A New Caledonian View

Stick with this; I'm a wee bit rusty having not even contemplated politics for two months...

Stick... What a coincidental use of the word. I say this because I was thinking about picking up that shitty stick I like to beat people with, specifically people who think leaving the EU is the greatest thing since the last greatest thing. Then I thought, 'Why bugger up my blood pressure?'. But... you know... if you think you're holding the clean end of the stick, hitting people with the end covered in faecal matter is like shooting fish in a barrel (not that I'd do that, being a vegetarian and not a fan of fish tanks - or fish barrels) and I simply can't resist.

Much has changed since I last wibbled on at you about politics, probably the most drastic is that I no longer live in England, and more importantly, I have no intention or desire of ever living there again. I'm sorry if that upsets some English people, but despite being as British as you could possibly imagine (there are some Teutonic links dating back to the 18th century, but largely I'm as Anglo as Saxon were a crap rock band), I have been driven away from England for the same reasons loads of Europeans have left; because the English, on the whole, are xenophobic arseholes.

Admittedly, I haven't gone far. I'm living in South-West Scotland - Newcastle-upon-Tyne is further north than me - and there is much about it that would be utterly alien to my town and city dwelling chums. Ironically, however, there is much here that would have Brexiteers whooping and pointing at as a perfect example of what Britain can be like post-EU. Even more ironic would be just how wrong Brexiteers would be; so wrong, it's almost diametrically opposite of what our deluded nostalgia-seeking swivel-eyed anti-EU brigade think it is.

South-West Scotland is positioned somewhere between 1967 and 1974. There is a ambience here that is polarising for townies. It is either wonderful or hell; there is no middle ground really. I've not met any people who think this area of the country is 'okay'. The whys and wherefores of this is not what I'm here for, but I will tell you that 0% credit is given almost without asking; the sense of manana isn't frustrating, it's normal; everyone is friendly and respectful - they look at your face and not at the floor; you freely accept that some things aren't available and, this is the best bit, the vast improvements in this region (roads, businesses and changes in the standard of living) have happened because of the money the EU ensured this part of the country got. 

This region of Scotland has been transformed by EU money and when the referendum was held, it had one of the lowest Leave votes in a country that adamantly didn't want the UK to leave.

Apart from the aesthetically pleasing information above, pensioners here think pensioners down south are all mad. Pensioners up here gave a shit about their children and grandchildren, whereas English and Welsh pensioners opted to shit on their kids' futures and worse, some of them are more than happy with their decision, regardless of the consequences. It has been this 'cut-off-everyone's-nose-to-spite-all-faces' attitude that continues to utterly blow me away; grown people - mainly men, but not exclusively - spouting complete shit about not caring if prices go up, if their kids lose their jobs, if their grandchildren will suffer, because it's worth it to get back all of the things that have been proven are fantasies manufactured by the press and expanded on by ignorant wankers who refuse to accept they might have got it a bit wrong.

Listening to various talk radio shows over the last few days has been a mixture of fascinating and vile, because, let's be honest about this, the thorny subject of Brexit is still pretty much the top of the agenda based on a) the furious swivel-eyed mad bastards and b) the government's apparent lack of... well... lack of anything that might give people the impression they actually know what they're doing.

What has been fascinating is either the solutions the swivel-eyed have to solve the 'immigrant problem' or their complete lack of an answer when asked a pertinent relevant question. Usually any questions about the future's potential problems are dismissed as hypothetical and 'project fear,' while all Brexiteers forecast the bright future is essentially based on fantasy, bluff and bravado and they get really angry when challenged about the validity of their argument or it's based on hope rather than any facts.

The fact we now actually are living in a world where 'knowledge is what feels correct' in an era when we should honestly be at our most socially and morally advanced is mind-boggling. I keep saying to the wife, "I know I sound like some naive altruist, but..." because I can't believe I'm witnessing some of the incredible bollocks and I'm not stoned or dreaming some fantastically realistic surreal dream. 

I have always had this thing about time. I hate the fact that the older you get the quicker it passes (usually without achieving as much), therefore, based on how fast shit has been happening politically since 2014, I'm worried that my blissful semi-retirement in the past, up here in Scotland, might be halted a list of things, headed by Nazi nutters in the White House; a North Korean President who, I firmly believe, wants to start and lose a war to save his completely bankrupt and starving country (The Mouse That Roared) and my own country's insistence on climbing into an abandoned fridge on a rubbish tip and shutting the door!

As a SJW and hand-wringing libtard, I can't really advocate, let alone suggest, the annihilation of the terminally stupid, but it is becoming clear there are a lot of people on this planet for whom genocide would be too good for. The knuckledraggers seem unable to correlate what the consequences of far right politics are, or, far worse, know full well where they are headed. In the 1930s it was the Nazis and 'your average people' turned a blind eye to what was going on; some because they harboured similar feelings and others because they were frightened of speaking out and being branded themselves. You never know, it might never have happened if they'd had Facebook. Or maybe it would have hastened it?

I do still believe that common sense will prevail, but no longer with any great conviction. I'm becoming agnostic about a better future, but I am at least where I want to be. Whether the future is bright or bleak, the view up here is better.