This evening Jayne and I went along to the Labour group meeting where they discussed this week's council meeting.  There is a standing invitation for candidates in elections to go along and see how it all works, buy Jayne had always had something else clashing with group meetings previously so this was her first chance to take up the invitation.

I just went along for the ride, as its all too familiar to me.

I might even go along to the real meeting on Wednesday just to really convince myself that some things never change.  As it is the last meeting before the elections I can imagine how it will go – the same way it always does just before an election.

There will be a lot of point-scoring and posturing. Most amusing will be the huge amount of playing to the gallery, while the gallery will consist of rows of empty seats – those few members of the public who turn up will mostly drift off after public questions, leaving a few interested parties and political activists who are not likely to have their minds changed.  Best of all, the reporters for the local paper will have lost interest and/or the will to live after an hour anyway and might slip away too, but still they will be queueing on both sides to ham it up for the imaginary crowds.

If I should be successful in my attempts to bring socialism to Pound Hill North (just imagine being a Catholic missionary in Tehran) I am going to promise myself not to end up like that.  Last time round on the council my policy was only to speak if I had something to add to a debate, so I didn't speak very often since I had got everything out of my system in the committees and didn't feel the need to repeat it all when that committee reported to the council, and that will be my approach if I find myself back there.