We are rapidly approaching kiss the baby season.
I refer to the run up to the election campaigns which will probably start in earnest at the beginning of the new year: “the time when politicians’ fancy lightly turns to thoughts of power (or losing it)”: apologies to Tennyson for destroying his lovely thought. It is the time when rarely seen politicians appear on the streets greeting the very people they have been studiously ignoring for the last three and a half years. All of a sudden, you are interesting and they want to know your thoughts, listen to your opinions and, of course, kiss the metaphorical baby, otherwise referred to as your derriére.
It is the time when dreams of power surface like the brown scum on the beaches in the height of summer, where those in power pray like the gambler at the roulette table who has committed everything on Number 8 Red, right down to the shoes he is wearing. It is the time when new parties, who have done nothing to help the population, nor have done anything wrong, obviously, sell their snake oil promising that it can cure anything from tropical diseases to Haemorrhoids even though it has never been tested on anyone. It is the time when recycled losers reinvent themselves promising to do what they never did when they had the chance. It is the time when foreign residents will continue to be ignored because, in the experience of the politicians, they don’t vote, and therefore don’t count.
You may say I’m a hypocrite, as no doubt I will be participating in some of these activities. I was told recently that election campaigns now need to get underway. My answer to that was that my election campaign started in July 2019 where I was determined to connect with as many of the International residents as possible, make myself available and try to support them in every way I could given the limitations of being in opposition. I don’t plan to change tack now by ignoring my work and focussing on getting into power. You know what? I have done my best to make the Internationals feel they are closer to the seat of power and decision making, to act as a bridge between those in power and the people of Mijas. If that hasn’t been enough, and hasn’t been valued, so be it. I’ll go back to teaching after the 2023 elections.
I am not in the position, as those in government are, to offer sweeteners, do favours, and to promise “there’s more where that came from” , with a sideways wink easily mistaken for a nasty tick. I will get behind the electoral programme presented by my party, but will also offer more of the same whatever happens next year.
I will be out there meeting you, finding out what you want, but just don’t expect me to kiss your derriére.
