Nothing stays the same

We now have new neighbours, but this time they comprise a full family with kids and dog.  This will be a new experience for us as we are used to silence on one side (as that property is only used during the summer) and limited noise on the other side from two women: a lady and her very elderly mother.  So, our ‘living quality’ is going to be rather different in the immediate future!

In the longer-term future, our contract with the letting agents for our house extends over the next couple of years, and then we will need to look for a new place - one that is on the ground floor of a block of flats - or some detached mansion by the sea if the Euromillions comes through!

We are not living in the cheapest part of this area and one can only wonder (and fear) about what the eventual consequences of Brexit will be in relation to the value of the pound sterling which is what my pension is paid in.  Although the cost of Brexit will be clear in the way that the pound falls when the situation becomes what passes for final in these hectic days, the other costs – social, political, geographic, status, influence, perception – will, insidiously affect the view of the British and the British view of The Other for generations to come.

The Left has paid an enormous price for dismissing the views of those who feel themselves outside the establishment, and who see their lives being dictated by remote movers who have little to do with their view of life.  Or, if not exactly dismissing those views, for failing to take account of them in political terms and failing, disastrously, to take them seriously.

There were lies on both sides of the debate, most egregiously in my view by the Brexiteers, those self-interested members of the establishment who, with breathtakingly Trumpian re-writing of reality now dismiss all their earlier promises and statements and cling to some sort of Little Englander (because let’s face it they couldn’t give a toss for the ‘fringes’ of that country) philosophy to justify a hard-line figment of xenophobic triumphalism to trump concerns about virtually everything that makes me proud to be British.

And, you see, I’ve descended into the wordy opprobrium as befits my perceived status and education!  I still cling to the belief that this whole nightmare will somehow dissipate and we will remain securely within the EU.  But, my country (no matter what the numbers and the percentages say) has voted in a referendum to leave and the government is bound to fulfil the verdict of the electorate.

I know that a ‘wrong’ vote against the EU in Ireland was treated as a hiccup and another vote was taken to ‘remedy’ the result – and part of me wants that to happen in my country too.  In spite of the fact that such an attitude does not sit well with my stated principles of democracy and the will of the people.

I have said elsewhere that I have always been amazed at the variety of theological (if they deserve to be termed thus) views of any congregation listening placidly to a sermon in any church in the country on a Sunday.  If you asked forensic questions concerning belief you would be amazed at what a seemingly united body of people actually stated as their individual beliefs.  But that would be true of any gathering of so-called like-minded people.  No matter if it is a political group, religious group, art appreciation class, or a society of pigeon fanciers – the variety of belief and the depth of ignorance would probably astonish.  That is just how people are.  A test I have often used as an example is to ask people to point out, on a blank map of the world, where Israel is.  The suggestions of where that country might be located will, I can assure you, astonish.

I am not saying that people are stupid, it’s just that people know different things.  What I perceive as being essential to a civilized life might well be something that others dismiss.  The only (or rather one of the many) dangers are when I start making assumptions based on what I think I know are self-evident truths.  What is wrong for me, is disaster in politics when the future government of the country is concerned.  Politicians have failed us and are continuing to fail us.  It is hardly surprising to see mounting dissatisfaction with the way that we have been governed and a desire to see another way, or if not as coherent as that, at least to give the established ways a shock. 

In some ways this is Anarchy, or rather anarchy with a small ‘a’ as it is not a thought-out doctrine, but rather a gut reaction to what is seen as something which is not tolerable.

It is probably a sign of the time that a worried wonder about the changes in the quality of life brought about by the large family that has just moved in next door, has ended in a nihilistic depression about Brexit!   

All thoughts lead to Brexit in my mind and the inescapable (or at least seemingly inescapable) consequences of this wanton act of self-harming by the British electorate – or those who bothered to vote!

Perhaps tomorrow I will be more jocund!