Utopian Refreshment

I AM often asked why I bother to devote so much time and energy to politics when so many people are incapable of independent thought. Believe me, the urge to just walk away and open an old English tea room is overwhelming, but I nonetheless reply with the same answer: "The more people become like us, the better the world will be." I am not, of course, suggesting that we impose our views on people by force, only that it stands to reason that those of us with a specific disposition wish to surround ourselves with people of like-mind and it creates a better ambience. Each new comrade that steps forward from the heaving mass, therefore, helps to tip the scales that little bit further towards the elusive principle of sanity and the closer I get to a chequered tablecloth, a pot of home-made jam, a steaming cup of Earl Grey and a daily selection of subversive literature crammed into the paper rack.