I thought there was a good spread of ages at the Fabian conference. I think that there were Young Fabians in evidence enjoying the chance to hear from M.P.s and working economists and experts and there seemed to be about 20 percent of white-haired Fabians, some very old, who must have been going to these things for years and years. Amazing.
I enjoyed the plenary on "Does the Left now have the ideological momentum?" I was particularly taken with the straight -talking Wes Streeting M.P. for Ilford North - a spokesman for keeping the UK within the single market and the customs union. His point of view was very popular with the audience. He said a clearer Labour standpoint on Europe would influence policy (I agree) although the current very ambiguous stand on Europe is popular on "the doorstep" (whatever the voter says, the Labour politician agrees with them). Richard Burgon M.P. said that the country has been suffering from the failure to share the country's wealth equally. Of course, this is particularly evident in the North/South East divide. No country is so geographically economically divided as ours and this is simply not being addressed. Polly Toynbee pointed out some of the pernicious effects of austerity. Katy Balls said that young people are pro-Labour on the whole, but didn't like the Mayor's call on Uber - because Uber is part of the young person's lifestyle. It caused outrage! She made many more points but she didn't try to speak very clearly so the effort of understanding her mannered way of talking became too much for me. Polly Toynbee said that if 16-18 year olds got the vote politicians would have to campaign in 6th forms and young people would get a fairer share of the cake, and more of the things they need, and therefore this age group should get the vote. (A good point).
After this plenary I was tired and went to have lunch in the café, where there is also a bookshop. It was a bright café and bookshop but not very warm.
I then attended a session, organised by the Young Fabians on Global-ready Britain: Taking stock as we go it alone.
There was much discussion about the education in this country - a poor skills base, poor lifelong learning, training in work confined to health and safety and the induction. Nothing else, most of the time. Bad management skills. Our economic vulnerabilities are social vulnerabilities and vice versa. If your education system produces people who are badly skilled and can do little, this is socially a time bomb (dissatisfaction leading to identity politics - British and proud of it - nothing else to be proud of but this accident of birth) and it is also economically rock-bottom.
Vicky Pryce talked at this conference and I heard her twice, without rating her highly as a speaker - her thoughts seemed to be all jumbled together - and her points very unclear.
There was a good woman Shadow Treasury Minister - Anneliese Dodds - very good intelligent speaker. Michael Jacobs was very good, very well-informed.
Later there was a talk by Keir Starmer M.P. He was a revelation to me because I had no idea he was such a good speaker, so confident, so clear. When I got home I looked him up and discovered that he has had a very successful career as a barrister and used to be the Director of Public Prosecutions. In fact, he was responsible for deciding to prosecute Vicky Pryce and her then husband, Chris Hahn, and they were sent to prison. Have they met since, I wondered? Anyway, he has also been knighted and is Sir Keir Starmer. He is the Labour shadow minister for Brexit and I have to say he must be a lot more intelligent than the Tory team. Sadly I didn't take any notes, and I can't remember what was said, except the level of the Tory incompetence is very high, e.g. the story of the excruciatingly detailed economic impact assessments that don't exist. Bad, very bad, as D. Trump would say.
Labour would be far better for the country than the Tories. They are move positive thinkers and care about the people; those people who don't have money in shares, trusts and funds. That's most of us. When people vote, they think the Tories know more about the economy because they are rich, so they vote for them. This is ridiculous. The Tories want to screw down wages so that only share owners will benefit.
Showing posts with label Brexit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brexit. Show all posts
Sunday, 14 January 2018
Tuesday, 25 April 2017
A trip to Paris
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| The Lapin Agile - a long-ago night spot, now looking very tiny |
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| Outside the Sacre Coeur, with the view from Montmartre |
The next day we were going to go to the Musee d'Orsay but that was closed, and we were going to go to the Louvre but the queues were so long we couldn't bear it, and so we went to the Pompidou Centre. There was a queue but we found it was to be searched. We found the same thing on Eurostar. There are very long queues but these are to be frisked and have your bag searched. The fourth floor was closed but that was OK because we spent a very long time on the fifth floor. We had an interesting time.
