All political careers end up with tears

A politician who tries to stop the process of change is very much like a man using his bare hands to stop a running train by pushing against it. What has changed since I joined the British National Party in 2001? Well, quite a few things have changed because a political party that stands still is like the man of the story trying to stop a running train. Michael Portillo describes the process by saying that 'all political careers end up with tears'.

If we were to use a bit more positive note, I would paraphrase French scientist Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier who said something along the lines of 'nothing is created, nothing is destroyed, everything is transformed'. At least in Antoine de Lavoisier's words, the idea of change is not link to a terminal process but to an ongoing and never ending process of change.

Never mind if the man who is considered to be the Father of Modern Chemistry ended up his days as Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and without head after he was sent to the guillotine during the process of transformation initiated by the French Revolution of 1789.

Julius Caesar was stabbed to death, Napoleon Bonaparte was poisoned to death but many others end up their days in less dramatic circumstances as a shadow of their former selves.

Being a bit less dramatic, can you compare Tony Blair in 1997 to Tony Blair in 2013. Richer? No doubts about it. He looks like the Walking Dead, very much like a much less successful British Prime Minister called Edward Heath that I still remember sitting in the House of Commons when his days as an influential politician were very much over.

Time does not stand still and political parties like trees need sap, the flow of youth that will keep the tree alive. When political parties start looking like a gathering of old-age pensioners and suddlenly old-age pensioners pass away and numbers dwindle, we know that like in the lyrics of My Way, sung by Frank Synatra, all we have left is the conviction that we did everything keeping both our faith in ourselves and being loyal to what we believe.


And now, the end is here
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and ev'ry highway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall and did it my way

I've loved, I've laughed and cried
I've had my fill, my share of losing
And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing
To think I did all that
And may I say, not in a shy way,
"Oh, no, oh, no, not me, I did it my way"

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows and did it my way!

Yes, it was my way