Wither England?

Morning Mugs

Let's be fair, England isn't quite as good as it thinks it is. The good(?) people of England, the unwashed and somewhat slightly dazed decided last week that we didn't want to be part of Europe. Cue the ensuing chaos in the markets, employers holding investment back, a Tory party still riven by division but being usurped by a Labour party that wants ideological socialism whilst ignoring the moderate centre-left and has set about slashing it's own political wrists in public. Add to that the seemingly unhealable divisions between London and England, England and Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, Leave/Remain, North and South and now old and young and the UK is rapidly and inevitably on a trajectory to become the Divided Kingdom (DK).

In fairness to those who voted leave but aren't racist or xenophobic they voted for what they saw as longer term gain. I don't agree with this viewe but for many it was an alternative. However this turmoil was something they must have known would would happen and were happy presumably to accept.  The far right morons were always going to see this vote to leave the EU as a ratification of their hate policies against anyone 'not English'. You see it is the English that hold the majority of the far right within its borders. England is the country steeped in some sort of quasi-rose tinted early 20th century vision of life, where black faces were rare, foreign accents even rarer, everyone had jobs, could leave their front doors open etc etc...

However of course, what we actually had then was suppressed women, poor pay, little in the way of workers rights, young people expected to do as they were told and extreme poverty. Let's not forget of course, wars.....something we seeming enjoy although something that was necessary on at least 2 occasions as we led the fight to allow others to be free. However, challenges to the status quo were dimly viewed and society was built on class and wealth even more so than today. Back then the rich and poor divide was even more stark as very few were 'middle class'. The divide in the early 20th century was much more geared towards upper class or working class. Life back then, for the majority was about survival rather than living. 

Without a huge history lesson in the Labour movement, the liberalisation of society and all of the socio-economic changes during the latter part of the 20th century led us to todays comparatively wealthy situation. Today life is still challenging but with greater opportunity. Not enough opportunity, but much more than seen in the 20th century. And a lot of that came from being in the EU. Free movement to work elsewhere was applied equally. The workers of the UK had more locations and choices than ever before. The 'price' was other people could come here. Yet we saw this as a bad thing, despite the seemingly insatiable need for cheap plumbers and builders, for fruit pickers, for catering and bar staff and all of the other lower paid jobs that the indigenous people thought were below them. 

But England didn't like that. Those pesky migrants came here to take our jobs and claim benefits. Make your mind up folks.....

And the right wing grew. And is growing. 

The worst of this was the growth of UKIP. A pseudo racist xenophobic collection of swivel eyed loons appealed on the lowest common denominator issues of immigration, alleged lack of border control, alleged lack of control over laws all whilst hiding their desire to privatise the NHS, abolish the BBC and any number of other policies which would undermine 'Britishness' more than the EU has ever allegedly done. 

And yet England bought it. Rational good people, staunch Tories and yes, some Labourites bought this arse gravy. So much so the Tory party became spooked and obsessed by these issues to the point where it's leader, having outright won an election with a majority then acted like a coward and agreed a referendum. 

Instead of trying to be socially progressive and spread a positive message the immigration/migrant/benefits/job stealing/law dictating meme grew and grew. But only in England, where a national identity had been lost over decades by its innate arrogance and world view of ruling over its neighbours and ex-colonies in The Commonwealth. You only have to step across the border to find Scottish identity immediately, with no racist connotations. The same in Northern Ireland and Wales. Fierce patriotism and pride in abundance, but no distrust of others. Quite the opposite in fact, a warm welcome and a smile. England, like the grumpy bastard at the party refused to take this on board. It had it's scapegoats for its problems, none of which were it's fault but all the fault of others. The press barons of Murdoch, Rothermere, Desmond and Dacre fed this with their daily column inches of distrust, bigotry, fear, xenophobia and hatred, all the time injecting more and more poison into the English system. Was it any surprise that sickness descended? An MP shot for her liberal beliefs by a terrorist, yes a terrorist... not a loner. not a  crazed mentally ill man. A terrorist. A Polish centre, the heart of a community covered in hate graffiti. Far right posters portraying images of gay people being hung on the streets. And it continues as the far right, the ill-educated, the disenfranchised now see 17m people were on their side. They weren't, but that's what these people see. 

No wonder Scotland and the others are distancing themselves from England. They now see a chance for independence themselves. A right to self control and self determination, succeed or fail. And who could blame them? Would you want to live next to such a bullying, nasty and arrogant neighbour? One that tells you whats best for you. And how can England argue with their independence.....perhaps they could try Project Fear...I hear that works out well generally! I applaud and support the independence movements in all of the other UK neighbours. I wish them luck in their struggle to do to the UK what the UK, led by England did to Europe. 

