h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm biased (because I'm a town councillor) but I think it's much easier to get involved in local politics than at a higher level. In my town (population about 35,000 and growing) if you want something done, you walk into the help point run by they town council and ask. The town council doesn't have much power, and the councillors don't get paid. People get involved because they care about certain issues.

At national (and big city level),it's much more likely for people to get involved because of the wrong reasons.Even if people go in with good intentions, the temptations are much greater (the chances of getting anything from money to jobs and honours). As someone said 'power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'

That's a very interesting viewpoint! And I think it's true. More people get involved in local government out of civic pride, or just because they like to help out.

The US benefits a lot from its local governments - even that town where the mayor is, by tradition, a dog. (That town probably has a city manager to do the work the dog's too busy for.)

I've always enjoyed writing the civics lessons in local government, because they can show students how to participate. And who knows? They might even go on to 'bigger' things. Think about Bernie Sanders - he started out as a mayor.

"In the bleak midwinter" is a song that I love when Julie Andrews sings it. (Or, rather, *sang* it.)

"Frosty winds made moan." "Water like a stone." We've had very little of those so far. On Tuesday, the deep cold starts. Heaven help us all.

I guess my point was that the assaultive cold and ice/snow do a number on us, no matter what illnesses or politicians we are dealing with. Had Rossetti been through an unusually cold winter recently when she wrote the poem?

Aha! England had some abominably cold winters in the 1800s
http://www.essentially-england.com/weather-in-england-in-the-1800s.html#:~:text=By%20all%20accounts%2C%20in%20the%2019th%20century%20England,In%20January%201811%20the%20River%20Thames%20froze%20over.