Wow, it’s been a while.
I had meant to drop by again before now, but life got in the way. Quite a lot has happened, not least that
Brexit thing. I despair that we voted as
a nation to leave the EU and even more so at the absolute chaos going on in
Parliament. But I guess that is democracy for you. Although surely part of the problem is that
the government treated the referendum like a 'normal' election and applied a “First
Past the Post” or “winner takes all” mentality, when it wasn’t that type of vote. Instead, it required consenus and working together across (and within) parties to find a way forward
– and, of course, it was not even a binding vote…
I have a friend who is very dear to me who voted to
leave. She is an intelligent and thoughtful
person and a few times I have tried to ask her what she thinks about the
current state of affairs but, interestingly, she shies away from talking about
it. I think she is nervous of other
people’s reactions – more those of people who might overhear, rather than me. I find it fascinating that someone who is on
the “winning side” now feels really uncomfortable talking about it. I remember we met up shortly after the referendum
and were talking about the outcome of the vote.
I think my views on the matter were clear, not least evidenced by my new
Irish passport. Part way through the
conversation, my friend paused the conversation and said “I do need to tell you… I voted to leave…”. I just laughed and said that I had assumed
that she had. I am not sure anyone is
laughing now though. Except, the rest of
the EU… and the world… *sigh*
I was a civil servant for many years and took voluntary redundancy
in 2015. I miss some aspects of the
civil service. I worked on so many interesting
and challenging issues and also had some fantastic colleagues.
However, I am very glad that I am not currently in the civil
service. Even those who are not directly
working on Brexit are probably working in environments of great uncertainty and
unable to get even very basic decisions agreed my ministers and others, let
alone being able to take forward any legislation. Although with the current government and its
very draconian ethos, maybe that is a bit of a silver lining.
Anyway, this was meant to be a brief drop–in to check this
still works and I hadn’t intended to express my despair on Brexit. But there you go. It’s probably a bit unavoidable right now. I do have a vague plan to be back here again
soon, but until then, adieu.
