I’m writing this in June and you’re reading this in July. And the General Election may very well be over by now. I really hope it’s gone the right way – if I had to predict the outcome, my money would be on a Labour victory, or possibly a Lab/Lib coalition. 

When talking to my venerable editor about this month’s magazine, I asked if he had any theme, and he said (obviously) that politics seemed likely to feature. I generally don’t write about politics, mostly because I don’t have a thick enough skin to deal with rabid disagreement, and I hate the immoveable and binary right/wrong arguments. When did the elegant skill of discussion and discourse disappear? I blame algorithms, and bubbles, and particularly Twitter. But I digress. 

Growing up, I was led to believe that discussing your political leaning was bad manners. I’m going to guess that this is a painfully middle class thing, saved mostly for the mish-mash of the middle orders where people might vote any which way, but you might not want the Joneses to know your bent. Whereas perhaps in the olden days you could reasonably rely on the working class to vote left, and the poshos to vote right, in the centre it was all to play for, and very much an indicator of your social ambition. 

As social mobility took hold in the 70s, I think perhaps this nouveau bourgeoise practice of not talking about politics was executed by the middle classes to avoid having to stick their flag in the sand. One might want to be upwardly mobile, but not be seen to be abandoning one’s lower-class roots. Or, in a fit of reverse snobbery, have your brats at private school and live in a big house but pretend to be working class, and support the lefties.

Things these days are a lot more fluid. I’m not sure how the class system works in Britain anymore, but it’s not as clear-cut politically. The advent of UKIP, The Reform Party, Brexit, the Greens etc has meant that there’s a lot more choice now. Which is a good thing. A tri-party state is an insane idea anyway, when you think about it. Even more so when you consider it’s mostly whittled down to just two. 

We take a lot of our political cues from our parents. My father, having studied theology as a young man, voted Labour. When he decided the cloth wasn’t for him, and became a business owner, he voted Conservative. Later in life, he voted Green, having become appalled at the state of not just the planet, but also politicians’ behaviour. Politically, I personally feel quite homeless. You’ve seen that meme of a little girl wailing “I don’t want to vote for any of these people.” I feel like that.

If I have to stick my flag in the sand, I think what I’d like is a Lab/Lib coalition, with a good handful of independents in the mix, to represent all interests. Lots of Greens would be nice, with some Monster Raving Loonies, and obviously Lord Buckethead. 

For those of you interested, I’ve just had a look at Ladbrokes, and it’s giving Labour ridic odds. 1/50 Most Seats, and 1/20 Overall Maj, whereas the Conservatives are 25/1 and 40/1 respectively. Interestingly they’ve got Lib Dems to win over 25 seats at 1/8, but no odds for a coalition. 

I’m off down the betting shop to haggle out a bet with them for that right now…