The Lib/Con Coalition through the eyes of a 10 year old

I've been quite amazed by how gripped Anna has been by all the political goings on over the last few days. She came back from Choir the other night just after David Cameron went into Downing Street and was really fascinated. Her comment was "Tories are evil, but I think we should give David Cameron a chance."

In previous days she'd constructed a hung Parliament out of her Littlest Pet Shop toys. She had various party groupings, none of which we see in the current House of Commons (the Winnie the Pooh Party and the Evil Bird Party (who got chucked out for fiddling their expenses) and what was interesting was that she wanted to mix them all up so that each party had a good range of girls and boys and different types of animals.

I've always tried not to throw too much politics down her throat. The poor child suffers enough from the demands of having a political activist for a mother. If she asks me something I'll always tell her but I tend to think she needs to get on with the business of being her and developing her own interests and shouldn't be dragged into mine more than necessary.

Having said that, I have been overjoyed to see her get more and more interested in Doctor Who, and I took up her interest in the Twilight saga. It's great fun to share these things. I am toying with the idea of taking her to a Doctor Who convention as I haven't been to one since before she was born. What does the geekosphere think?

Anyway, she has been brought up in a house where, yes, we can be grumpy sometimes, on account of being human, but generally there isn't a great deal of shouting and if we do have a difference of opinion we tend to try and resolve it quickly and reasonably. The normal yah boo shouty shout of politics is a bit of a mystery to her.

When I picked her up from school yesterday, I'd just watched the Cameron/Clegg press conference. She asked what was happening with the new Government and I told her about the hilarious moment when David Cameron was confronted with his past description of Nick Clegg as a joke and how Nick had pretended to walk off in the huff. She laughged and I thought no more off it.

Much later, she said to me that she'd watched that moment and thought it was brilliant. It turns out that she'd gone on to You Tube and found it for herself.

If that dissplay of camaraderie and fun can interest a child in government and politics, let's hope that such positive behaviour will continue. I won't be holding my breath, particularly when the new House of Commons convenes next week.