DARK days for parliament and if ever there was a time where the maxim “power corrupts” was held true it has been these past few weeks.

James Marston

DARK days for parliament and if ever there was a time where the maxim “power corrupts” was held true it has been these past few weeks.

Scandal after scandal has been uncovered - by the print media, I hasten to add - leaving people like you and me somewhat furious at our entire political class.

Not only has our hard-earned cash gone to buy chandeliers and pay non-existent mortgage interest, we are now being told that thanks to the behaviour of our MPs our democracy itself is at risk.

This is a serious charge but one which I suspect is slightly over-egged with MPs and party leaders hiding behind the threat of far right and far left political gains in a desperate bid to shore up what little support they and their ilk retain.

Having said that it is in these economic conditions and similar circumstances that history has shown us extreme political views gain currency so perhaps they do have a point.

Anyway, it is time for a general election - the stench of sleaze surrounding this government is getting worse and worse- and within the next 12 months we'll have had one.

I love a general election don't you?

The swing-o-meter, the pundits, the nation deciding - the sheer excitement of exercising our long fought freedom to choose our government is always fun.

Though I have voted in community centres and leisure centres across West Suffolk and even in London a few times, I have yet to cast a vote here in the Edwardian seaside town of Felixstowe where I have a small flat with sea views (distant).

But on June 4 I shall be toddling off to a church hall somewhere to exercise my democratic right and choose the town council or Euro MP - or whatever it is this time.

I always make the effort.

It wasn't until as late as 1948 that there was universal suffrage in the UK and that's really not that long ago.

In fact, I sometimes wonder if I might like parliament - you get to talk about yourself, talk about what you think and you're rarely short of attention.

I just might throw my hat in the ring next time - I could do with a second home.

I TOOK a few days off this last week and found myself enjoying the sights and tastes of Normandy - an area of France for which I have much admiration.

Cheese-wise there'd be no point going if you're a vegan - I don't think the French really understand what they are - and drink wise it's probably difficult if you're a teetotaller.

Of course, as a man who eats and drinks almost anything - including a duck gizzard on this latest adventure - I found I had no trouble at all.

SO, are you going to the Suffolk Show?

I shall be there taking a look at all the nice things to see.

This year the organisers are promoting Best of Suffolk - so I suspect it's going to be a good one.

And I always have a lot of fun.

In fact I have not missed one for years - I like the lunch.

WHAT do you think of The Arc?

Finding myself in the ancient town of Bury St Edmunds recently I thought I'd better have a butcher's at this new shopping centre.

Well, I was rather disappointed.

Not because of the shops - they are OK - but because of the unimaginative and not very nice architecture.

Goodness knows how the design fits into the medieval splendour of Bury.

ALONG with my friend Susan, I went along to see the latest production by the Trimley Saints Players on Saturday night called There Goes the Bride.

It was a farce - the play I mean. And a farce, a uniquely British genre I suspect, that had the audience laughing in the aisles all over a totally daft storyline.

It was entertaining stuff and the Trimley Saints Players had clearly worked hard to get it right.

It was during the interval that a gentleman started to talk to me about my home village of Icklingham in the west of the county. He asked me if I knew some people who had lived there 60 years ago.

Now I might have a lived-in look but I was fairly surprised to be taken for middle age. And when I reminded him I was mere 33 he didn't believe me.

I was quite affronted - so much so I've been moisturizing ever since.

EVERYONE likes the Queen, don't they?

All those years of duty - she deserves a medal.

But even better for her she had some luck with the horses recently - her horse Balmoral Moorland won in the Highland class at the Royal Windsor Horse Show.

No wonder she was smiling so broadly.