In a world where change appears to be the metaphor of choice, one thing seems to be constant in amongst the tornado of transformation and 'progress' around us.  And that is that no matter how many good intentions are expressed on paper, regardless of how many encouraging and inspirational words are uttered in meetings or conferences, and no matter how many times 'stakeholders' churn out press releases or issue policy responses lambasting the lack of visible progress, the change from 'all talk', to 'talk plus action' continues so often to elude us.  This was the overwhelming realisation that hit me last week in helping to draft ESU's Prague Students' Declaration towards the Bologna Process.  Reflecting on our message about aspiration needing to translate into action, I realised that we had been making the same point since the Process started a decade ago.  Flicking through some of the websites of the Brussels-based European media only served to reinforce the point - regardless of the subject matter, regardless how far back in time you go, the common feature is a call from those lobbying the political elite from the outside for words to be matched by actions.   

So if this really is the nature of politics, if it does, in fact, amount to a hefty amount of spin and only a sprinkling of substance to create an illusion of 'change', shouldn't we all just pack up and retire to a beautiful villa on the Portuguese coast?  Tempting, but perhaps not. For while so many of the words that reach our ears from elected officials amount to little more than additional C02 in the atmosphere, looking back from whence we started to where we currently stand, the progress graph does, in general, appear to be curving gently upwards.  'Hope for the best, plan for the worst,' is a motto passed onto me by my father, which viewed through the murky lens of political lobbying could be translated as, 'Demand a Gucci bag, but prepare to receive a Mango purse.' Far from meaning we should abandon the fight, it's more about accepting the political realities that surround us, taking the words we see and hear with a hefty spoonful of salt and feeling pride for each tiny step towards our goals that we manage to eek out.

The road on which we operate can sometimes feel like a circular highway with no exits.  But instead of dwelling on the fact that we're not travelling at the speed we'd like, let's all remember that we wouldn't even have got the engine started if we abandoned the game altogether.

Until next month,

Frances