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| Inside the Pompidou Centre |
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| This picture is by Degas. It is so tempting to think it's by Toulouse Lautrec. |
I think the next day we did the Galeries Lafayette, which is a big shop with a pink and gold dome inside, have you seen it? I wanted to buy souvenirs, but couldn't find anything my loved ones might want in the souvenir shop, which was on the top floor, and having got up there, we saw signs to a roof terrace, so we went out there and had our packed lunch on the sunny roof with all the students and young people who seem to know that it is a great place to hang out without having to pay anything. Then we went to see Notre Dame. Then we sat in the Jardins de Luxembourg.
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| The dome inside the Galeries Lafayette |
The next day we did something in the morning that I can't remember and then did a walking tour, which took in the Left bank and Latin quarter, which was great, as it was led by a student who was very communicative with lots of little stories about the history of Paris and also helpful and told us about a cheap, atmospheric little place to have dinner. We found it difficult to find good places like that.
And finally on the last day on a recommendation we went to the crematorium of Montparnasse, which was pretty and I liked it but Ashley decided that graveyards are not his thing, and then we took a tour of the Seine on a vedette, which we found interesting and good value. Again, it was quite hot. I really wanted to go into Shakespeare & Company's bookshop which is close to the Seine on the Left bank, but I felt shy ! and I didn't go in. I sort of wanted to buy a book there, but I knew they would be far, far cheaper at home.
So we had a very good few days in Paris. At home we were just gearing up for the Council elections, when Theresa May announced there would be a general election, in the name of stability, which is a laugh, and so the country is in a muddle again. There is information about tactical voting being passed around, but Jeremy Corbyn doesn't let go of his dreams that he will wake up one day and find that the whole country has turned socialist overnight, and voted that way, so he will never enter into election pacts with other parties even though the aim of all the non-Tory parties is to bring in a system of Proportional Representation, which should keep the Tories out forever, so is well worth sacrificing a few seats for. But his dreams...!
And in Paris, we heard something very interesting. A Parisian told us the UK was right to vote for Brexit and a lot of French people want the same thing. I would say "racist" only he was a Algerian Parisian. So we said, will Marine le Pen get in and take you out of the EU? No, he said, because if France left the EU the EU would fall apart. So Mme le Pen, according to him, has taken a huge bribe from high places to back pedal on that one, and not to take France out of the EU. Well, if all that happens, you heard it here first.
Friday, 9 September 2016
Green Party Conference
The Green Party Conference was held 2nd - 4th September in Birmingham (my old university) and I was there - it was my first conference. At first it was deeply interesting. I went to a talk on the Green party philosophy which was very inspiring but I was late as I had just arrived. One of the many interesting things he said was that electoral success is not the only way to change policy - lifestyle changes are also really important, and we can persuade people to behave differently. In fact, the influence of the Green movement has been far-reaching.
Our new leaders gave their speeches - Johnathan Bartley and Caroline Lucas taking turns at delivering their message. She talked about the "heartbreak" of 24th June and I thought - that's how I felt, and I was grateful to her for not making light of it. The Greens want another referendum, this time when our government has made terms with the EU for our continued relationship, to vote on the new deal. Don't know if we'll get that but I think it would be far more democratic and meaningful than voting for a pig in a poke (a sack). Caroline reminded us that this year was the hottest ever and it is even more important to leave fossil fuels in the ground.
I then went to a fringe meeting on Further Education and Higher Education. We talked about the new Education bill which seeks to deregulate Further Ed. We are very radical on further ed. we want to end tuition fees and achieve social mobility. We believe that Higher Ed and F. E. are not markets. We believe in evening classes and lifelong learning. We don't believe that employers should dictate the content of education, or that it's all about money. We wondered how we could get the students to take more interest in these matters politically. We wondered if colleges could start by campaigning about young people's living/working conditions - low pay, etc. Area Reviews - mergers - very demoralizing - but Local Councils can reject the Area Review - e.g. Manchester did just that.
I also went to a panel debate on the Progressive Alliances which have been mooted by the people at Westminster. Zoe Williams of the Guardian chaired this debate. Caroline spoke in favour of the alliance. She said that if we had Proportional Rep we wouldn't need to do it and the goal is to get the progressive parties into power so that we can vote in Proportional Rep. She pointed out that when the voters go to the polls the progressive parties are fighting each other over small differences, and where we can co-operate locally, to get a Tory out of an unsafe seat, we should do so. Caroline pointed out that time is short for our planet but progressives are fighting each other over small differences. Fighting over the deckchairs on the Titanic, really. She did say that the Green Party doesn't impose from the centre but the idea is to allow for arrangements to be made locally. However, the view from the floor was against this as there are grass roots activists who do not think strategically. They dream of winning an overall majority!
