I wish there was something else on my mind just now....but slowly, day by day constitutional upheaval takes centre stage.
Here in rural Cornwall it all feels to be happening to the rest of the country but not here....we are so far away from everywhere it seems unlikely that anything happening upcountry has anything to do with us. For the very first time I now have sympathy with Scotland’s apparent desire to do their own thing.
We are full here right now. Our summer visitors are enjoying the wonderful weather on the beaches and I am told the hotels are just about packed so no one here is campaigning about anything...we are just feeling mostly blessed.
The chemist in the village is substituting various medicines for some things that are already not available. Every time I go down there I pop in and tell them that the substituted tablets must be alright because I’m not dead yet!
The British sense of humour is going to be tested to the full during the months of preparation to leave.
Over a lifetime I can’t remember a period when everything seemed uncertain....and it’s not good for us old ones. To get a feeling of normality back in my life I have been studying the cruise schedules coming up. Lots of things are grabbing my attention but somehow the thought of setting out to cross the Atlantic again is not making me feel adventurous....just daft in the face of this massive upheaval at home.
Did we really vote for all this? Or did we understand what it was all going to mean? Sorry chaps. I’m old. I still remember the way we lived during the war. It’s beginning to feel much the same.
But this week I have an old friend arriving...between us we will put the world to rights! If only!
1 comment:
We have short memories. If we think back to the seventies with the three day week (due to the Gulf war at that time). The Winter of Discontent, which ushered in a Tory government and the many strikes that than ensued. Even earlier when we had to go cap in hand to the IMF for loans to help us out of the economic chaos we got ourselves into. When I think it was De Gaule described us as the "Sick Man of Europe".
We lived through those days. I was actually living in Belgium with the Army through a lot of that period, so shielded from much going on in the UK. But the effects were also felt in Europe as well. Our woes, seemed to indicate how interlinked we were and remain.
So, our decision to leave the EU doesn't make sense when we are so interdependent on each other. A no deal Brexit will impact the EU as a body and particularly the Irish Republic will suffer economically - part of the EU, but separated from a main trading partner by artificial trade barriers.
Our Government in particular Mr Johnson and his advisers are not helping. Dogmatic positions and threats are no way to negotiate, if we allegedly will enjoy a free trade relationship with the EU, post Brexit. They say not and we don't appear to be listening. At least the government are grand standing about leaving and a glorious future.
All of the evidence is to the contrary and we ignore it at our peril. If we think that the EU rely on us for funding, and we threaten to stop paying anything of the divorce bill, than we will become an international pariah, not to be trusted.
But the Glorious few pushing a no deal cant see past the end of their noses. They hope to have a snap election, which will give them an overall majority, perhaps in partnership with the Brexit party? That would be the death knell for a democratic future. Right wing populism prevailing. I might just immigrate, anywhere. Perhaps Scotland, who will no doubt seek and win independence in that scenario.
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