Dear LPG,

This is my second attempt at writing something for the pages of the LPG website and my first thought was on the subject of how difficult it is to be in charge of anything which involves other people.  This is because we have all been made with such different ideas even though we often want the same outcome and it is so easy to see what a leader is doing wrong and criticize when you are able to see the potential results of their leadership from afar.

To a larger extent, we seem to accept that once we have voted for someone to take charge we can just leave them to it and that works until they do something that we disagree with.  Most of us are busy enough dealing with the things that go on in our own lives after all and so we put the leaders in place and just sort of leave them to it. 

But even if we don’t feel equipped to take over leadership, we at least need to make our feelings known to more than the people that we chat to on the telephone or put the world to rites with over a cup of tea when we meet up.  

We are so good at disagreeing on a small scale but we so forget that the only way to change anything is to let the people who lead us know of our disagreement. 

We don’t need a referendum to do that and I always think that petitions only go so far because, while they often show what the public want, they so often fall short of helping our leaders to accept that they might be another way to achieve the common goal.  I believe that at some time in our lives, we have all been in situations where we have been expected to lead a few others; way back when we were the workers of the world, as a parent, grand parent, organiser of an outing or a party, or even when working out what the family are going to have for dinner this evening.  It is also true that when making decisions which will affect others around us, we become the leader for just a brief time; and sometimes not a popular one. 

So when you can see an alternative, don’t accept that your one little voice cannot make a difference, after that chat with your friend, write that letter or make that phone call which will offer the alternative option.

MG, Forest Hill