We live in a place that is a candidate for Utopia.
My parents always hoped I would settle here in the Cotswolds. The hills are gentle and caressing. The honey coloured stones of its small towns and villages are sculpted into houses in the folds of the valleys in a way that makes them seem a part of nature.
A publisher friend in our town likes to remark that England is the best country in the world in which to live, and C…….y is the best place to live in England. Various cultural surveys have confirmed this assessment.
At the heart of the town is its only school. There was a secondary school once, but that has long gone. The Anglican Church membership has recovered, under the guidance of the muscular (if not quite brainless) Christianity of a woman who everyone swears was the model for the Vicar of Dibley.
But the real heart of the community is the primary school. In this place, dreams of Utopia began to be replaced with a nightmare Blairy dystopia. (the spell check asks if I want to replace Blairy)
I was idyllically happy here for the first few months after arrival in 1992. The view from home onto ancient forest land was stunning. I was about to become a father again. My professional work was flourishing. The wheel of my fortunes had almost reached its zenith.
13 years on, the magic still remains in the countryside, the buildings, the friendliness of people in the street, the gentle climate. But the underlying social dynamics are very disturbing. The neo-conservatives are becoming the dominant group. The balance between the individual, the family, and the state is undermined.
At least, that was the story as I described it a few months back.
Suddenly, to my great surprise, the school's head has resigned. No formal reasons have been given. Those of us who were on the point of removing our children have an opportunity to rethink the situation.
Things could get worse. But now there is a chance for the situation to turn around.
We have a choice. We can contribute to an improvement.
However, we do not have much in the way of choice in the National election. Many people will not bother to vote. Labour will be elected with a big majority. But there will be more people who did not vote than people who voted labour. We need proportional representation, like all the rest of Europe, so our votes can mean something.
The only way to remove the conservatives here would be for David Cameron to cross the floor as his predecessor did. That will not happen, even though Cameron writes for the Guardian.
As Policy co-ordinator of the current team, Cameron cannot be badly placed for a tilt at the leadership when Howard is staked out. He is a very able man and a good constituency MP. He is talking about increasing parent power in education and alternative ways of teaching our children.
But his party may be on the way into history, as its mainly elderly supporters die out.
They were out in large numbers voting this morning, though. Round here there are many over ninety and still walking. The Liberal Democrats will take second place. Only in the County Council election will Brian Hodgson win for Labour by dint of hard work.
