When words say nothing at all

Right, who received your vote in the ballot box this morning then?

Actually, I don't really need (or want) to know, but what I would like to know is why the particular prospective ward councillor got your vote.

Some people vote for the same party, election after election, either through force of habit, heritage, family loyalty or sheer stupidity.

Other, more discerning political spectators, may change their voting patterns, taking each candidate on merit at the time of each election and have an actual, real interest in opting for the best person to serve the communities in which they live.

What I hope no one does is elect their candidates on slogans, because quite frankly guys, these days they are shocking.

After wading through Junkmail Central, (actual name of my post-box at home) yesterday to reach my meaningful post i.e. bills, my eyes chanced upon a pamphlet bearing the ever-so-serious mush of a chap I'd not laid eyes on before, staring up at me and espousing, seemingly in all earnest, "It's time for change"!

Once I'd regained my composure, after realising these somehow sinister words were not directed solely at me, I began to think about what the phrase really meant.

As I've spent a great deal of my working life around words in general, I like to think the words I write may have some impact, but more than anything I like to think they mean something. I'm sure my clients will be delighted to read I share this basic ideology with them.

"It's time for change"…well, I suppose if you are fighting for a seat you do not yet hold, you would say that, wouldn't you? It's hardly a unique selling point. In fact, if my memory serves me right, a not too dissimilar line was used by a slightly-deranged-soon-to-be-PM a little more than a decade ago.

I'm not using this space to debate the merits of individual candidates in the ward where I live, nor am I going to spend valuable brain cells thinking up multifaceted and meaningful strap lines for these people (however I'm sure the gaffer will be more than happy to discuss retained PR services should the need arise).

What I will use this space to say, is that if you want my vote, say something I can actually empathise or connect with, not some tired old line that an opposition party proclaimed years ago.

And a bit of advice for the bloke in the pamphlet. If it really is time for change, then change the way you view the people who have a hand in the success or failure of your political career.

That would make a nice change.

PS To Liverpool, unlucky guys, better luck next year. (This blog was written on Wednesday morning, uncanny eh?)

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