Yay friends

Last week I wasn't on DW much, cos I was busy having soul-nourishing conversations with some of my favourite people, in person.

( social doings )

I must admit I am getting a little fed up with green sorts being smug about the volcano blocking air travel. Yes, yes, you are very virtuous in foregoing flying, good for you. But really, people who are trapped in the wrong country, spending more than they can afford and being powerless to deal with urgent problems at home or missing important family occasions don't deserve your schadenfreude. I'm sure I'm not the only one who knows several people directly affected by this. And even if aeroplanes are evil, at least they don't interfere with my breathing.

Two much nicer creative responses to the volcano:
papersky wrote poetry (the comments have a bonus awesome ash-cloud dragon animation).
redaloud wrote prose.

What we need is some political controversy

So, can anyone explain to me why people are acting as if a Conservative majority at the upcoming election would be tantamount to the apocalypse? Misogynist ravings about Thatcher don't count as an argument for me, especially given that she hasn't had significant political power for twenty years.

In my opinion, Labour have made a lot of things worse since 1997. Not least causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq, which I really wish were a bigger issue in this election. And somehow, we have a discourse where any time someone criticizes Labour, they add the disclaimer "but of course, the Tories would have been far worse". To me this means that educated, engaged people who might otherwise be swing voters are essentially handing Labour a perpetual mandate, and that worries me.

I'm generally economically right wing and socially liberal, if that helps.