28 May (Part 2) - Sixty years of elections
My suggestion that I had
a personal voting intention swingometer is not a very good analogy as it
implies that it could move to the left, but that is never going to happen.
Instead it quivers violently somewhere near the middle with occasional lurches
to the right while the suspension hook might snap off at any moment and send the
whole contraption crashing to the ground. (A spoiled paper!)
Meanwhile here is a picture from 16th October 1964 as Marjorie and I sat
listening to my transistor radio as the General Election results came in and both of us
becoming more depressed at the news. I think that radio will be in the roof
somewhere. A red leatherette covered wooden box. I really must start to clear
out all the old junk but it was a circa 1957 birthday present from a favourite aunt.
Marjorie came from Southend and had been working at that
telephone exchange desk since before I was born. We went from the prosperous
“You never had is so good” to “the [devalued] pound in your pocket” and
eventually cap in hand to The International Monetary Fund for a bale out!
Madness is repeating the mistakes of the past expecting a different outcome.