‘Brexit’: A progress report.
It’s been a while, but the world hasn’t ended for the UK. Despite the slump in the pound, exports are doing well, for that very reason. In fact, they are nicely cancelling out any cost increases from having to buy in imports in foreign currency. That must be officially true, as it has been reported on the BBC…
The new Prime Minister has abandoned the idea of using a points system to allow new immigrants to come to the country, and life has continued much as normal. The initial panic has subsided, so despite many calls for yet another vote, there seems to be a honeymoon period going on. Even unemployment is coming down, and those who got into that panic have been proved wrong. At least so far.
Despite the understandable concerns, the vote to leave has not been the end of the UK as we know it. Not for now, anyway. There is a long way to go with the negotiations, and I suspect that we may well end up in a very similar situation to the one we voted to leave. However, there will be some element of independence, even if it is potentially diminished.
Some people are claiming that the killing of a Polish man in Essex is a direct result of the vote to leave. While this might suit the gainsayers, the simple truth is that the young hooligans concerned could have picked on anyone, and are unlikely to have even been aware that he was Polish. They had caused trouble before, in the same shopping area. On those occasions, the people involved were not Polish. But that warrants less attention, because the media is keen to promote the issue of racism, even though that is a tiny fraction of the problem.
Those that voted to leave expected the world as we knew it to fall apart. It didn’t, and they don’t like it. So they espouse any cause, any reason to point the finger. The much simpler truth is that it has not immediately turned out to be the disaster that was predicted, and they don’t like to accept that.
So here I am, reporting from Great Britain. Happy to say that the situation is normal. There has been little change, and where there has been it was positive.
REDFLAGFLYING 
I voted to Stay/Remain/Leave Well Alone.
And naturally as befits my naturally grumpy and very old school socialist mentality I am waiting with all the air of an Old Testament Prophet for things to go wrong.
In the meantime I will compile a list pithy and sardonic statements just in case things go right (Us grumpy old naysayers are never wrong y’see ; the other guys just got lucky that’s all)
(Exit slopping about in slippers and muttering criticisms on political parties irrespective of alignment and insisting Fahrenheit is the correct way to measure temperature )
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Thanks, WBH. I am sure that something will eventually go wrong, and you will be able to scream ‘I told you so!’ from the rooftops. As for Fahrenheit, and old money, I have a good solution. I may well write ’30 degrees C’, but in my mind, I am still thinking ‘double it and add 30, that’s almost 90 (real) degrees.’ And 50p will always be ten bob, naturally.
Coming next…Kilometres. And just what is a gramme? For all I know it could be the size of a car, or as big as a grain of sand.
” I will have two ounces of sherbet lemons please, Mr Sweet Shop owner.”
Best wishes, Pete.
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Ah you do the quick conversation too! Good.
I know a metre is about 3′ (1 yard), but this was only because in the 1960s SF writers were portraying their heroes as 2 meters tall, and everyone knows a hero has to be 6′ in height.
Ah, 2ozs….those were the days;
“16 ounces 1 pound
14 pounds 1 stone”
We used to chant in school.
(Yes I am ready to shout from the roof tops; I have a ragged dressing gown for a robe and a chunk of wood cut from a garden tree to act as my staff. Trouble is my wife won’t let me grow my hair scraggly shoulder length, and it’s just the right shade of apocalyptic white too…bother)
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I’m telling you now that if we could still buy our potatoes in Lbs and Oz then non of this would have happened!
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Bushels and pecks, quarts and gills, sixpences and farthings. Bring it all back, I say!
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I don’t expect much will change until we actually do leave. I think it will be a different story in 10 years time, but who knows whether that will be a good or bad thing. We can only wait and see. Won’t be surprised if we swap our subservience to Europe and the USA to being a vassal state of China. Sorry Pete, I look at the world outside of Europe and wonder why people think leaving is going to make things better for us? I don’t feel any antipathy for people who voted leave, I just don’t understand why.
The North voted to Leave en masse, I wonder what they’ll feel if (and it IS an if) the Nissan plant here with 6500 workers relocates, which is on the cards. Not sure if China,Mexico,India Australia etc will pick up those jobs. I am not unhappy that the world as we know it hasn’t fallen apart, am actually quite relieved for now, but lots of uncertainty and changes to come yet I think, and too soon to say everything will be fine.
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I can well understand your concerns, FR. As I said, it is just a ‘progress report’. Things may get worse. Then again, they might not. Time will tell, but at least we will no longer be subservient to Euro-capitalism. China may well become an economic force to reckon with, but for all the world, not just the UK. Maybe it is their time? They are due a resurgence, after a long time in the shadows. I know it is too soon to suggest that it will all be fine, and that was not my intention. In my experience, nothing is ever really fine, anyway.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Ain’t that the truth!
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