Come back Mrs Pritchard, all is forgiven

Today I spent the best part of my afternoon delivering Labour Party leaflets and 2007 calendars (yes, I know it's April but apparently that's local politics for you). I have to confess that I had a minor existential crisis as I wondered whether those people with the 'no junk mail' signs on their doors would consider my little offering junk or not. The truth is, I had a sneaking suspicion it was.

I'm really confused about this... after all, I ridiculed the Tories at their last party conference (all cigars and champagne and no policy), I laugh (quietly, I don't want to lose my job after all) at the old Whig-type Conservatives that run the council I work for part-time. And yet my recent foray into local Labour politics made me realise that the left isn't much better these days. It's equally full of socially awkward people, it's equally focused on who's hot and who's not rather than what actually matters, and it's equally tedious to *anyone* whose identity isn't defined by 'being in politics'.

In this, I concur fully with The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (was I the only one who loved that programme?) and her Purple Alliance - an average woman who declared 'I could do a lot better than that lot' - and proceeded to knock the politicking, posturing and pretence out of politics. Shame it was a BBC drama rather than real life. I'm just so frustrated by how disconnected political parties now seem to our everyday experiences - whatever clever David Miliband has to say about the need for more people power - and my leaflet session today made me wonder whether party politics has had its day. But if that's my conclusion then I'm really scared: without politics, what are we left with? Who and how would we make really difficult decisions about the things that affect us all?

This plays out at a personal level as well: do I bother to stay involved, tolerating loser local political hacks, wasting precious Thursday evenings sitting around in community halls? Why is it that everyone finds it funny that I'm even vaguely involved? Why aren't any of the people I really admire and respect playing a more active role as politicians and councillors themselves? Should I take a stand and invest precious time and energy in convincing my friends that we have a responsibility to get involved? Or should I spend more time moaning about the death of politics and trying to bring about change in different, frankly more enjoyable ways?