Well Done England!

It's been a while...

Lots of reasons for that but most of them in no way germane to the kind of schtick we normally purvey up here in Croppy Towers.

And as we're on the subject, exactly what kind of schtick was this questionable organ peddling in any event?

Looking back, a lot of it was probably sub-Brand polemic at best, based on the warm but woolly notion that somehow, there was still cause for optimism when it came to relying on the human capacity for empathy. But of course, as Nick Cave has rightly pointed out (and not today nor yesterday); 'People ain't no good'. But that of course is no reason stop giving a damn. You're all a bunch of wankers but I'd never see you in trouble if I could help it. Misanthropic philanthropy; probably more common than you'd imagine.

Looking down the barrel of another five years of the Tories without even the ineffectual sandbag of the Liberals to temper their excesses, I got to thinking...who the fuck voted for these shameless bastards?

Of course we can always blame old people, they're much more likely to vote Tory, or so goes the received wisdom on these matters. But that's the thing, we already know that coffin-dodgers vote for them, and let's be clear about this; they were pretty much the only people voting for them at the height of the Blair era and that's why they lost time and again.

Now?...Well it's a different story. It's not just old people with an eye on their pensions and Bobbies in the beat who betrayed the nation at the ballot box this time around. There was one editorial in the aftermath that got it dead right. They described it as 'a triumph of quiet conservatism' and they were right.

Why though are they quiet? Are they living a lie? Could it be that we have some kind of hipster Tory fifth column living in our midst? Behind their lumbersexual beards and faux eclectic tattoos, could it be that there's a whole tribe that live in fear of their mates (who they'll jettison anyway once they can't keep up on the earning and consumption stakes) calling them out as grabby mainstream poseurs?

Perhaps not.

But one thing's certain, there's a lot of silent Tories out there and it's just terribly sad that they keep voting for something which they are too ashamed to speak about publicly.