In your honour ...

Josephus,

... I was tempted to change my light violet to purple, but it was so much hassle getting the colours more-or-less right in the first place I didn't bother.

I can't do your posting the justice it deserves, because I am not yet on an unmetered system, so I have to count the coins as I reply online. Responses tend to be brief.

I have to agree that the American system does appear to filter out all originality and creativity from the candidates, so that by the time we see them on TV over here they all look and act the same.

We have seen more negative campaigning of late, and we saw a great deal of it in the elections for London mayor.

«But he's the same consummate
politician, who'll wriggle and twist and give a
disingenuous answer even when the straight
truth would gain him just as many votes.»

One of the refreshing things about Ken Livingstone is that when he makes a mistake he immediately admits it. People find this so astonishing that he has changed in a couple of decades from the abhorrent monster from the red lagoon into everybody's uncle.

Yes, John Major seemed a thoroughly decent man. But I used to find myself wondering how it was that such a decent man could preside over a government that was so gangrenous with corruption.

I share your nostalgia for the 'good old days' of politics. In those days we had the high-Tory type of member, whose essentially humanitarian view of life would often lead him to arrive at the same conclusions as his cloth-capped counterparts, but from a completely different direction!

It's certainly my perception that after Profumo the high moral standards of political life seemed to vanish. Whether they were only illusory anyway is another matter, and not one I am qualified to speculate on.

Many thanks for a stimulating posting.

Lang