Brex*hit and Independence Day
Just let me get this out of my system today, and then we can carry on with our Symi week.
Good morning, and welcome to the start of a week that could mark the end of the word Great being attached to the word Britain, to be replaced by Little, or simply, Pointless or worse. Incredible scenes from London on Saturday and an online petition that’s now (as of 6.00 a.m. Sunday) at 4,790,982 signatures. I know. I’m as sceptical as the next person that these things do any good, they are only a lip-service service from your government really, as all they promise to do is consider the matter for a discussion and that can take ten seconds before a ‘no’ is given, and the ‘government’ have, therefore, considered it. But… It made me feel better to add my name, and it makes me feel even better that I can share the link to it, so here it is. Sign, if you haven’t, it doesn’t take long and, if nothing else, you will be able to say you’ve been a part of history in the making and you did your bit.
Some people will wonder what on earth it has got to do with me, someone who has chosen not to live in the country for the last 17 years. I’ve had people tell me it’s got nothing to do with me, that I shouldn’t have a say in what happens over there because I’m living ‘far away, by the sea’, ‘in La-la Land’ (and I’ve had worse). To make them feel any better, I tell them that indeed, I am no longer allowed to vote in my home country. That basic democratic right has been taken away from me and soon, perhaps, I shan’t be able to have a say in the workings of the continent on which I live, nor even in the local elections for the town I live in. So, if they don’t like me because I live in a better place than they, at least they can sleep soundly knowing that my one voice no longer has a voice, except one I can use in support of fellow humans who will suffer more than me should this madness continue. Hence me mentioning it here among photos I took on Symi on Friday and Saturday to help take your mind off the mess if only for a minute.
I read a Twitter post yesterday which really brought it home to me. “The only arguments in existence for going through with Brexit are: It won a small majority by breaking the law in a referendum three years ago. Its supporters will inflict violence on us if we don’t. Does either of those sound to you like something we should give in to?”
Whatever happens, I’ll be here carrying on with my blog, bringing you my personal news from here in Greece, photos to take your mind off the horror of having to live in the yUK. I make no apologies for calling it the Yuk, or the ‘Why UK?’ depending on how you want to read it. I used to like my home country but like many other people I am now completely done with it, disenfranchised, unable to have a say in what happens to the country whose passport I carry, fed up with the way it’s being led and where it is being led to. This state – this feeling of not belonging – is reinforced by frustration, mainly when I read how those at the top of the dung heap of the yUK parliament simply refuse to listen to the people who elected them.
I don’t want to get your week off to a depressing start, the 3,500 extra troops being put on standby today can do that for you, the queues at the shops as the panic buying starts later this week will take your mind off it, and you’ll be too busy stockpiling medicines and other essentials anyway. Don’t think about driving in the carpark of England that was once the garden of England, my home county, Kent, and be prepared for another round of frustratingly bad, self-serving politics, far-right hatred of anyone not a Daily Mail devotee, and, if you’re on the A1, the group of – what is it now? – ten people trying to emulate the Jarrow Marchers and currently storming London. Yeah, well, whatever.
Meanwhile, it’s Greek Independence Day over here. There’s a march, a parade, church service, speeches and flags, and a good reason to celebrate independence from an oppressive rule. I expect those ten people on the A1 will be demanding a yUK Independence Day before long, and those you currently have in power will let them, scared that there will be violence if the minority don’t get their way. Good luck with it all. My usual Symi blah-blah will resume tomorrow.