As for England.....if ever something summed up the pitiful state of the nation, then the football team showed us. Disjointed, lack of leadership, finger pointing, blaming others, confused, bemused, sad and unhappy. Parallels all around. 

One can only hope that once set adrift it can find what it needs. That the huge amount of good people in England can find a way and political system  (proper PR) of making sure everyone is represented. That it can re-educate to remove the far right trend, remove the loathsome Farage and his hateful party from public life and maybe, just maybe one day ask the rest of the world if it can come out to play again. 

Later Mugs, GJ

It's All About Me!!!!!

Afternoon Mugs

You could be forgiven for thinking that the blog is always all about the writer, at least their views and opinions. But this time it's in relation to the apocalyptic vote to leave the EU. I use the word apocalyptic but in my mind I want to use the word catastrophic. Of course that opens me up the Leave brigade accusing me of willing the UK to fail. They may be right! Perhaps it's time for seismic constitutional changes such as Proportional representation, republicanism, devolution and leaving the EU is the trigger...but that's for another post.

I'm in a fortunate position of having been in continuous employment since the age of 17 ...that's ahem....several decades. I've worked in fact since the UK has been in the EU nee EEC nee Common Market. Prior to working I remember a UK that was somewhat racist...not far right racist...but distrusting racist. The kind of memes would 'they're not like us'....'they like all that nig nog music' ...'the food stinks of nothing but curry' . Did the EU change that. To some degree it did. Acceptance of new cultures always takes time and distrusting racism is normal as it's borne of unwitting ignorance forthe most part. As people learn, they adjust, attitudes soften and more often than not acceptance turns into an embracing of aspects other cultures bring. Just look at the popularity of Indian food as one example. Black music has ingrained itself into our culture as 'white man rock' has fed into black culture. All for the better in my opinion. 

The same for homophobia. This was far more prevalent in the 70s where it was ostracised as abnormal, an illness, deviancy and even evil. I should know, because I believed all of those were accurate. Of course enlightenment comes through education and opening your mind to facts and experience. Nowadays my only issue with homophobia is the constant need for gay people (can we have that word back please...Gilbert O' Sullivan would be very happy) to state their sexuality as part of their being. Straight people don't state sexuality as the default, why should gay people? But it's getting closer. 

There's so much to say about how things have improved since the 70s in social attitudes to all sectors of society (gender, disability, creed, religion etc). None of this was due to the EU alone. But that EU membership and close relationship with so many neighbours helped the cross cultural spread of tolerance and commonality. We were no longer an island but a hive. The centre of a continent where people could breathe and be who they wanted with little bother. 

Over the last decades since Thatcher though, society has seen globalisation expand. Huge faceless corporations featured everyday in our lives. Politicians stopped working and came straight from university with degrees but no real world experience. Over the years we were dragged into wars caused by others or allowed to happen so that politicians could save their skin (yes Maggie, thats you) and so people became more and more disenfranchised and disenchanted with the politicians. Not forgetting the expenses scandals. And on Thursday 23rd June all of that resentment rose to the top as the people voted in protest against an unelected elite as they saw it in Brussels. They did this so that they could be governed by ...an unelected elite! The House of Lords! The Royal Family! Lord 'Daily Mail Rothermere (who lives abroad), Rupert Murdoch! 

They say you reap what you sew and the UK has just done that. The EU had its faults but it was not the root of the evils people were led to believe. That was successive governments enslaved to big business and media barons. Now the UK faces the start of its own painful break up. I truly hope Scotland and Northern Ireland go their own way, after all the Brexit brigade could hardly argue the logic of those countries was any different to their own. 

As for me, well my plans took a dent yesterday. But we'll plough on because I think I'm in the few who can withstand the economic impact of leaving the EU as long as I keep my job...and even if I didn't I could start something to tide us over.  I will cash the DC pension fund in, pay stupid tax on it but be debt free and have a shiny new holiday home to last me 10 or more years until I retire with my new DC pension and my lovely maxed out final salary index linked one. 

I will work as long as I can until 65 and look for any tax avoidance mechanism possible for savings and shares. Charity now starts and stays with me and my family. No-one else will get any sort of free money from us. That's what cutting your cloth does. I will also claim my Irish citizenship by descent (Mum was Irish) so I have my safety net for retiring to France, Ireland or the independent Scotland. 

You see, after yesterday it's all about me.

Later Mugs. 

It's coming....honestly.....the return is nigh

Work starts here on the revival of Grocerjack and his musings. A little site revamp, a tweak and a change to the the sister blog as well. It's time to reduce Facebook and go back to blogging, where I can write what I want about what I want.

Later Mugs, GJ