Well, a journey of a thousand steps etc etc. I’m an elected politician, a party politician, a Labour politician and have been for many years. I always mange to be on the other side of the argument with the leadership of my party, so always an outsider, but ‘good’ enough to have positions of responsibility but never the ears of the inner circle. Which can be annoying, frustrating, depressing, whichever description you want to apply, especially as we now have a Labour government (“why don’t you do this ?”). Also worrying in a time when we have right wing populism whipping up the storm.

Hence the ‘glass darkly’, the imperfect view of what’s going on, and the inability to meaningfully influence what is going on. Jus a little pessimism.

& yes, I did consider ‘ though the looking glass’, as gazing at a fantasy dystopia might also have worked. But not quite, there is still a smidgin of optimism still here.

So, time to start writing & sharing.