Move over, Wally. Where’s Boris?

    Hello, lovelies. 

         We did it. Another Christmas is over. We shopped. Wrapped the mountain of presents. Prepared the food. Ate all the food. But mostly, we all managed to enjoy that time with our family and friends, albeit in a socially distanced way. We followed the rules. Well, we’re used to it after nearly two years of doing everything we were told to do. But with the new year looming, now is the time to look to the future. To embrace everything that 2022 can throw at us. And, to be honest, it can’t be any worse than the past two years. So, as we embrace our not too predictable new years eve, can we, hand on heart, say what the new rules are? Can we rely on those set to lead us to be standing front and centre showing the safe way forward? Or is it a case of forget Where’s Wally, because he can always be found, to where’s Boris, who has the amazing ability disappear at the first sign of trouble. 

       I haven’t been able to write a blog for a very long time. Not because I didn’t want to, but because life, love and laundry got in the way, and before I knew it, I was weeks and weeks over due to write a blog. I know that I should have budgeted my time better, and that all work and no play never end’s well for me. And with all the catchy titles of my up and coming blogs buzzing around my head, I just knew that I had to buckle down, put my grown-up priorities first before I could ever sit down to write anything. And that isn’t always an easy pill to swallow. I found myself plotting out my ideas, thinking of new ways to expand my readership, but deep down I knew that I needed to put down that side of my life and make sure that I was up to date with all the adult things that happen when I act like a real grown-up. But I did it. I have almost caught up with all the dull boring things, so I can sit down in front of my computer and do the thing I love to do. And that got me thinking. As an adult, do we always have to put down the things we love to do all the things that we need to do? And what is the price of hiding when we really need to stand up and be counted on? And those in power, should they ever be able to do the things they want or for them does the power come with some serious responsibility?

       According to Plato, those who seek power are not worthy of that power. And I think that throughout history it has shown to be true. Time and time again, we’ve seen that the people who would do anything to attain power, will do anything to get what they want. And sadly, it never ends well. Not necessarily for the person, but most certainly for everyone else. We have all experienced power dynamics in our lives, whether we’re aware of it or not. The world is driven by people or groups of people seeking to gain power. But why? 

         To understand why some of us want power it is necessary to first understand the meaning of the word. Power is the level of control one has over an interaction. It can be as simple as jumping the checkout queue to two countries signing a treaty. And, like most things, that power is not always permanent. Our power can change from situation to situation, and even moment to moment. Someone who has all the power in one situation, can lose it in the next. A good analogy is that power is like a mountain. Every time people interact, they move up or down, the powerful moving higher than the people they dominate. 

          Now, I’m not saying that all those who seek power want to dominate over the rest of us, but with power comes responsibility. In the wrong hands, power has led to discrimination, climate change, the ever-expanding pay gap and pay disparage to name just a few. And, the thing with power is that it is addictive. The more you have the more you want. And as the old saying goes, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If the person in charge only wants the all the power with none of the responsibilities, say, if someone growing up wanted to be king of the world, then history tells us that we are in a very dangerous situation. 

         So, walking into this challenging and ever-changing future, what we really need is for those in power to know what they are doing. To have the resources and prowess to help guide and support the many not just the hand picked few. None of us want to live in a nanny state, but what we really do need is for the elected official not to run away and hide when the going gets tough. I can’t do it. If I slack off and hide, I could lose my jobs or worse, my home. So why, at the precipice of 2022 do we have a leader in full power over our small and broken country that runs away and hides as we waited to hear the updates on whether there would be new restrictions before the New Year with Covid cases on the rise. Not only did he run away, he left the imbecile health secretary in charge of announcing no further coronavirus-related rules. Is this what we need and deserve? 

        We have all suffered, and need a long time to recover after Covid, but we deserve better, so much better than Bojo has delivered. We need a leader not a coward. So, let’s make 2022 the year to stand up and be counted. And let those in power know that they’re not walking up that mountain anymore. They’re most definitely on the way down.

Where is our priminater