millionreasons | 2010 in Twelve Days

Apparently, there was some kind of election. Nobody won. I surprised myself by caring, particularly as I'd expected Labour to lose the next election since (i) David Cameron took over as leader of the Conservatives and (ii) Gordon Brown took over as Labour leader (not because I thought Brown was awful, but because I believed Blair to be too canny to be presiding over a Labour defeat). At that point, I didn't know that the Tories were going to turn their schtick from Caring Conservatism (sic) to taking advantage of the economic downturn to prune back the public sector to less than zero (that was probably in their plans for their second term).

The rise and fall of Nick Clegg, from hero to zero in a matter of weeks, was pretty interesting. I feel bad for the people who voted Lib to keep a Tory out, but I find it hard to condemn him too much - he's a career politician after all. When the Liberals were positioning themselves to the left of Labour, I did consider voting for them, but there's always been something so icky about them, that I couldn't bring myself to do it. Now I understand that ick.

There were good things - Caroline Lucas winning the first Green seat in Brighton and Nick Griffin not winning the first BNP seat in Barking.

Anyway, I spent my first birthday under a Tory government since my 23rd and we did a little East End tour including the eclectic Dennis Severs' House.

Film: Kiss Me Deadly

TV: Luther.

Stringer on the other side of the law in a somewhat clichéd police procedural complete with estranged wife, drinking habit, maverick intuition, innocent sidekick, Juliet Bravo-esque mockney detective inspector, protagonist-hating police chief and Idris Elba, mooching magnificently around with his sexy Sarf London accent. Ironic that Mr Elba moved to the US because there weren't enough good parts for black actors in the UK (Patterson and Kwame had got them all) and then, because of the Wire's success, the Beeb have created this drama around him – he's carrying the whole thing. If they'd got in, say, James Nesbitt, it would have been pretty awful. It's less the British Wire and more the urban, gritty Morse. Oddly no-one mention Luther's race – on one hand it's good that a show about a black cop isn't about him being black, but on the other, I'm sure some of the bad men Luther comes across would not all be, shall we say, post-racial.

Song: Plastic Bag from Tescos - The Wilderness Children. This song got into my head and wouldn't leave. Perhaps because it's a song of nostalgia, perhaps it's the rush of the guitars. I hate the title though, it should be called On the West Coast.

Day Out: Leigh on Sea

Holiday: Edinburgh, where they refused to take me in as asylum seeker.