What does it take to win an election?

This state is due to go to an election next March and we are already getting "election" material in the letter box. 

This sort of thing is rarely really useful. It tends to make grand promises while criticising the efforts of others. Yes, I know. It is all part of the political process. 

People get swayed by the most odd things - a Grand Prix (which most people did not attend or even want to attend), a new road not going where people want it to go, a new hospital (smaller than the old one), a tram line to nowhere and much more.

I know the Senior Cat once asked a friend of his how the British could have dumped Churchill after he had seen them through the war. "You needed to understand the mood in Britain after the war," was the response.  All I can assume is that Attlee was offering something people wanted or felt they needed.  

A very senior politician once told me, "It isn't what you do that matters. It is what you say you will do. That's how it is done."

There are a few politicians who seem to feel differently. There was one in another state who resigned the day before he would have got a parliamentary pension for life - so he wouldn't get the pension. It was what he had promised to do and he did it. People tell me he was a "pretty good sort of bloke". Perhaps he was. It was certainly an unusual thing to do. 

We had an independent politician here. He really was an independent too. Both sides tried to woo him - without success. A lot of his success seemed to be the result of actually listening to the people of his electorate. If a controversial vote was coming up he would actively seek their views. I don't know what he would have been like had he stayed in politics. Sadly he died before anyone could really find out how great his influence was.

When we had the convention for the referendum over whether the country should "become a republic" I, at the request of a group, put my paw up. It was not something I ever planned to do and I would not want to do it again. I came within three votes of actually getting a place at the convention. Why? We think it was because the group backing me and I tried to get a place by not promising anything. We told people we would get back to them and showed them how we planned to do it. Thankfully my brush with politics was quickly over.

I suppose there must be more politicians who go into it  because of their convictions and beliefs. They must really believe in the policies of their party and they must believe they can actually make a difference. It must take at least that much to win an election.

But I looked at the election material that arrived yesterday and thought about something else as well. You also have to be prepared to lie.