Brexit Bollocks: An ongoing view.

Evening Mugs,

Happy Brexit Week. Yay , the good ship SS Great Britain sails off into the distance singing sea shanties and striking trade deals around the globe for silk and spices and tobacco...........the United Kingdom rejoices in freedom and control. People will be able to leave their front doors open again, scruffy children will play in the streets and pubs will be full of people standing around upright piano's singing songs of Blighty's greatness...........

Meanwhile, in the corner of our country that hasn't been injecting LSD directly into its veins, 48% of the country are sitting there thinking 'what was so bad before Article 50?'. We're watching helplessly on the sidelines as the UK starts a bonfire of its own vanities. The current course we've plotted is to step back in terms of wealth and freedom. And if we speak out? if we challenge? Then we're 'remoaners' , 'lefties' and to some we're even traitors. This is the lurch to the right the UK is moving to along the political spectrum. 

I was bloody furious about the referendum being called, then I was furious about the pathetic 16 word question, dumbing down to the ignorant and stupid and witless a major national issue. I was furious over the outcome knowing that the most impacted people were the ignorant and the have nots. People convinced by rich and landed career politicians that everything was the fault of Johnny Foreigner and the invading hordes of Turks....sorry not Turks......Bulgarians....sorry not Bulgarians .....Poles etc etc. The British populace was conned by rich, educated, power crazed people for whom the cozy white privileged life was threatened by hordes of educated proles with a sense of fairness and decency and community. The true globalists were the ordinary working people. The real nationalists and xenophobes were the privileged classes and their right wing press robber barons. 

Those generally decent people were mugged off. 

So this historic week is not a week for ranting (although I reserve the right to rant freely), but a day when I believe the UK will start to dissolve. The decision to leave was an English one and one that belittles the Union as a whole. After all, why is one political union Ok, but not the other? Especially if the other is one created from force rather than collaboration. Cultural similarities? Do me a favour....the Scots have a far more distinct character and national identity than the English. Northern Ireland is less mired in sectarian politics than ever as the younger generations, borne of a tiger economy and internal and external investment see that jobs and prosperity will come from Europe rather than England. 

And Wales...the elephant in the UK room sits there mystifyingly as a country that has seen more EU investment than any other nation in the UK and decided to vote out. Good luck with that when the United Kingdom of England and Wales dishes out the cash in the years to come, because if you think the politicians in England give a flying fuck about you then you're more deluded than even I thought.  

I have no doubt deals will be struck, but the idea that we'll get better than we have now is nonsense. Yes we can strike deals with Australia, New Zealand, Gambia and any other number of developing nations as well as other commonwealth nations. But China? The USA? India? Do you really think these economies will look at us rather than a trading bloc of over 500 million people? One that can use enticing tariffs to tempt buyers where we won't have the economies of scale. Wait until the exodus of manufacturing and banking happens.  And people like James Dyson can set up cheap labour factories in Africa whilst keeping a token design force in the UK all they like, but in the end the days when UK PLC could rule the waves as a trading nation have gone. We make less stuff you see. Therefore we have less to sell. And if you're a German car maker, and the bulk of your customers are on the european land mass, and the people want and possibly need less money then how likely to stay in the UK are you?

So good luck SS Great Britain, hope the sails can keep you moving. But don't be surprise when those former upstart nations such as India and China decide that really, you have nothing of much interest to them. And good luck Scotland when you take the inevitable plunge to independence - a different subject of course, but another I feel close to. After all if one union isn't good enough then why should any other?

Later Mugs, GJ 

Social media muggery

Evening Mugs,

I'm 55. Yep 55. Mid-fifties. Middle aged. On the downward slope of life. 

It's interesting to me that since this blog started way back in about 2004 how it was a key part of my life, like diary writing for the middle aged who couldn't be arsed before.   Then as other social media came into play it faded when faced with the might of Facebook and Twitter. Yeah there were brief occasional witterings full of bile, possibly admiration, maybe even happiness, all laced with hints or promises to get back into writing. I even convinced myself that it didn't matter who read it, if anyone did at all because the joy and cathartic nature of putting thoughts into writing was enough to keep it going. At the start the creative juices were plentiful and the mind was constantly moist. 