The next day I went to a talk about creating teams that work at local level. The Snowflake model. They stressed that the Greens should do fun things together. I thought that this was very much what volunteers wanted. When I, with my local party, put forward ideas about catering for an event my ideas were so shot down in flames that I have not yet gone back! I felt that the members were hostile to me because I was new, which of course was probably true and the only solution is to wait for 6 months or so before you offer any opinion whatsoever.
The next thing I went to was in the Great Hall - it was called a plenary, and we discussed motions for changing our policy documents. All motions were followed by amendments to the motions, which were both friendly and unfriendly. We voted firstly on the amendments and then on the motions. I was very interested in the procedure as much as the motions ,and I was also pleased to discover that my ideas are pretty mainstream in the Greens.
I went to a talk by Baroness Jenny Jones on what she has been up to in the House of Lords - this was very interesting. She wants to reform the House of Lords but she also said "It's riven with rules and idiocy but it works" which is what I feel about the H o L, that it is the only effective opposition to the government and therefore we should treasure it! She wrote a paper on her Bill to reform the HoL over 10 years - giving representatives long terms of service in which to gain expertise - trying to keep what she values in the HoL and yet move towards full democracy. I recommend that the noble Lords support it!
I also went to a talk on the Northern Ireland border Post Brexit which has clearly never been thought through and clearly it will have to be a "hard" border if we are to stop unlimited immigration from Europe and this will be very divisive to the people of Ireland who were beginning to feel like one nation, two governments. Now they will be riven again.
Post Brexit - what now? This was the last thing on which I took notes because I was there for 2 days and a half and I was pretty tired by the end. These are the things which the Greens want:
1. to win the right for EU nationalities to remain here.
2. The Young Greens want freedom of movement (they will get this: if they think they will be able to live and work in Europe that is another matter).
3. We want to keep the Human Rights Act.
4. We want the 16+ age group to have the right to vote.
I also went to 2 more plenaries and at the last I despaired of the Green Party for their pettiness and, in some cases, their desire to be Alternative rather than electable. It's a question of identity. Sadly, identifying yourself as Alternative is unlikely to make a party electable, or even have a coherent sense of what kind of Alternative you are. Are we hippies, punks or radical liberals? One lobby keeps us busy altering the wording of all our literature to make it gender non-binary and when we have done that, that particular ginger group will probably leave, its mission accomplished.
Our new leaders gave their speeches - Johnathan Bartley and Caroline Lucas taking turns at delivering their message. She talked about the "heartbreak" of 24th June and I thought - that's how I felt, and I was grateful to her for not making light of it. The Greens want another referendum, this time when our government has made terms with the EU for our continued relationship, to vote on the new deal. Don't know if we'll get that but I think it would be far more democratic and meaningful than voting for a pig in a poke (a sack). Caroline reminded us that this year was the hottest ever and it is even more important to leave fossil fuels in the ground.
I then went to a fringe meeting on Further Education and Higher Education. We talked about the new Education bill which seeks to deregulate Further Ed. We are very radical on further ed. we want to end tuition fees and achieve social mobility. We believe that Higher Ed and F. E. are not markets. We believe in evening classes and lifelong learning. We don't believe that employers should dictate the content of education, or that it's all about money. We wondered how we could get the students to take more interest in these matters politically. We wondered if colleges could start by campaigning about young people's living/working conditions - low pay, etc. Area Reviews - mergers - very demoralizing - but Local Councils can reject the Area Review - e.g. Manchester did just that.
I also went to a panel debate on the Progressive Alliances which have been mooted by the people at Westminster. Zoe Williams of the Guardian chaired this debate. Caroline spoke in favour of the alliance. She said that if we had Proportional Rep we wouldn't need to do it and the goal is to get the progressive parties into power so that we can vote in Proportional Rep. She pointed out that when the voters go to the polls the progressive parties are fighting each other over small differences, and where we can co-operate locally, to get a Tory out of an unsafe seat, we should do so. Caroline pointed out that time is short for our planet but progressives are fighting each other over small differences. Fighting over the deckchairs on the Titanic, really. She did say that the Green Party doesn't impose from the centre but the idea is to allow for arrangements to be made locally. However, the view from the floor was against this as there are grass roots activists who do not think strategically. They dream of winning an overall majority!
