A week is a long time in politics. Over the past week or so, twenty minutes has seemed a long time! I genuinely don’t know where to begin because, as I have often written, you can’t make this stuff up!
So, following the result of the Referendum we’ve had the Prime Minister resign, the official Opposition party, like lemmings, throw themselves over a cliff and he who would be king, Boris Johnson, having done more than anyone to bring about this f**kfest, deciding that he can’t be bothered to take responsibility for what he’s done and help clear up the mess. Oh my goodness, you really couldn’t make it up.
Many commentators are wondering why Article 50, which starts the two-year countdown to the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, has not yet been triggered. Cameron played a clever trick by resigning, leaving someone else to carry the can and complete the buggeration of the UK. Cameron will be remembered only as the fool who started the whole thing off and thus initiated the disintegration of both the EU and the UK. Someone else will preside over the actual s**tstorm. That “someone else” was to have been Boris Johnson but Boris is now well and truly screwed. His disloyalty to Cameron won’t be forgotten amongst the party faithful and what modest leverage he might have gained amongst the Eurosceptic Conservatives is spent now that he’s bailed out and run away. Still, you can’t help wonder – when someone does press the button and it all goes pear-shaped – whether there might just be Boris, waiting in the wings with a Cheshire cat’s grin, to save what’s most important to him – himself.
And then, the English football (soccer) team gets beaten in the European Championship by the part-timers of Iceland! Yep, when we do Brexit we do it big time!
There’s been a lot of analysis in the papers trying to work out why the country voted to Leave and there are some interesting demographic and geographic tendencies: the over 60s voted in favour of Leave by about 60% to 40% while those aged between 18 and 25 voted overwhelmingly to Remain (72% to 28%). It’s clear that the older generations were looking back with rose-tinted spectacles at a simpler, more comfortable age that never really existed and the younger generation are, not surprisingly, exceedingly pissed off that they have now been denied the opportunities to travel, live and work anywhere in Europe. I was particularly interested in whether there was any relationship between the level of one’s education and the vote and it seems there is: areas with a higher proportion of university graduates tended to vote Remain while the less-well educated tended to support Leave. Of course, it’s not as simple as that and having a university degree doesn’t necessarily mean that one is “smarter” than someone without a degree. Still, the statistics are fascinating:
By contrast, 29 out of the 30 areas with the most graduates voted Remain, including the City of London (where 68.4% are graduates), Belfast South (50.1% graduates), Cambridge (47.3%), Oxford (42.6%) and Edinburgh (41.4%).
One thing there has been lots of over the past week is some very clever photos and cartoons mocking the referendum result and the mess in which the UK finds itself. A few of the better ones which have caught my eye:
We were away last weekend with our friends Sue & Stuart and Dave & Sue down on the south coast. It was Stuart’s birthday and, as a treat, he had booked tickets on the Saturday night for HMS Pinafore at the Theatre Royale which was a lot of fun. It was performed by an all-male cast which gave the story of love between the social classes a humorous slant with its “camp” overtones. As you might imagine, it went over exceedingly well with the Brighton audience.
Another tick on Penelope’s Project list – we had the wood-burning stove installed in the lounge last week. It was installed over a couple of days by two Hungarians who were very nice and seemed to know what they were doing but who spoke about three words of English between them which made the discussions about how we wanted it all finished off somewhat challenging. There’s a bit of touching up to do but it will be lovely on a cold winter evening!
John Crace wrote an amusing column in the Guardian last week about the immediate aftermath of the Brexit debacle. It’s been overtaken by even sillier events now but if you’ve not seen it, it’s quite fun. And, Jonathon Freedland had an excellent article in the Guardian last Friday entitled “A warning to Gove and Johnson – we won’t forget what you did” – well worth a read.
It’s the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme this week and the Guardian had a set of photos of the “Then and Now” category. A little slider allows you to fade from a photo to its modern equivalent.
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And finally, Penelope’s front garden is looking splendid with the roses coming into bloom and the lavender in flower. The weather, however, has treated it unmercifully, battering it with rain and strong winds. I’ve had to nip out in between the showers to grab these few.
Much love to you all,
Greg