Election, election....

oh yes, election.
This state is due to go to the polls in March next year. The government has a "fixed term" until then. We were told that this is a good idea because it leads to "certainty". 
Mmm.... maybe. 
I know a lot of people will, after the events in the UK on Thursday, say that such "certainty" is a good thing. Perhaps it is. Every one knows when the next election will be. The government can, presumably, concentrate on "getting on with the job" and the opposition can concentrate on trying to undermine the government and prevent them from doing the job.
Pardon my cynicism please.
It seems to me that it is mostly the wrong people who want to go into politics. However "nice" some of them may seem there is something about then wanting to be a politician which makes me just a little cautious. 
And yes, I do have friends who were politicians - from more than one political party and whose beliefs are diametrically opposed. As people I like them. As politicians? That's something else again.
It seems it could happen in any position of power though. I belong to more than one organisation. One is looking for a secretary at the moment. I work from home so I don't have the necessary resources to do that job. (Yes, it really does require someone who is actually in the open workforce with access to someone else to at least take the occasional message and a bit more.) Nobody else appears to be willing to take it on. They all say they are "too busy". The President's position was filled easily enough - by someone who enjoys talking to the media. 
And there is the organisation which has caused me so much angst in the last eighteen months. The AGM is coming up in September. Nobody knows whether the President will put a hand up for a second two year term - possible under the constitution. Nobody knows whether anyone else will be prepared to take on the job. It is a job I would take my turn at - but only because I believe that, if you belong to a group, you should be an active member of it. The problem is that, quite genuinely, I would find it very difficult to anything like that right now because of the Senior Cat. I don't get to meetings on time. Going to the Committee meeting held before the meeting would be even harder.  It would mean finding someone willing to casually check on the Senior Cat. He hates that but, these days, he lets it happen. 
My personal belief is that there should be no need for a Committee meeting before every meeting. My late mother could run her church guild on one morning meeting in January at which the program for the year was decided as far as possible and then another meeting before their "Sale of Work" later in the year and, apart from those two meetings, a very short - 5 or, at most, 10 minute meeting - if something urgent came up before a meeting. Perhaps it helped that two members of the committee were used to running schools. 
I suspect though that a little bit of power has gone to the heads of those who have taken on positions. We have been reminded, more than once, that they are "volunteers" and how hard they work - and yes, they are volunteers and they have worked hard. The same has been true of many other members of the same organisation but they never felt the need to remind people of it.
Maybe reminding me of their hard work has been a good thing. It has also reminded me of all those people who have just been quietly getting on with the job - like the woman who still volunteers one full day each week in the local charity shop,
    "I'm only 91. I can go on for a bit yet."
She started there when she retired at 60. Now that is service worth talking about.