The next day I went to a talk about creating teams that work at local level. The Snowflake model. They stressed that the Greens should do fun things together. I thought that this was very much what volunteers wanted. When I, with my local party, put forward ideas about catering for an event my ideas were so shot down in flames that I have not yet gone back! I felt that the members were hostile to me because I was new, which of course was probably true and the only solution is to wait for 6 months or so before you offer any opinion whatsoever.
The next thing I went to was in the Great Hall - it was called a plenary, and we discussed motions for changing our policy documents. All motions were followed by amendments to the motions, which were both friendly and unfriendly. We voted firstly on the amendments and then on the motions. I was very interested in the procedure as much as the motions ,and I was also pleased to discover that my ideas are pretty mainstream in the Greens.
I went to a talk by Baroness Jenny Jones on what she has been up to in the House of Lords - this was very interesting. She wants to reform the House of Lords but she also said "It's riven with rules and idiocy but it works" which is what I feel about the H o L, that it is the only effective opposition to the government and therefore we should treasure it! She wrote a paper on her Bill to reform the HoL over 10 years - giving representatives long terms of service in which to gain expertise - trying to keep what she values in the HoL and yet move towards full democracy. I recommend that the noble Lords support it!
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| A formidable woman |
I also went to a talk on the Northern Ireland border Post Brexit which has clearly never been thought through and clearly it will have to be a "hard" border if we are to stop unlimited immigration from Europe and this will be very divisive to the people of Ireland who were beginning to feel like one nation, two governments. Now they will be riven again.
Post Brexit - what now? This was the last thing on which I took notes because I was there for 2 days and a half and I was pretty tired by the end. These are the things which the Greens want:
1. to win the right for EU nationalities to remain here.
2. The Young Greens want freedom of movement (they will get this: if they think they will be able to live and work in Europe that is another matter).
3. We want to keep the Human Rights Act.
4. We want the 16+ age group to have the right to vote.
I also went to 2 more plenaries and at the last I despaired of the Green Party for their pettiness and, in some cases, their desire to be Alternative rather than electable. It's a question of identity. Sadly, identifying yourself as Alternative is unlikely to make a party electable, or even have a coherent sense of what kind of Alternative you are. Are we hippies, punks or radical liberals? One lobby keeps us busy altering the wording of all our literature to make it gender non-binary and when we have done that, that particular ginger group will probably leave, its mission accomplished.
Monday, 15 August 2016
My cruise
We went on a great cruise in the Mediterranean and took in Venice, Kotor in Montenegro, Corfu Town in Corfu, Civitavecchia (gateway to Rome), Ajaccio in Corsica, Genoa, Pisa and Naples, Dubrovnik and back to Venice. It was amazing and remarkable because we had no way of seeing all those places, in such a short time and in so much comfort, by public transport. Ah cruising! It really was lovely. Great food and very good entertainment too.
The line was P & O and the ship had a large Union Flag painted on the front, and there were 800 crew. The officers were mostly British, the crew was from the Philippines (I think) the waiters were from Goa, the housekeeping staff were from the Philippines (again). Very charming and hard-working people. The entertainment staff were Australian, English and Scottish. Interesting - historically, P& O gave many working class people the chance to escape from Liverpool, etc., and see the world. Now the opportunities go to the Indians and Philippinos. That must be because of unionisation and the low pay given. But it does remind me of something I heard after Brexit, trying to understand what had done wrong. I found some video of a very unsmiling Scottish professor who said: "The government has no plans for the lowest 30% of the population, except to police them". Possibly he does not smile because he takes the sad mess of the decline of the western world to heart, and that's a good thing.
Actually he speaks more colourfully than that (no concessions to non-native speakers). The Americans subtitle him. Do have a look at this five minute explanation of Brexit.
