[pp.int.general] Signing off

[Andrew Norton]

Ok, it's time.

i've stepped down as 'PPI guy', and have removed my accesses from
sites where posisble. There is no successor. The one person who was
interested, has decided against taking the position, and I can't
really say I blame them.

Three weeks ago, I said I was stepping down. I gave a list of the
problems. These haven't even begun to be addressed by anyone. Part of
the problem is that on a national level, so many of the parties seem
to be a mess. One has a crisis of structure, another is so busy with
symbolic actions, it's ignored common sense, and a third is so busy
trying to plan promotional stuff, they've done nothing at all
substantive and is turning into a soap bubble. Mostly, though, the
issues are ignored by every party except for a token statement every
now and then.

There have been talks about 'ideology' (which basically started a
whole discussion from scratch, which duplicates the work last year in
doing the manifesto.

Right now, there's been some small successes, first seat won, first
establish elected official recruited. People have gone from that and
are coasting on that success, acting like the whole thing's won. It's
barely started. The easy 'unknown outsider' time is gone, and it's now
that the parties are considered worthy of notice by their opponents,
and yet instead of ramping up the pressure, just about every party has
slacked off, or at least coasting.

My big question is, in a years time, are there going to be any parties
left, or will they have self-destructed? If there are any left, what
is their level of cooperation going to be like? It seems most forget
that the issues we stand for are global issues, not little national
ones, but most people are too busy looking at their little world to
look at the worldview, and make better long term decisions. Hell, even
basic communication would be an improvement. How many of you heard
that The german party got their candidate lists registered in all but
one state for next month's election? Probably very few of you, I only
found out because a new member of their party told me. Right now,
maybe half the parties around Europe have people without much to do,
but could value the experiance of working with this camapign, even in
a minor role. Hands up who has been asked for help? Sorry if I seem to
be picking on the german party, but there was the same situation with
the EU elections. No-one asked for help, and as anyone who has worked
an election will tell you, you can NEVER have enough help. People who
are too afraid to help, are probably too afraid to admit their own
mistakes too.

This has turned into a bit of a rant, and for that i'm sorry, but we
will see how accurate I have been over the next year. I hope i'm
wrong, and if so, I'll gladly admit it. I have the sad feeling though,
that I'm not.

Yours,
Andrew Norton