From left: Captain Cock-up, The Cable Guy and la-di-da Boy Scout Graham
For as long as I can remember, my wife and I have had differing political views.
She is a lifelong Conservative, while I - a trade union member since the age of 14!* - was either SDP, Lib-Dem or Labour depending on where my vote would damage the Tories most.
But this year we have at least agreed on one thing: that neither of us feel comfortable voting for either of the major parties.
That came home to us while watching Channel 4's I'm a Potential Chancellor ... Yes It's Hard to Believe Isn't it? last night. Actually she watched all of it, I just enjoyed edited highlights.
Just looking at the three of them up there - Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable - was enough to turn me off.
One looks, admittedly, like a politician, though he's unlikely to get the opportunity to be chancellor even in a hung parliament. Of the others one looks like he should be the nemesis of children's TV legend Captain Scarlet, while the second looks like a boy scout who's having to face the music after being caught in a compromising position with his troop leader.
Bizarrely they all speak like that as well...
The Tories apparently - according to political commentators - regarded Osborne's appearance as a 'success' on the basis he did not make any gaffes. They can't do much about their concern that he is 'very posh'. Cripes Bunter! That gives us a great deal of confidence.
It should be of grave concern to the Tories that after 13 years of Labour rule, David Cameron is not way ahead in the polls. The fact that he is not Gordon Brown, is now, apparently, not seen as sufficient to drive people to vote Conservative.
How inadequate must the Tories be? I voted for Blair and even I've had enough of Labour after 13 years!
It was the former French leader Georges Clemenceau - not Winston Churchill incidentally - who said "Not to be a socialist at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head."
I'm now 46 and must be wanting in the head because I'm still left-leaning and have a social conscience. But I'm a lot closer to the centre than I was previously. And many of my contemporaries are, indeed, now right of centre.
But is it a change of social awareness or just the fact we get more cyncial as we get older? I certainly feel it's the latter. I'm much more cynical about everything to do with politics than I was 25 years ago. And I no longer have the motivation nor the inclination to protest strongly or to write a letter of ill-informed complaint to my local newspaper about whatever gets my goat.
I'm sure the urge to write the letters will resurface when I get to about 60 though.
The crux of the matter for me is that I simply don't trust people in high office. I don't believe what they say and always feel there is an ulterior motive in everything they do that I agree with. I would not be surprised if other people of my generation were similarly inclined.
Which is why at 46 rather than wanting of head, many of my ilk just say "I don't really give a 4X, just cut my taxes and go ahead and sell arms to oppressive regimes and stamp on the minorities."
So, come the end of May George Osborne will be our Chancellor of the Exchequer and everybody will be fondly remembering Harry Enfield's Tim 'Nice-But-Dim' character.
Me? I'm voting Green. Tax cuts simply can't help our budget deficit and poor old Vince Cable hasn't got a hope. At least I know the Greens will do my protesting for me while I stir my Horlicks.
*If you must know I started with the National Union of School Students ... and never looked back