The line was P & O and the ship had a large Union Flag painted on the front, and there were 800 crew. The officers were mostly British, the crew was from the Philippines (I think) the waiters were from Goa, the housekeeping staff were from the Philippines (again). Very charming and hard-working people. The entertainment staff were Australian, English and Scottish. Interesting - historically, P& O gave many working class people the chance to escape from Liverpool, etc., and see the world. Now the opportunities go to the Indians and Philippinos. That must be because of unionisation and the low pay given. But it does remind me of something I heard after Brexit, trying to understand what had done wrong. I found some video of a very unsmiling Scottish professor who said: "The government has no plans for the lowest 30% of the population, except to police them". Possibly he does not smile because he takes the sad mess of the decline of the western world to heart, and that's a good thing.
Actually he speaks more colourfully than that (no concessions to non-native speakers). The Americans subtitle him. Do have a look at this five minute explanation of Brexit.
Thursday, 30 June 2016
Two nations - and more
Benjamin Disraeli wrote a novel which I haven't read, but I will, called Sybil, or The Two Nations, and this is the most famous quotation (never "quote" please, girls!) from it.
At present the situation which most worries me is the potential for a split between Scotland and England - another two nations. This is such a small island that to break it apart makes no sense at all, except for the Europe question. Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, that this thing had to happen at all. How gloriously happy and blinkered we have been. Of course, often when I wrote about my life I said we were lucky and that many people in the U.K. are not so lucky, and I jeered at myself in a way, because I am not entirely unfeeling about that.
London voted to remain - in large numbers - and they are pretty angry with the situation. London is interesting. It is becoming politically active. It supports Jeremy Corbyn, whose parliamentary party is trying to oust him as leader - resigning in huge numbers - really with no reason as most (62%) Labour supported voted to remain, the same as Nicola Sturgeon's Scottish Nationalists. There is another binary split between the lefties outside parliament (pro Corbyn) and those inside (anti Corbyn) and why on earth should those inside entirely ignore the wishes of those outside whom they are supposed to represent? Anyway, a mob came out to show their support of Corbyn on Wednesday. The London mob! It hasn't been seen for centuries.
Sadly, not so many at his last meeting yesterday in Bloomsbury.
The reason why all these people support him is because he is not at all glossy and tailored; he can't be bothered about his image; he is just himself - a conviction politician who has been active all his life for the things he believes in - veteran of anti -apartheid, anti- nuclear protests; you can go back decades and see him protesting. When you look at the last Labour leader, Ed Miliband, you can appreciate the difference. He was part of the political machine - he lived and breathed Westminster - it was very hard to identify with him because he was such a rarefied species. I never felt he'd been to anything like a protest where he might have to rub shoulders with the common people! For me, he was Blair's man, so I loathed him the way I loathed Tony Blair.
Of course, Miliband has said that Corbyn should resign!
In the Tory party there is also a great deal of infighting as they try to decide who will take the leadership from Cameron. If it is Boris Johnson he will split the party as he is not respected or trusted; he doesn't seem to have convictions and he has not served much time as an MP. When he was an MP he did it part-time as he was still a journalist, and was editing the Spectator at the same time. He delegated his MP work to some secretary. Not much commitment, then, no time to make connections or to form judgments of his fellow Tories. However, the people seem to warm to him. They think he is a real Union flag, Brexit man like themselves, who wants to close the borders (he doesn't).
Some people want Theresa May, who is a natural successor to Cameron, but she was in the Remain side and some people say the new leader must be someone who was in the Leave side. (Theresa May has no moral scruples. There was a programme on Parliament and it showed her pushing through an important piece of legislation by tabling it at short notice at the end of the day so there was no time for a debate on it. She swept in with her acolytes and looked like an Empress with her courtiers. She didn't look as though it had occurred to her to represent anyone but herself and her own glory.) Well, the Tories will like that, I suppose.
Another thing about Corbyn is that he does want to represent the ordinary man who voted for him. I don't think this is laughable. I think he correctly understands his function!
When I see Owen Jones trying to be brave and encouraging us all to make plans for the future, I still feel terribly sad, and reading all the comments I see that everyone else feels the same. We are like headless chickens.
Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets. The rich and the poor.Well, now we know, don't we! In this country it's the educated and the uneducated, and it's the same; we don't know each other. We hardly visit each other's websites - even though it's easy to do so - because they are so unattractive each to the other. I accidentally went to a website called Right Lad and I was really disgusted by it - jeering hatred of a tearful liberal woman. ("Her period will stop and she'll forget all about it.") And this is triumphalism, which they are good at (not that they know the word) because they have won the referendum. The level of their comments ranges from "Suck it up you whining bastards" to "Don't you get it, losers, it's a democracy!"
