The election campaign is in full swing now, with the parties unveiling their manifestoes last week. Even the Monster Raving Looney Party brought out theirs a couple of days ago. They deserve a few votes for sheer nerve. Hell, I’d vote for them if they had a candidate standing in my constituency. At least they’re different.

“The problem with people today is apathy,” I say, when someone asks me to explain why voter turnout is so low. I’m the same myself; in 2001, I voted for no-one, despite it being my first general election. In council/by-elections, I’ve not voted. What would be the point? I never knew anything about politics, nor anything about the people standing. They didn’t do much to get their point across to me, either. A poster saying “Vote Joe Bloggs!” doesn’t really provide much information, does it?

Of course it’s different with the general election. We know about Labour, and the Tories, and the Lib Dems, and possibly even some of the fringe parties. Except, you’re not really voting for them, are you? Your vote goes to the person you want to represent you in your local constituency. You should select the person you think will do the best job. I don’t know of anyone who actually votes this way though; they base their decision on the party manifestoes. I say manifestoes, I really mean the media. Opinions are formed by the newspapers and TV shows for a lot of people.

So in the end, it comes down to a choice between the parties, not the people. What’s the difference between them though? Party A says they’ll improve this, that and the other, whilst reducing taxes. Party B says Party A won’t improve this, that and the other, and their spending plan will reduce the country’s economy to ruin. Party B say they’d do a much better job, whilst Party A say the exact opposite. Party C sits there and says both Party A and Party B are wrong, but A & B just ignore C because he gate-crashed the party, and if they ignore him he might just go away.

The Liberal Democrats are doing their best to present themselves as the Real Alternative™. Good luck to them – at least they’re honest. “We want to spend more on the NHS, police, and schools. This will cost money of course, so we’ll raise taxes, but only on rich people, since they can afford it.” Oh dear, fatal error. Increase taxes? Tsk, don’t you know you’re supposed to lie about that part, and instead introduce stealth taxes! God forbid we elect a Government that tells us the truth.

So it comes down to a choice between A, B or C. If there’s one thing we all know, however, it’s that no matter who is in power, we’ll all continue much the same, we’ll be paying out more and more of our earnings, and we’ll all complain about this, that and the other.

“Apathy is on the rise!” I cry, but they just shrug their shoulders. Nobody cares.

You’ll probably notice from the calendar on the right that updates to this blog are relatively few and far between. I intended it to somewhat stand apart from the stereotypical blog and keep it more for short, opinionated pieces of writing, a voice on whatever issue was on my mind at the time. Often these thoughts would enter my head but swiftly leave again before I had a chance to put them in words, not least because I usually thought about them whilst drunk.

I’ve decided, therefore, to shift focus somewhat, and write more general pieces. Not everything will be about an issue. I shall, from time to time, simply write about anything at all. Perhaps about how much I would like to return to New Zealand, or the problems with working in Solihull for a month. Actually, I lied up there. I won’t write about simply anything. I don’t think anyone is particularly interested in the ins and outs of my daily life, so I won’t treat this as a diary (I’m still not sure how people can be comfortable putting absolutely everything about themselves online, nor why people actually read these – though I suspect it’s the same reason Big Brother was, amazingly, not a complete failure even after a few series…). Hopefully everything will be somewhat interesting, occasionally entertaining and thought provoking, and on special occasions, such as the fourth Saturday after a full moon blocks out the Sun and causes a rain of fish and caterpillars, even amusing. Well, it can’t hurt to try.

So there’s a new Pope then. Benedict XVI was elected last night in a manner much in keeping with the old Roman Republic – democratically, but from a very small electorate. Still, not that I can find complaint here, it’s up to the Catholics how they choose their new leader. One of the very first things the new pontiff* talked about was ‘the dictatorship of relativism’.

Sometime last year, I attended a few meetings/lectures from the Christian Union at university. This might surprise some people, since I had outright rejected Catholicism many years ago, and settled on a far more Eastern outlook on spirituality (in particular Taoism, with smatterings of Zen). However, I was very much interested in how Christians thought, particularly those that found God themselves rather than being brought up that way, as I was. Two of my close friends were amongst this group, and I had many metaphysical arguments with them – one of the advantages of discussing theology with physics students.

This particular lecture was on the subject of relativism. As I understand it, this is the term used by Christians to describe the idea that everyone can coexist, that all religions and creeds are acceptable together. They believe, of course, that their religion is right (as do most religions, to be fair) and so that other beliefs are not only incorrect, but intolerable. This leads to a form of persecution by conversion – everyone needs to be ‘saved’ and shown the way of the ‘true’ God.

OK, so not everyone is this way, and there are many, many arguments against what I have just said. It’s a somewhat twisted view, but it’s not entirely untrue. It’s just one of those things that just doesn’t sit right with me, with regards to the rest of the Christian teaching. There are too many contradictions, and I don’t mean the usual nit-picking that most people come up with from the bible, more broad principles. Be kind and respectful to everyone – except for their beliefs if they differ from yours…

Still, a 78 year old Pope? He’s not going to have an overly long innings, and that will send Nostradamus followers crazy with songs of Armageddon…

* Incidentally, I find this term very interesting from a historical point of view. The term ‘pontiff’ derives from the Roman office of ‘pontifex maximus’, the high priest of Rome. This was more a political office then a religious one, a job for life, and one held by one of the most famous Roman, Julius Caesar. We all know what happened there…

Just a quick note to mark the 16th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. There's been a lot of talk recently about Heysel because of the Juventus tie, which has somewhat overshadowed the continuing fight by the Hillsborough Justice Campaign.

Justice for the 96. You'll Never Walk Alone.