Snow days and Brexit

I've tried my hardest to avoid writing about Brexit, partly in the hope it is going to go away or I'll wake up and find out I was having a bad dream about a country that decided to turn its back on its closest friends and sought refuge in the mythical paradise of Trump's USA and communist China. Sadly it is true and the days are counting down and the faux patriotic cliches continue to pour out of the mouths of our politicians and right wing journalists.

Industries threat to relocate and reduce investment and the Brexiter response is either 'let them, well cope' or 'they are blackmailing us, they want more money' , no they don't want more money, they want stability and access to the EU markets.  Sure the UK doesn't make as many bits and bobs as it did 50 years ago but those bits and bobs (cars, aeroplane wings, medicines, aero engines) go to the EU in vast quantities and the EU is really good at doing trade deals with other big countries, Japan this week for instance.

We are not fighting the Nazis, but the Brexit extremists act as if our European friends are our enemies. No, they are not. I worry more about Putin's Russia, Trump's USA and the emerging superpower dictatorship of China. They will not be our sanctuary, nor will the Commonwealth (our former Empire). They remember how we treated them, used them and let them die for our empire and refused independence for many (unless they were white) and they had to fight for it.  How many Indians and Pakistanis died for our empire and because of it!? 

Brexit is the dead-cat bounce of a declining imperial power and rather than modernise and embrace our neighbours we are running away because of our flawed superiority complex.  Brexit will deprive this country of many good things and will do so for a generation to come. It is madness and to look at how this country copes in times of crisis all you need to do is read recent headlines about panic over KFC running out of chicken and snow, a few inches of snow and the whole SW and SE of England fell apart, the BBC was full of panic and fear, all because of frozen water falling from the sky. The country panics, the stiff upper lip turns into a quivering wreck.  Countries with regular snow falls of 2-3 ft are laughing at us, small European nations get far more snow and they continue, no shortages of chicken but certainly a shortage of hyperbole.

On the bright side, I finally found a none temp, none interim role that hopefully will be my job for quite some time.  Anything has to be better than the awful place I've just left.  

And yes, I would be Big Bird in that scenario, my former director would indeed be DV.

Onwards and upwards for me but not too sure about my country right now.

February 2nd, 2019