I don’t profess to be an authority on current affairs, in fact an ex girlfriend once labelled me pig ignorant. But, switching on the radio occasionally while stripping a pathetically small square of wallpaper in my tiny spare room, I see how, since my return to the UK I have become clueless with regards to our politics. I came back to a world where UK politics was soon to become laughable and US politics quite the opposite. It was fun wasn’t it when Bush was president, if you were able to ignore the threat of global conflict each time dear old George put his foot in it or lined up his pawns on someone else’s chess board, and concentrate on the hours of side splitting bloopers that played on TV.

Now all I hear is squabbles over expense claims, porn videos, swimming pools or light bulbs. Funny, I thought Politicians were supposed to sort out Britain, but now it seems they are ‘honourably’ wasting huge amounts of time setting up independent audits to check to see if their fellow MPs are behaving. Before the end of some monologue backed by ‘here heres’ or guffawing in Westminster has ended, I have usually switched the radio off again, preferring the sound of the dripping gutter outside the window, the smell of a good curry seeping in from next door via the gap under the skirting board.

Travelling through Latin America there are two things one never escapes from; politics, and religion, not always in that order. Whether I was pedalling through a tiny village and offered food by a kindly old woman, or through a metropolis and invited to dine with some wealthy aristocrats, I would be asked if I was religious, and politics would often be discussed (Bush was often mentioned in the context of Britain, perhaps not so much of a misunderstanding in reality!). I find both subjects interesting and thought provoking, until they’re rammed down my throat by an un-listening fanatic. “Why must I follow God?” I often heard myself saying after someone insisted I must before it’s too late. “Come and demonstrate with us” others would say in the context of some political manifestation or campaign. Often I had problems with their ethics or their logic or whatever, but that’s not the point. The point, to me, is that these people were very far from being apathetic, and if I stepped back from the situation, I liked it, I liked the passion and the determination to follow what they believed was right. Looking back in time at certain memorable events, its clear to see blind belief has not always resulted in works of good, but I still ask myself which is better; an impassioned person that is prepared to spend days travelling to a polling station to vote for someone they believe will bring good, or an apathy that leads to us saying ‘they’re all the same these politicians’, ‘it makes no difference who we vote for’? Is it because we are too comfortable, it’s been so long since we have experienced a real, profound need for change?

All I really know, given my level of ignorance and tendency to get on my soap box armed with insufficient grey matter, is that coming back from a continent where people seemed to believe in things feels different to what I am experiencing now, and I miss it.