At present the situation which most worries me is the potential for a split between Scotland and England - another two nations. This is such a small island that to break it apart makes no sense at all, except for the Europe question. Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, that this thing had to happen at all. How gloriously happy and blinkered we have been. Of course, often when I wrote about my life I said we were lucky and that many people in the U.K. are not so lucky, and I jeered at myself in a way, because I am not entirely unfeeling about that.
London voted to remain - in large numbers - and they are pretty angry with the situation. London is interesting. It is becoming politically active. It supports Jeremy Corbyn, whose parliamentary party is trying to oust him as leader - resigning in huge numbers - really with no reason as most (62%) Labour supported voted to remain, the same as Nicola Sturgeon's Scottish Nationalists. There is another binary split between the lefties outside parliament (pro Corbyn) and those inside (anti Corbyn) and why on earth should those inside entirely ignore the wishes of those outside whom they are supposed to represent? Anyway, a mob came out to show their support of Corbyn on Wednesday. The London mob! It hasn't been seen for centuries.
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| Parliament Square, Wednesday |
The reason why all these people support him is because he is not at all glossy and tailored; he can't be bothered about his image; he is just himself - a conviction politician who has been active all his life for the things he believes in - veteran of anti -apartheid, anti- nuclear protests; you can go back decades and see him protesting. When you look at the last Labour leader, Ed Miliband, you can appreciate the difference. He was part of the political machine - he lived and breathed Westminster - it was very hard to identify with him because he was such a rarefied species. I never felt he'd been to anything like a protest where he might have to rub shoulders with the common people! For me, he was Blair's man, so I loathed him the way I loathed Tony Blair.
Of course, Miliband has said that Corbyn should resign!
In the Tory party there is also a great deal of infighting as they try to decide who will take the leadership from Cameron. If it is Boris Johnson he will split the party as he is not respected or trusted; he doesn't seem to have convictions and he has not served much time as an MP. When he was an MP he did it part-time as he was still a journalist, and was editing the Spectator at the same time. He delegated his MP work to some secretary. Not much commitment, then, no time to make connections or to form judgments of his fellow Tories. However, the people seem to warm to him. They think he is a real Union flag, Brexit man like themselves, who wants to close the borders (he doesn't).
Some people want Theresa May, who is a natural successor to Cameron, but she was in the Remain side and some people say the new leader must be someone who was in the Leave side. (Theresa May has no moral scruples. There was a programme on Parliament and it showed her pushing through an important piece of legislation by tabling it at short notice at the end of the day so there was no time for a debate on it. She swept in with her acolytes and looked like an Empress with her courtiers. She didn't look as though it had occurred to her to represent anyone but herself and her own glory.) Well, the Tories will like that, I suppose.
Another thing about Corbyn is that he does want to represent the ordinary man who voted for him. I don't think this is laughable. I think he correctly understands his function!
When I see Owen Jones trying to be brave and encouraging us all to make plans for the future, I still feel terribly sad, and reading all the comments I see that everyone else feels the same. We are like headless chickens.
Saturday, 25 June 2016
The Day After The Shock
If anything, today is worse! When I went out yesterday everywhere was really quiet - the car park at Virginia Water was almost empty. I heard more Urdu spoken than any other language, and I also heard Russian, and American accents. At V.W. there is a private American school - we have three of these in this area, and the Americans spend a lot of money - they rent big homes, they pay school fees (employment for local teachers) they buy big cars, private healthcare, and our expensive petrol - I won't go on, but believe me, they live very well (and they also employ people to clean their swimming pools and have fireworks displays and so forth) - the redeployment of the Americans will be a huge hole in our local economy.
When the area is poorer the Poles and Czechs will follow the money to the part of the EU that's richer. So the Vote Outs will have had their way on immigration - but the COST!!! It turns out that they honestly believe that the EU is where the Muslims come from, and they've just stopped women in burkhas from entering the country. There were also some regrets from the Vote Outs yesterday because it seemed they regarded it as a protest vote and didn't expect to win!
