My humble little blog has been sadly neglected for some while as life and work has taken over.
Today it's been brought to my attention I may have a new readership since venturing into local politics, so I thought I'd better say Hello.
However should anyone be here digging for my political past, I will save you the trouble.
There isn't one.
Hard to believe maybe, but it happens to be true, Until now I've never had a political bone in my body, never been a member of a political party or remotely attracted to politics. Ok, I've always voted, but only because my family suffered heavy casualties in two world wars and it seemed an insult to all those ancestors who died for my freedom not to vote.
But it's always been a tough call at the polling station deciding which is the 'least of the evils' to vote for in the absence of a 'pick of the crop' array of glittering political offerings.
As a cynic, I've always seen politics as a divide and rule game to keep us all either moaning about how bad things are while they get even worse or at each other's throats rather than holding power to account and demanding the goods and services we pay for, no excuses. It's been hard to engage as a result.
Right and Left seem to me, to be wings of the same bird, and if they extend to extremes at either side, they probably end up meeting in the middle at the back somewhere.
For myself, I remain a wingless beast and a fan of balance in all things.
Living in a British democracy we are lucky enough to live in a consent and contract-based society. Even if we've elected our leaders they still rule by our consent and we can withdraw that consent at any time if they go rogue or start acting against the public interest.
Well that's how it's supposed to work anyway. Sadly in recent years we seem to have allowed those who govern us to slip from public servants who work for us into petty dictators who tell us what to do when it is their role to run the city or even country, not the citizens.
That's what has annoyed me enough to want to do my bit to make public servants fashionable again, hence forming the Friends of Brighton and Hove Independents - spawned by the Friends of Brighton and Hove Citizens' Action Group - shining a light and campaigning on local issues for three years now.
We need a city by the people for the people. A beautiful and thriving city we can be proud of once more.
If you don't agree, don't vote for me and my fellow prospective councillor candidates. It's that simple.
I believe we have entirely sensible and commonsense aims.
But I'm not going to turn this into a political blog. That is being built elsewhere.
This just a personal blog. A mix of the silly and the serious, the thoughtful and the playful interspersed with poems, vignettes, obituaries, short stories, reviews - much like any other blog, I suppose.
Photograph by author near Black Rock, Brighton.
