Do your politicians make your flesh creep?

I remembered something that a well known politician said a while ago, and it made sense then, it was "you should vote for issues, not for personalities".

But now I have a question, how do I vote if all the candidates make my flesh creep?

Just what do you do when you have no faith in any the policies of any party and have real reservations and doubts concerning the people putting themselves forward as candidates? I don't know, you tell me!

We need ideas not Political Parties

The other day on the Radio someone said "We don't need Political Parties, we need good ideas". I couldn't agree more,

Left, right and centre no longer have meaning

OK, so let's imagine that there are four political parties (and for convenience, let's call them red, yellow, green and blue) and let's further imagine that there are just four great issues (let them be : environmental; educational; health and social care; defence and policing).

The traditional view is that a 'blue-supporter' would choose only blue answers to the four great political issues of the day; likewise a 'green' would only choose the green answers; a 'red', red answers; yellows would of course choose the yellow alternatives. Well this idea does not apply to me and I am sure that it does not apply to a large proportion of the electorate.

I may choose the following combination: 'green environment', 'blue defence and policing', 'yellow health and social care', and 'red education'. Equally, I may choose an alternative combination: 'red environment', 'yellow defence and policing', 'green health and social care', and 'blue education'. Or, even : 'red environment', 'green defence and policing', 'blue health and social care', and 'yellow education'.

Lets think about it, with our little scenario we have sixteen possible combinations.

Just because I like 'blue defence' does not mean that I should like 'blue everything'; equally, if I like 'green environment' it does not mean that I would be happy with 'green everything'!

Actually, why should i, or anyone, like anything that our four imaginary parties put on the table for our consideration?

Think about it, the offerings are really just like those 'one-size-fits-all' garments we've all seen. And, when was the last time 'one-size-fits-all' actually fitted?

Rational Perspective

Firstly, what is a 'rational perspective'? Well, let's look at a couple of definitions, found in more or less any dictionary of your choice, of 'rational' and 'perspective'.

Perspective : a way of regarding facts and their relative importance; in correct proportion.

Rational : sane, intelligent, endowed with reason, agreeable to reason.

Rationalism : a system of belief regulated by reason, not authority.

So, my definition of 'Rational Perspective' is : 'examination using reason not dogma, prejudice, emotion or sentiment'.

So, what is 'dogma'? One definition of 'dogma' is : a settled opinion.

And prejudice? Judgement or opinion formed prematurely or without due consideration of relevant issues; prepossession or bias in favour of or against an issue.

I would like to think that I am using a rational perspective as a basis for the formation of a rationalist's agenda.

Agenda : A list if things to be done

Rationalist : one taking a rational view.

In other words let's use a little logic and thought to decide what should be done. I can hear you ask 'done about what'? Well everything really.