Background

My micro-autobiography gives some more clues as to how I ended up here.

Why would anyone get involved with politics? There are so many examples of corruption, nepotism, abuse of power, etc. that it certainly has a poor reputation, probably fairly. As writer Douglas Adams said:
Quote Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. Quote

Indeed, I have seen from the inside how some of this plays out: but it is not everyone - the tricky bit is finding the good and honest, or at least those without a hidden agenda or bias. My experience, looking from the bottom of the political heap, is that there is a significantly higher proportion of 'bad uns' than in the general population. The higher up the political ladder the more the chance of skeletons in cupboards and dubious activity.

However, if you want change the only way to get it is to use the tools available and in a democracy that means getting elected which implies taking a political stance.

When I moved to Dereham I attended a couple of Town Council meetings which left a bad impression. The chairman sat on a dais lauding over the Councillors who were arranged on party political lines against one another, just like Prime Ministers Questions at Parliament. How could this possibly be the right way to make decisions in the best interests of ordinary folk? A lot of this was for show, and I have been told the committee meeting were much more amenable.

Opinion - using Climate Change as an example

The climate change argument is one which can expose is problem of opinion.

The scientific evidence is overwhelming atmospheric CO2 is increasing due to man-made activity and that additional CO2 is having a detrimental effect on climate stability. It will not destroy everything, but it will make the world a very difficult place for some people to live. There will always be some who don't believe scientific evidence or prefer to follow some spurious faith based explanation or just don't care. I have heard so many bad arguments from a small but very vocal minority of climate change deniers but when challenged end up with some form of 'yeah, well that's what I believe' expressed as if belief equals truth.

This is the problem with opinion:
While everyone is entitled to an opinion, not all opinion is equal. Some opinion is almost worthless and may be disregarded while other is extremely valuable. As with identifying bias, it sometimes takes some effort to establish the true value of someone's opinion.