THERE was one voice of reason to be heard, loud and clear, this week.
No, it wasn’t the Prime Minister, Theresa May.
It was Brenda, a 75-year-old pensioner from Bristol.
In one moment of passionate, commanding clarity, she expressed an opinion that resonated with a beleaguered and tormented electorate.
Someone who, in just a few seconds, spoke for the whole of the UK.
She neatly hit the nail on the head and summed up our feelings.
A refreshing flicker of light in the void. A total star.
After the PM’s announcement on Tuesday that there will be a snap General Election on June 8, Brenda was interviewed outside her home by the BBC’s John Kay.
The retired secretary didn’t hold back.
“Your joking! Not another one?” she screeched.
“Oh, for God’s sake, I can’t stand this. There’s too much politics going on at the moment.
“Why does she need to do it?”
Why indeed, Brenda.
Well, we know the reasons why. And if I was the PM I would have probably done the same. But I’m not. Nor are 99.99999% of the electorate who are now sick to the back teeth of politicians and their almost annual elections.
Geeza break! Why can’t they all take a year out? The PM likes her walks, so why doesn’t she take her gaggle of sycophants and take a hike –around the globe.
They could beach out in Goa or bed down in a Tibetan monastery. Or go off-grid in the Gobi Desert.
Anything but assault our eyes and ears for the next seven weeks with electioneering full of negative campaigning, bickering and bile, backstabbing and baby-kissing smothered in condescending pomposity.
By June 9, the Scottish electorate will have taken part in one council, one European, one Scottish Government and two UK General Elections as well as a referendum on Scottish Independence and of course last year’s UK European referendum.
That’ll be seven elections in three years.
Voter fatigue doesn’t come close to describing how knackered we all are.
Doesn’t the PM realise we have more important things to think about?
Unlike politicians, we have proper jobs to do?
We don’t have the time to keep traipsing down to the polling station every time they can’t make their own minds up.
The only thing I welcomed this week from PM May was when she announced she wouldn’t be taking part in any TV debates.
The very thought of watching them set about each other again is a political Groundhog Day that gives me the heebee-jeebees.
One thing is for sure – I would never play a game of cards with Theresa May.
She is queen of the political deck, refined in the art of lying in wait, ready to pounce the moment her opponents blink.
But maybe, just maybe, she has dealt herself the buckled hand and as a result, like many of her predecessors, she will find herself on the political scrap heap.
But be that as it May, this week belongs not to the Prime Minister, but to the magnificent, heroic straight-talking no-nonsense Brenda.
She summed perfectly up in seven seconds what many will feel after the next seven gruelling weeks.
If only she would stand for parliament, she would definitely get my vote.
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