Land of the Bland

I cannot believe how nervous I am about starting this blog. I want people to read it but I feel somehow totally inadequate. Is this normal?

So why am I doing it? Five years ago if somebody had asked me to describe myself, 'laid back,' would have been in that description somewhere. So why is it that my kids now call me the 'grumpy old man' or, even worse, the 'educational bore'? Perhaps, because that is exactly what I am.

 I am now older than the PrimeMinister, okay only by a few months, still it marks a new phase. I can remember being young enough to still consider professional football a possible career choice and now even the job of Prime Minister has passed me by! How did that happen?

What the disappearing decades do give you is perspective and in a world where sound bite policy making has become de rigueur then perhaps perspective is required more than ever. Also, politics has become the domain of the mundane, of  those too frightened of the tabloid press to express an insightful or 'heaven forbid' conviction held  opinion. Where is the meaningful oppositon in the 'land of the bland?' This has to come from us, the mere mortals in this world who strive to make a real difference whilst making sense of the political rhetoric too readily made into policy.