. the further to the right someone's politics are, the more into it they are - and the more fervently they believe that the lower orders and untermensch should be kept away from it.

the near-and-far-left, on the other hand, don't do anything kinky themselves. nor do they know anyone who does (apart from tommy sheridan, of course) and don't believe anyone else should be permitted to, either. apart from tommy sheridan, obviously.

were there a political party whose promises meant something to me, would i bother voting?