All in the Family

It's been an 'Ancient and Modern' week ... and nothing to do with hymn-singing!  It saw a fairly regular gathering of three 'ancients' who struggle to understand and live successfully in the modern world ... as I visited my cousin and her husband on the outskirts of Nottingham.

As usual, we chatted, watched lots of TV - a pleasure for me since I don't have one - and reminisced.  I appreciated the skilful script-writing behind episode after episode of 'Dad's Army', including some I hadn't seen before; enjoyed the larks and amusing situations in 'Last of the Summer Wine' and bemoaned the passing of Compo and his slack-stockinged heart-throb Nora Batty.

With some surprise, we compared the extent to which, as age advances, we've noticed behaviour traits we've inherited from our parents.  This shouldn't surprise us, of course, but since each of us considers that our lives have move on so far from those of the previous generation, it did come as something of a shock.

Naturally, we don't agree on everything, but we accept the differences as part of life and enjoy each other's company and support.  I've been persuaded to stand as a candidate in the coming local council election and during my break my agent called to enquire my stand on foxhunting.  I explained my views with an attempt at honesty, but they met with rejection, for they truly please neither adamant animal rights campaigners nor those who ride to hounds.  Reflecting later on this, I realised how each of these unconnected situations reflect the origins of my political allegiance.

Back in the seventies, when I was setting out in my adult life, I came to despair of politicians.  They seemed to spend far more time tearing each other apart, or dismantling what their opponents had put in place, than on moving the country forward or helping its people in their daily lives.  There was in their midst, however, a glimmer of commonsense.  This was displayed by the 'other' party, the Liberals, who were prepared to agree with any snippet from either side when it made sense and, unlike the bigger parties, had no obvious party axe to grind.  I joined then, but soon enthusiasm waned as family and business life demanded more attention, and my membership lapsed.

I was pleased when, in the first peacetime coalition for eighty years, the Liberals - now Liberal Democrats of course - once more had a voice in government.  I was heartened, but only in an armchair fashion.  However, after the dramatic setback of the 2015 general election, I decided that the time had come to stand up and be counted, and joined the party the very next day.  The sad thing for me is the limit to which I can now get involved owing to slight mobility problems, which are aggravated by excessive walking, but a name on a ballot paper is well within my compass.

Just as in visiting my true family, it's good at last to feel part of my political family, too.