I’m glad you’ve got some hope left. After long years of clinging on with my fingernails to some vestiges of hope that the slide away from the essentially decent, civilised nation I grew up in might be halted, I have now lost every last trace of it. Merry Christmas.
Commiserations, UK. It seems we’re all stuck with hideous right wing governments that our compatriots have chosen for us. In the case of the UK it really beggars belief that after 9 years of austerity – food banks, slashes to services, skyrocketing poverty – that the people who suffer the most under Tory rule have gone and done it again. I really struggle to understand how this big abstract ‘getting your country back’ under Brexit overrules actually living a decent life in said country…
I came across this view from an ex-pat living in New Zealand. Some strong language for Denizens who prefer to steer clear. But I couldn’t find anything to disagree with. Britain dutifully bows down to the ruling elite.
I was going to post this anyway, Ath, but after following your link it has even more resonance: one of Sir Winston Churchill’s less popular pronouncements was that the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
I have read the article. This kind of sneering attitude is exactly why the Brexit leave vote came as a surprise to the great and the good. And it is also why the GE vote has come as a surprise. An 82 year old woman from Co Durham was reported in The Times today as saying (I can’t remember verbatim) “I can’t believe they’ve voted this way in an ex-mining area. Nobody I’ve spoken to would ever dream of it.” And there you have it. In the privacy of the ballot box the electorate can put its cross where it wants, free from castigation, sneers, tarred brushes and the like.
If I didn’t still hold out some hope for Scotland, I’d be seriously planning that. My parents might get kicked out anyway, so what’s to lose?
I’m glad you’ve got some hope left. After long years of clinging on with my fingernails to some vestiges of hope that the slide away from the essentially decent, civilised nation I grew up in might be halted, I have now lost every last trace of it. Merry Christmas.
Commiserations, UK. It seems we’re all stuck with hideous right wing governments that our compatriots have chosen for us. In the case of the UK it really beggars belief that after 9 years of austerity – food banks, slashes to services, skyrocketing poverty – that the people who suffer the most under Tory rule have gone and done it again. I really struggle to understand how this big abstract ‘getting your country back’ under Brexit overrules actually living a decent life in said country…
I came across this view from an ex-pat living in New Zealand. Some strong language for Denizens who prefer to steer clear. But I couldn’t find anything to disagree with.
Britain dutifully bows down to the ruling elite.
I was going to post this anyway, Ath, but after following your link it has even more resonance: one of Sir Winston Churchill’s less popular pronouncements was that the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
I have read the article. This kind of sneering attitude is exactly why the Brexit leave vote came as a surprise to the great and the good. And it is also why the GE vote has come as a surprise. An 82 year old woman from Co Durham was reported in The Times today as saying (I can’t remember verbatim) “I can’t believe they’ve voted this way in an ex-mining area. Nobody I’ve spoken to would ever dream of it.” And there you have it. In the privacy of the ballot box the electorate can put its cross where it wants, free from castigation, sneers, tarred brushes and the like.
We are a nation of bootlickers, aren’t we?
“There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people…religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin” – Linus, Peanuts cartoon, 1966.
Very wise words