Djpekingman I think it's more than just those that enter it. They're maybe a reflection of how society has changed. Cynicism, irreverance, disdain etc are all well and good. But, in some ways, they're a product of the individualism that dominates society now. We've lost or rejected so much that bound us, from standing for the anthem to meeting in a pub. We're left trying to manufacture it now. As if sticking a flag up a lamppost is somehow a mark of community. Try knocking on your neighbour's door. Or picking up your litter, maybe pay your taxes and work a bit harder.
The people in Westminster grift. They always have to an extent. In the same way that people have in almost every line of work. We're a society ready to criticise politicians at every turn on Facebook but too idle to walk a few hundred yards to vote for one.
I'm rambling a bit, but you get the point.
David Gray of all people summed up a lot of it a while ago....
"Wishing that something would happen
A change in this place
'Cause I'm tearing off the fancy wrapping
Find an empty package
Take for a while
Your trumpet from your lip
Loosen your hold, loosen your grip
On your old ways
That have fallen out of step
In a changing time
Hoist a new flag
Hoist a new flag
Angry sun burn down
Judging us all
Guilty of neglect and disrespect
And thinking small
And death by boredom
And death by greed
If we can't stop taking
More than we need
But across the fractured landscape
I find the same things
Tired ideas
Birds without wings
Birds without wings
Birds without wings
And these are just thoughts
On lack-lustre times
I've no interest
In excuses you can find
Like you've had a hard day
Now you're too tired to care
Now you're too tired to care
You've had a hard day
Well across the fractured landscape
I see the same things
Tired ideas, broken values
Many with the notion
That to share is to lose
A hollow people bound by a lack
Of imagination and too much looking back
Without the courage
To give a new thing a chance
Grounded by this ignorance
(and the cat comes)
We're just
Birds without wings
Birds without wings
Birds without wings"
I really do worry for the kids sometimes. We should do better.