Sadly it wasn't to last and over time laziness became the overriding maxim when I came to writing. I just couldn't be arsed to rant, or to find moments of interest in an otherwise ordinary and dull and increasingly contented  life. That and being 'discovered' by friends and family which meant despite the anonymisation of them via nicknames, some were upset for reasons of 'fuck-allness' but by doing so immediately marked themselves as sensitive drama queens that I could do without in my life. Some would then relate anecdotes to me about them for inclusion and of course some who would then try and act weird or wacky in order for me to include them.  Anyone who acts weird or whacky, or describes themselves as such is just suffering from John Major Syndrome. 

Facebook is nowadays, for me, merely a dad joke and picture upload forum with occasional comments, and perhaps it's best served as a mechanism to keep in touch with friends old and new without the hassle of actually speaking to them. Facebook is OK but it doesn't sate the need to vent, rant, praise, critique or opine in full. Twitter, with it's 140 character limit feels similar, a place to speak freely unless of course you speak against the crowd, after which it becomes a lynch mob of nappy shitting keyboard warriors with a genetically missing sense of context and the lack of basic intelligence with which to debate any subject or opinion with subtlety or nuance. Twitter is odd because it allows anyone to join a conversation irrespective of whether they have been asked or invited. You don't even need to use a polite 'I couldn't help overhearing you....' interjection to bring you into someones chat. Despite this, I have nearly 2000 'followers' which massages the ego nicely, and for the most part they are all Chelsea related and I have made an awful lot of good friends in real life by blind date meetings with them in pre-football match venues. In TwitterLand, when you meet for real,  everyone has 2 names, the one you introduce yourself by (@grocerjackuk) and your real name. 

Snapchat? I have no idea how it works or what it could do for me (pissed old hack baffled by new technology as Private Eye used to say). 

Instagram is OK, and I like the idea of a photo upload system and a social media based on that. Instagram can convey a moment much like Twitter and Facebook, with the added bonus that the underlying nastiness of Twitter has yet to pervade it. Safe, nice and maybe a bit dull. 

Where Facebook is extraordinarily tedious is with people sharing stupid hoaxes, promises of free Range Rovers, SUVs, Lodge Holidays and any number of crap cod philosophy quotes or unfunny videos. No matter how many times I post a friendly 'hoax' warning, there are still people seemingly so dim that they genuinely think someone has a warehouse full of iPads they need to give away for free because of over-stocking. Yes, because giving away £400 tablets because of an over-order that they, the seller, has had to pay for is  a very sustainable business model isn't it? 

And don't get me started on the like-farming wankers who post stock pictures of disadvantaged or ill people and then ask for 'likes' or even more sickeningly an 'amen' comment. These are just cunts, and sadly the people who spread this stuff, well intentioned or not, are the equivalent of the morons who used to pass on chain letters at secondary school. They are fuckwits, unwitting and gullible maybe, but fuckwits all the same. 

Anyway I digress. It seems the lure of writing has tentatively returned. I've been inspired by one person, who shall remain nameless but their ability to write fascinating historical tomes at what I'm guessing is a tender mid-20s age, or to write blog articles about my beloved Chelsea FC post match, whilst simultaneously doing an impression of a gin hoover is nothing short of deeply impressive. For someone so young, they are pretty 'old school' and almost entirely down to their drive and example that finding and making time to write is the key to .....errrr......writing,  I have decided to try, once again, to come out of retirement and kick start this old blog.

I've updated a few rules of the Guild , a few of the occasional 'cast' and some rules of my Liberation Political Party which the UK is crying out for under my benign dictatorship :) 

See them here

The ornaments lining GrumpyBloke Hall's dimly lit passages are being dusted down, the fading incandescent light bulbs being replaced by new shiny bright LED versions, the carpet is due to be 'shake and vac'd' , doors, skirting and frames given a lick of paint and walls given a new coat and a steam clean. Money is ready to be loaded into the meter and new pictures hung on the newly painted walls. All my old posts, good, bad, funny, unfunny, hateful and joyous are still sitting on the virtual bookshelves. The Guild of Grumpy Blokes has opened it's eyes......

