The best way to describe my pal John would be as a right wing socialist, if it is possible for such a thing.I got to know John at the Walsall Heartcare gym which is a charitable organisation set up to help those who have recovered from heart attacks or other heart problems, also those such as me who have recovered from strokes, I had a stroke in November 2016.
As you can guess from the reason the gym exists the majority of its patrons are grey haired old flatulent's, in fact it is a more like an old geezers social club as there is a lot of banter amongst its regulars as they take the mickey out of each others football teams when they loose.However, as John and I have never had much interest in blokes kicking a ball around, or any other sports, we tend to talk about politics and how to put the world to rights while we puff and peddle away on our gym bikes.
John in his youth joined the Communist Party but soon realised what an error that was and then followed his father into the Labour Party, but now in his eighties he is very disillusioned with all politicians.When we get together twice a week for our gym sessions he always has a moan about that "Tory old Etonian posh boy Boris", he was not too impressed when I let him know, after 22 years in UKIP, I had joined the Conservative Party to support Boris to 'Get Brexit done', which I was very pleased to see him do after all the shenanigans in Parliament when the pro-EU MPs did everything they could to block the democratic will of the people.However, since then I have steadily become less impressed.
Boris has to be applauded for the way he handled Covid, which was a situation no living person had ever lived through or imagined.Plagues such as this, after all, are things that happened in medieval times, not in these days.Since then it is his obsession with the uncertain science of global warming and plans to make life hell for for the average person with the phasing out of petrol and diesel vehicles to be replaced by inconvenient and highly expensive electric cars.The same too with replacing efficient gas boilers with ineffectual and extremely expensive heat pumps, all for nothing as the UK is one of the worlds least polluting nations.
Because of all this I wrote a letter to Boris Johnson and posted it to Downing Street to let him know why I was letting my two years as a Conservative Party member lapse at the end of October 2021.I informed him:
"I am approaching my 74th year on this planet and over that time have witnessed seasons come and go.I have experienced glorious summers and biting cold winters, I have also experienced over the years long wet, and cold summers and mild winters, that is the way the climate is, it is constantly varying.Floods and natural disasters go back all though history, these are nothing new and nothing to do with the myth of global warming.In fact it is well known the Romans were growing grapes in Northumberland as the climate then was much warmer than now - that could not be blamed on emissions from vehicles, industry and gas boilers."I'm still awaiting a reply to my letter dated 24th October 2021.
This now leaves me, for the first time since initially becoming politically active when I joined the Referendum Party in 1996, without a political party to support or be a member of.I still have a yearning for UKIP which I gave 22 years of my life to, I have some very fond memories of my time as a UKIP member, candidate and activist, also of many of the truly good people I met in those days, plus a good number of the awkward squad which UKIP seamed to have more than its fair share of, but what is the point of going back?
I am now like a lot of the people I met during my years of campaigning in elections, a great many would politely listen to me while I explained what UKIP's aims were, who would more than often reply: "I would like to vote for you but it is a wasted vote as you can't win", to which I would reply: "If everyone who said that to me had voted for me I would now be in Parliament".Sadly, I know all too well the truth of those words, which was the very reason I joined the Conservative Party as it was the only Party, under Boris, which could achieve Brexit and, hopefully, give me the bonus of getting shot of my appalling pro-EU Labour MP who, despite well over 60% of her constituents voting for Brexit, was one of those in Parliament who did everything to block Brexit against the wishes of those she allegedly represented.
So here I am on the horns of a dilemma, who do I vote for when the next general election is called?In the local elections I will vote for whichever one of my three Conservative ward councillors is up for re-election as, apart from the fact I know them well, they have all been excellent Councillors.But what to do in the general election?
Do I hold my nose and vote Conservative as the only means of being shot of my useless Labour MP and to ensure we do not have another destructive Labour Government?Just looking at the leading figures in the Labour Party sends a cold shiver down my back.Or do I vote for one of the smaller parties such as my old party, UKIP, the Reform Party or the Reclaim Party, should they put a candidate up in my constituency?None of them can win but at least I would have voted with my heart.I really don't know.
Many others will, no doubt, be struggling with the same problem too.Those three smaller parties may stand a better chance and get many more votes plus a lot of much needed publicity if they merged and became one.After all, they all stand for many of the same things, they are anti-woke, they stand for freedom of speech and small governments to allow people to get on with their lives without government interference.
I still have time to ponder the question of where to place my vote when the time comes, but it is a decision I will have to face when standing in the polling booth with the stubby pencil hovering over my ballot paper.However, if UKIP, Reform and Reclaim merge to become one large strong party it will get my vote - I bet John would vote for it too.