Now, I’m not going to get on my high horse about this; I have failed to vote more times than I care to remember, but my enthusiasm for a particular candidate and the low turnout got me thinking. The first thing to say is the best defence for not voting is laziness, this I respect, it has an honesty that can’t be argued with. Where I now part company with people is when the argument of “not voting because they’re all crooks” is deployed. This does not work. You may pretend that not voting is a protest but nobody cares if you don’t vote, certainly not politicians. Watching Newsnight last night reminded me of the barefaced cheek of politicians. They operate on the twin principles of the conceit that the occasional election is the consent of the people and divide and conquer. Oh, sorry, lets not forget the third principle; lie, lie and lie again.

Oh well, our boy Andy Dumas came a distant second; 625 to Godfrey Daniels 1522 votes. It says a lot about the quality of his campaign that he beat the Conservative and Liberals. It will be interesting to see what he does now, I’ve already volunteered to help with the web side if he decides to stand again. Mind you I’m not sure if he takes me seriously or thinks I’m some sort of strange stalker!

I will, at great personal sacrifice, go down Poor Boys to see how he’s taking it.

Unusually for me I did what I said I would and went searching for the mythical Andy Dumas. Fortunately he turned out to be the owner of Poor Boys so I was able to get a sense of the man as well as well and drunk, ah, the things I have to do as an “ace reporter”.

Andy Dumas turned out to be every bit as good as his pamphlet, in fact a lot better. He was originally an American born in Dallas, Texas and to be honest it’s worth spending and evening at his bar just listening to his stories from that period of his life.

As a potential councilor he was a complete revelation; encyclopedic knowledge of Hastings combined with common sense, the classic American “can do” attitude and a sense of humor, whats not to like?

I spent a couple of hours at Poor Boys talking to him and others around the bar (its that  sort of place) and not once was he evasive or in any way like the classic politician we have come to know and loath in this country.

He is taking on Godfrey Daniels in the election. I have met Godfrey once, my abiding memory of that occasion was, after hearing my opinion that we should strengthen democracy by having many more referendums he said, with the tone of a kindly school master, “Steve, that would be too expensive”. Within a short period of time his party was spending billions “bringing democracy to Iraq” against the obvious wishes of the majority of his fellow citizens. He was a nice man but that remark alone summons up the patrician attitude of the rulers who always know best.

Back to Andy, hes got my vote and I suggest if you’re interested in voting, and you should be, you get down to Poor Boys and check him out in the flesh – democracy and drinking, you know it makes sense!

Andy Dumas, the man, his bar and a snack.

A slightly suspicious thing is that there are no ways to contact Andy Dumas except through a postal address and his blog/website does not allow comments. I might waddle down Poor Boys, where I think he hangs out, he might even own it, and try for a few words to ascertain the cut of his gib. If I do I will report back. Should I wear a trilby with “press” on it?

I picked up this pamphlet from the hall the last night whilst heading out in search for Nivana through wine. I initially thought it was the BNP or some such. For some reason I decided to read it. I had read Godfrey Daniels pamphlet which, to be honest, just insulted my intelligence; I think asinine statements saying you want “better” for Hastings are just a waste of the trees they are printed on. As if anyone would say they wanted to make things worse!

Anyway, this pamphlet turned out to be for an independent candidate Andy Dumas and what a revelation it was. Masses of common sense mixed with what appears to be a genuine desire to listen AND be persuaded. Add to that what looks suspiciously like a sense of humor and he’d got my vote right away.

I might try to see if I can catch him speaking somewere… This is his website: www.thepbflyer.blogspot.com

One of the reasons I don’t “do” politics here usually is that it’s such a complex subject and as I get older I’m wary of the semantic straw men we use in place of thought, it also doesn’t get the laughs. I’m also leaning towards the opinion that any discussion deals mainly with the psychology of the participants and the shared pretence that “facts” are involved is moral cowardice. Surely the one thing the internet has shown us is that there is so much knowledge swilling around that anyone trumpeting their grasp of a situation is, er, a self deluded liar.

One other reason I have is that few people seem that interested and almost nobody is interested in solutions beyond bashing each other with their ignorant “pick and mix” tribal beliefs.

Fast becoming a core belief with me is the concept of “always being wrong”. I am. I have changed my mind over thing so many time throughout my life I am amazed that people can keep the same views for more than a few years, and they do. Why?

Then I realised, there are two reason to gain knowledge, 1: find out something new, 2: validate a held view.

This brings us back to all conversation being about personal psychology. The first reason requires confidence the second is an admission of fear.

I know which I prefer, and you?

One of these is a politician, clue: it’s not the one with a pocket watch.

There are those amongst you who seem to doubt the depth of my absolute wisdom and it must be said you are right for there is one who’s wisdom makes me look like my money was in an Icelandic savings account. I speak of course of Mystic Meg Patrick. Those who have the privilege of knowing him know he has an opinion on all things, er, a bit like my good self, and that he is always right, er, ditto. Better still he is the master of the prediction – the future being an open book to his omnipotent mind. So, in the vein of Moses, I have decided to keep track of these predictions and bring his all-seeing light to the world. From this day on there will be a new category on this blog; “Patricks Predictions”, so we can better know what the future holds in store for us.

The first two are:

• Germany will withdraw from the Euro within a year (or two, a qualification put on later in the conversation). So the date to look out for is 11/10/2009
• Ireland will withdraw from the Euro within three to five years.

We will see…

Look into my eyes, look into my eyes…