The anti-Alternative Vote campaign featuring Nick Clegg sums up the utter fatuousness of British democracy and makes you wonder why the Arabs are even bothering with their great awakening.
The very fact we're being forced into a referendum on such a non-essential, unimportant and self-servingly political issue in the first place shows how out of touch Westminster is with the mood of the nation.
The No campaigners then decide to rub our noses it even further by not even bothering to spell out the positive reasons why we should listen to them - the debatable benefits it will bring to the House of Commons, its tendency to produce guaranteed hung Parliaments.
Instead they turn it into a playground spat about whether or not people like Nick Clegg. Not even Nick Clegg - an imaginary President Clegg.
We elect our politicians, by whatever means, so they can make decisions on our behalf. Especially decisions about politics.
So why don't they go ahead and make them instead of wasting millions of pounds on something only a tiny proportion of people give a monkey's about?
Forget the big issues about immigration, education, the health service, bankers' bonuses and if anybody is going to be able to afford to retire before they're 80.
No - what politicians think people really want to go to the polls about is a voting system.
Well do they? We should have a referendum on it.
This is an edited version of a speech I gave in the car this morning after seeing the poster on the A4.
Whhoo ! What happened to birds, lyricism, relaxed contemplation ??? Everything alright ?
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