Anyway, I am slightly sorry that Cameron has to go - he has behaved like a gent and kept his promises, although he was foolhardy about the referendum. The main horror is that there is no person of talent to negotiate our exit (which may turn out to be more of a quick march to the door and a hard push) because when you look at Gove and Johnson you don't feel inspired by their talent. Johnson is a good journalist and a brilliant self-publicist, but he is all for himself. One feels his grasp of issues and problems is weak. Gove is slightly mad (he took To Kill a Mocking Bird off the choices for GCSE reading on the grounds that it wasn't challenging enough, and wasn't English, also Of Mice and Men, replaced by Romantic Poetry. Hard luck, 15 year-olds!).
Apparently, according to a specialist I heard on the radio, the referendum was a choice between - Do you want everything to stay the same ? (Remain) or Do you want change? (Leave), so malcontents voted Leave.
Still shocked. Can't wait to see our friend in the IMF and find out what's going on there.
But actually - from something my sister-in-law said on Facebook I have been thinking again about the vote and why the Leavers won - they voted that way because they don't care if the economy tanks, because they think we all deserve to be poor, like them. They think we rich southerners have had it easy for too long and when we are poor too, we will get a taste of our own medicine. It's not a mistake on their part - it's an intentional vote for decline and chaos.
When the area is poorer the Poles and Czechs will follow the money to the part of the EU that's richer. So the Vote Outs will have had their way on immigration - but the COST!!! It turns out that they honestly believe that the EU is where the Muslims come from, and they've just stopped women in burkhas from entering the country. There were also some regrets from the Vote Outs yesterday because it seemed they regarded it as a protest vote and didn't expect to win!
Anyway, I am slightly sorry that Cameron has to go - he has behaved like a gent and kept his promises, although he was foolhardy about the referendum. The main horror is that there is no person of talent to negotiate our exit (which may turn out to be more of a quick march to the door and a hard push) because when you look at Gove and Johnson you don't feel inspired by their talent. Johnson is a good journalist and a brilliant self-publicist, but he is all for himself. One feels his grasp of issues and problems is weak. Gove is slightly mad (he took To Kill a Mocking Bird off the choices for GCSE reading on the grounds that it wasn't challenging enough, and wasn't English, also Of Mice and Men, replaced by Romantic Poetry. Hard luck, 15 year-olds!).
Apparently, according to a specialist I heard on the radio, the referendum was a choice between - Do you want everything to stay the same ? (Remain) or Do you want change? (Leave), so malcontents voted Leave.
Still shocked. Can't wait to see our friend in the IMF and find out what's going on there.
But actually - from something my sister-in-law said on Facebook I have been thinking again about the vote and why the Leavers won - they voted that way because they don't care if the economy tanks, because they think we all deserve to be poor, like them. They think we rich southerners have had it easy for too long and when we are poor too, we will get a taste of our own medicine. It's not a mistake on their part - it's an intentional vote for decline and chaos.
Friday, 24 June 2016
It was close, but now it's such bad news
I feel as though this is the most terrible day of my life - although nothing has changed yet. I did work hard on understanding the issues; I did my research, I did think about it carefully, and I decided Remain was really important and the only way forward. But when we drove up to Birmingham last week we saw nothing but Vote Leave signs. I think the Vote Remain people were intimidated by the more pugnacious Vote Leave people and they never put up signs - or in one case - it got torn down almost immediately by a White Van Man.
So the White Van People have taken us out of Europe and shown us why democracy has never got more than two cheers out of three, and today I can't really cheer for it at all. Some of my friends have been crying, especially the young people who really feel their futures have been chucked away.
We have been so lucky here in the South East, ever since the 1980s we have had prosperity and I really can't see that continuing - I can imagine the bankers moving out of the country leaving a lot of empty houses - I can imagine a property crash - I can imagine pensions being worthless as the economy collapses. Why did anyone believe Farage? He clearly knows nothing - he just wanted the right to smoke in his local pub. And look where that's got us.
Can we have proportional representation now?
So the White Van People have taken us out of Europe and shown us why democracy has never got more than two cheers out of three, and today I can't really cheer for it at all. Some of my friends have been crying, especially the young people who really feel their futures have been chucked away.
We have been so lucky here in the South East, ever since the 1980s we have had prosperity and I really can't see that continuing - I can imagine the bankers moving out of the country leaving a lot of empty houses - I can imagine a property crash - I can imagine pensions being worthless as the economy collapses. Why did anyone believe Farage? He clearly knows nothing - he just wanted the right to smoke in his local pub. And look where that's got us.
Can we have proportional representation now?
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