All in all, this time, it's worth a try.

Later Mugs, GJ 

A Life of Fear?

Afternoon Mugs

Well, yesterday the event we feared in the UK but hoped would not happen again, did in fact happen. At the time of writing it looks like a radicalised lone wolf has decided that his God is so weak, so ineffective and so fucking hopeless at protecting all of his faithful flock that he decided to help him out and kill some infidels. 

This time using the blunt instrument of a large car, and the rather more sharper yet equally deadly knife. 

I could harp on about the terrorists not winning, about the bravery of the police and emergency services, of the fellow people who helped out, tourists and normal people doing their normal business, about the fuckwittery of taking selfies at the scene and the mixed morality of live footage and photo's but I won't. Virtue signalling isn't my bag though and all of the sympathy and thoughts should be yours and my default stance. 

Actually on that last bit ...I will. I would not want to see a dead friend or relative on social media and that be the way I found out about their demise. But i don't want to be denied the horror of what has happened. Like many this is what spurs us on to be stoic and outraged. if we weren't then what would we be...mere automatons robotically carrying on with no compassion? There's a line here, such as blurring faces for a start, something simply done but seemingly beyond the lazy and stupid insensitive bastards rubbernecking any type of human tragedy. And just based on human compassion alone, why not just picture the scene not the individuals involved? But get off your collective high horses about those who do take the pictures and publish, be they passers by or media corporations. Blackouts don't work and will never happen in this modern smartphone, social media instant gratification, on-line 'connected' age unless we willingly allow suppression of free speech and thought.  I have yet to hear the same complaints regarding pictures and footage coming when the atrocity happens abroad in Berlin, Paris, Brussels or Damascus, Mosul or Ethiopia. Pictures of dead and starving children are fine are they, but not of people in the midst of a terrorist incident? I'm not saying I agree with the pictures broadcast yesterday but I do sniff double or mixed standards here. 

My main gripe is that yet again the twisted and poisoned dogma of religion claims yet more victims and that is where my issues with religion come into play. Through the years I have moved from Roman Catholic born and indoctrinated/brainwashed/raised, to stroppy questioning teenager, after all what sort of *God wants me to go to Church when I WANT to play football with my mates? I then sauntered to the safety fence of agnosticism but questioning the morality of a God that promises unconditional love whilst applying the condition of undying and unswerving worship? After reading The God Delusion and a book called God: the Biography (By Alexander Waugh) the sidestep to atheism was completed.  I am about to start God Is Not Great. I suspect it will reinforce my benevolent form of atheism even more. As an atheist I know that every bad thing i do is something I have to live with, and not something a few mumbled words in Church will assuage through God's alleged forgiveness.

I know **people will take umbrage on my view that religion in general is bad, but it is. And the bad outweighs any good because NOT ONE person should die for or because of religion.  Religion should not be 'mostly good' it should be completely and unambiguously a force for good. It should be un-corruptible. It should be crystal clear. There should be no ambiguity. No doubt. And it should be optional. Every religion should have one overriding message that you can choose not to join and take your chances at your end. Simple as. As things stand and have always stood where religion is concerned, it looks to suppress and control people by the imposition of fear through threats of eternal burning and agony and servitude to the purveyor of the religion's ideals of right and wrong. 

What sort of God would sanction that level of alleged hellfire punishment for people acting on the very frailties he built into his creation? Why give people the ability to hate or be mad or to despise and then allow them free reign to use them? If he's a God and omnipotent in the true sense of the word, then he could either limit those frailties, or allow them and use a mechanism to ensure it doesn't lead to anyone's death. If he created us then why not build a DNA algorithm into us which physically and genetically prevents every human from the taking of another life? No more murder, genocide, matricide or people being blown up by remote control. Surely as the ultimate creator of our complex world he could have done that? 

But he didn't did he? 

