2012 And Some Things Never Change

So 2012 has arrived and a couple of things stand out.

Scousers are still wallowing in self pity, this time about something somebody is alleged to have said to Margaret Thatcher about letting the place rot in the early 1980s. Instead her government spent millions and millions on the crap hole, but still they whine and whinge and wallow in victimhood.

Secondly Arsene Wenger is whining that the referee cost his team three points at Fulham last night, nothing to do with his dodgy defence, oh no, it was the referee. I'm just amazed Wenger has never managed Liverpool, they seem made for each other.

Over Christmas I've been pondering the state of politics and reached a couple of bizarre conclusions. I've decided Clegg was right to go into government with the Conservatives. I don't like it, I don't like it at all but what was the alternative? Ignoring the nightmare option of a LabLibDem government it would have meant the Lib Dems sitting on their bums on the backbenches like they have for almost a century, firstly as Liberals latterly as LibDems, with no influence just giving us the occasional belly laugh. So what did LibDem voters want? Their MPs just warming a green bench and nothing else or an MP who at least has strong influence and maybe a little power? It's called living in the real world.

Then I looked back at the last year, much of which I had spent wondering about a new political party, maybe being formed or maybe starting one. That option looks increasingly bleak sadly, so what do we do those of us who might be regarded as right of centre? There isn't a realistic party at the moment that we could join, so over Christmas I wondered about rejoining the Tories, as some I know have done. Is it better to sit on the sidelines sniping or better to get in and try to make a difference?

Let's be honest the only political party with a chance of standing up to the EU is the Conservative Party. But it needs large enough numbers of us to get back involved. We can all stand by our ideological purity and bang on about the EU from within a minor, largely irrelevant party or pressure group, or we can actually get stuck in within a party that could make a difference. As with Clegg and the Coalition it's about making tough decisions in the real world.

But then every time I think I might rejoin the Tories I hear Cameron come out with some bland soundbite and can't help thinking that some things never change.