Andrew Ian Dodge: Normal people just care about paying their bills

Andrew Ian Dodge finds that people are more concerned with the cost of living, including the tax burden, than issues like the environment.

One of the side affects of getting married is an expansion in your cadre of friends and acquaintances. Now for most people this is not that big of an eye opening experience. But for me it was rather interesting. As someone steeped in politics who used to spend his time either around political hacks or non-political musos it has been a bit of an eye opener.

Of course, paying attention to the political media, the parties and the political cognoscenti one would think non-politicos are all up in arms about the environment, the progress of the war and whether or not Speaker Martin should step down. We are repeatedly given lists of things that the public cares about, things that both parties go on about.

I have found it interesting that whether I am chatting to my male nurse giving me chaemo every Wednesday or a childhood friend of my wife from Islington the environment doesn’t come up. Instead of going on about the “big” issues of the day they all seem to be rather more concerned with the day to day cost of things in their life. Many people I encountered feel that they are far worse off now than they were 5 years ago as pay rises have not kept up with expenses.