Either he couldn't do that because basically he's a bit of a shit 'Life Creation Engineer', or he didn't do that because he doesn't  care what his creation does. Instead he's fallen asleep on the job. He's a seagull God, who flies in, hangs around a bit, shits on people (Adam/Eve anyone?....punished for eating a Granny Smith?)  and then fucks off. While he snoozes he wittingly allows his 'disciples' to bastardise his alleged teachings (sorry folks, teachings written by liars and conmen) and then act unilaterally on his behalf. He allows these fuckwits to become judge, jury and executioner and allows them to carry out their acts of madness with impunity. He does nothing. He's asleep in the corner of a celestial party having knocked a few bottles of Deity strength Jack Daniels over. 

God, if you exist, and you believe in judging people at the end of their life why not have the decency to allow them to live their lives to their natural end, and not have their lives ended at the hands of people acting in your name? Just think God, how lovely it would be for your creations not to have to live a life based in fear, but in joy and hope. And think where that might have led us. 

I won't hold my breath waiting for your answer. 

Later Mugs, GJ

*Note - I have used the gender 'he' to refer to God, because not one religion I know of has promoted the idea that a woman might have been God. And let's be honest, women would never be that fucking stupid or vindictive, or come to think of it, that lazy or ignorant so as to ignore the actions of their creations. 

**If you're offended by this, then good. I don't really care. But know this, be religious if you like. I am all for freedom of choice, but you should in turn respect my right to not believe and not feel it is your duty to convert me. That way we can have a nice drink and chat with no problems. 

Can I Still Do this?

Afternoon Mugs,

Lets get one thing straight , Blogger.com needs to let me set my default font instead of always going back to the Torygraph like Times New Roman shit. I'm a Verdana man, simple as that. 

I've been doing a little free course on creative writing so you might see bits here from time to time. I'm still forcing myself to try and write something punchy here day after day, but the fact is I am a lazy bastard and also the idea of constant moaning as was the way can be very ....well let's just say that sometimes the cathartic nature of writing about life as a Grumpy Bloke can also become a self fulfilling prophecy and I don't want that to be come my default 'brand' . Over the years I've embraced the grumpiness borne of getting older, watching my children grow up into lovely balanced young women, watching my grand-daughter come into the world and the amazement that every new experience brings to her face and all the time realising that my role and my usefulness is now slowly shuffling towards the still hopefully distant exit door. 

My cynicism remains intact, but I want to hide it away more often these days so that the youngsters won't get sick of me sniping like some bitter old wreck. No, my stance is to try and smile and go with the flow and allow them to fuck up like I did. Like we all have at some point. Inside I am quite content but recent events and the way society is moving both  culturally and politically is always going to keep firing up the militant fires smouldering inside of me. I am, no doubt, further to the left of politics than I have been for some time although I could not bring myself to vote for a party led by an underhand, power crazed hypocrite like Jeremy Corbyn. I was and am a proud New Labour person, fighting for a fairer society whilst embracing the uncomfortable fact that capitalism is and always will be a necessary evil to generate innovation and fund that fairer society. I like that stance a lot. yes new Labour snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the end by replacing Blair with the dull and serious Brown, but for me the politics, including misguided wars was sound. 

So, yes, I'm now following a little course to help me write creatively, and the hope is this will lead me to write more stuff here. Its not about promised anymore, it's about delivering. So I'll start with updating the sister blog to this, the cast and characters in my life...and who knows maybe in something else later on :)

Later Mugs, GJ

So, here we go....

Morning Mugs

And so we try again, this time though it will happen. Things to moan about, things to dig at and maybe the odd moment of joy or genuine humour. There;s lots to discuss , discoveries of new music and interests the death of old interests, many awkward moments, broken trusts, dying friendships, a lack of new meaningful friendships. All to document a new Grumpy Bloke Phase...that of diminishing relevance. 

The fatherhood role is withering on the vine, the grandparent role is fun but very much part time, the importance of getting on at work is dead,  nostalgia grows, intolerance grows and it all seems so.......inevitable.

Maybe this is the mid-life crisis that I'm having in what should surely be classed as the autumn of life? Haven't I been through middle age? Maybe middle age lasts until you shuffle off this mortal coil?

Nothing sums me up better than this one line from one of my favourite bands, The Manic Street Preachers.

HOW I HATE MIDDLE AGE, CAUGHT BETWEEN ACCEPTANCE AND RAGE....

How very apt.

Later Mugs, GJ

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.