On Leaving Europe: Part II...

So... two days after the EU Referendum result and there's a strange thing happening. The Brexit campaign have got exactly what it wanted with the Leave vote winning and Cameron destabilised. But many Tory MPs are desperate for the now departing Prime Minister, who lead the Remain campaign, to stay on as PM and sort out the mess that their hectoring victory has brought.

Cameron's likely replacement, Boris Johnson, meanwhile, is advising caution on kicking off official divorce proceedings from Europe because he realises the economic, administrative and legislative carnage such a move will unleash.

Leading figures in the Leave campaign are now distancing themselves from one of the boldest claims they made, too, that their estimated figure of £350million per week that it costs to be a member of the EU will be spent on the National Health Service. This £350million figure was always a lie. The Independent Institute for Fiscal Studies said this figure was closer to £175million per week and that didn’t take into account the benefits this secured. But the £350million still lie stuck.

Now both Brexit leading lights Nigel Farage and Iain Duncan-Smith are distancing themselves from the claim that this £350million per week will go to the NHS. Both are denying they ever even made it, despite evidence to the contrary... like standing next to a massive bus with that very thing written on the side and constantly talking about it.

The Labour Party, meanwhile, are taking advantage of the political maelstrom to oust their leader, Jeremy Corbyn. It’s no secret that Corbyn’s elevation was never popular within the hierarchy of the party, and it seems the knives are now out for him. Yet again…

Even more tragic is the dawning realisation among many people who supported the Leave campaign that if the UK wants to trade with Europe, then one of the likely conditions will be free movement of labour… the very thing they thought they’d voted against. D'oh!

The EU, meanwhile, is refusing to hold informal talks until official exit proceedings begin. If this was a game of poker, the EU would be holding all the cards and most of the chips and also own the casino.

Cameron gambled on holding a referendum to silence critics who goaded him over the EU and to quell rebels and critical voices within his own party, and he lost. Now the UK is about to lose big time as the economy and pretty much every other administrative and legislative structure has to be redrawn, and the UK is plunged into mass uncertainty.

More worryingly, there’s also the start of a very vocal and vicious streak of racism being unleashed on immigrants. The architects of this victory, meanwhile, are trying to cover their lies and hoping somebody else will eventually step in to clear up this mess. 

On Leaving Europe: Part I...

A bad thing happened in the early hours of this morning. Some 52 per cent of a voting turnout of nearly 30million Britons voted to leave the EU. The immediate effect is that some £140billion has been wiped off the value of sterling. And there could be worse to come... 

I've always suspected part of England's national make-up is that of the Little Englander, who'll say things such as: 'I'm not racist, but...' then say something very racist. I've also always suspected there are simply a large number of racists and xenophobes in the UK. There's certainly a strong tradition of far-right politics in England. 

But those factors alone can't account for the fact that more than 15million people voted to leave the EU. So what happened? 

The fear-mongering and lies-presented-as-facts of the Leave campaign certainly played a huge role. Some people will have fallen for that in the same way that some people fall for Nigel Farage's 'normal-geezer-who-speaks-plain-truths' shtick. In this campaign, he's clearly lied and spread fear based on those lies. He is dangerous and should not be trusted, yet he has been.

The Remain campaign didn't exactly cover itself in glory either and spectacularly failed to move the argument onto the grounds it should have been fought on: namely that EU membership strengthens our economy and our place in the world, that it ensures basic rights for workers, and that it brings all manner of other benefits, both financial and cultural.

There's a strong argument this was largely a protest vote against a political class who many voters feel increasingly alienated from and disenfranchised by. But this seems perverse. 

The EU have not run down the education system or the National Health Service. The EU also haven't created austerity economics and forced the most vulnerable to swallow cut after cut while telling them it's good medicine that will eventually make them better. Yet, somehow, the EU and our apparent immigration crisis is the scapegoat the voting public have blamed for this. 

Our current economic problems are part of a global landscape and about decisions made within the UK. Austerity economics is one factor and successive UK governments consistently failing to tackle tax-avoiding multi-nationals is another. The EU has nothing to do with how much most people in the UK are suffering from various deprivations. Yet they have been blamed.

Leaving is a perverse logic and I think it's something deep within the national psyche that makes people lash out without thinking, then ask questions later. It's the attitude of the Saturday-night drunk getting wired and belting somebody. The key problem with doing this when the future of the country is at stake, though, is that it has bigger implications than bruised knuckles or a black eye. The UK economy is now on very dangerous ground, and the tremors have already started.

With Cameron now stepping down, further financial uncertainty is also predicted. The UK's triple A credit rating is in danger, too, and, as we have a huge national debt, this could mean even more austerity measures in the pipeline.

And it won't be the wealthy leading lights of the Leave campaign like Farage or Boris Johnson who'll have to worry about riding this out. It will be the vulnerable and the poor, whose fears and prejudices may well have provided a large number of voters for the Leave campaign in the first place.

I've been searching for an analogy to sum this up and the best one I have so far is: The UK's decision to leave the EU is like a self-harmer in the grip of a mania picking up the knife to cut themselves, then blaming the French neighbour and the Polish nurse across the road for the pain they're suffering. 

Well done, UK. You punched yourselves in the face by voting in austerity economics in the last election. Now you've managed to repeat the trick on an even bigger scale by voting us out of a body that at least gave us a fighting chance of retaining some economic stability. Because, to quote Bill Clinton, 'it's all about the economy, stupid!' 

Nice work!

Meatballs...

A few months ago, I cooked a batch of diet garlic meatballs that were probably as much garlic as meatball. Because neither the Missus or myself can be bothered to cook, the remainder of these are now getting used up, and there is a discussion on the best way to reheat a meatball. The Missus suggests frying them so I ask the following: 
'Do you believe you can fly?'

There is a pause.
'Do you mean "Do I believe I can fry?"' she counters, then starts humming the song with a similar title. 

I meant to crack a joke, but I got the words wrong. And she noticed. Do I argue the point and pretend that's what I actually said and she misheard? I decide not to.
'Yes. That is what I meant. I meant to make a joke but I got it wrong, then you took my flawed intentions and made them work in a much better way...' 
'And that's a perfect analogy for how this marriage works,' she replies, metaphorically patting me on the head.

She's probably not wrong. I may well be an idiot.

Midlife Crisis...

Today, I bought the above CD by popular thrash metal combo, Slipknot. I may be extending my musical reach. Or I may be having a midlife crisis. I genuinely have no idea...

Racing Certainty...

A man I have loved for many years is back on social media. Please say hello to pool league chairman, local businessman and ace racing tipster, Malcolm Drudge. 

Find him on @MalcolmDrudge on the Twitter.

Five-word Reviews: Sunken Cities: Egypt's Lost Worlds...

F-amazing exhibition. Go see it.

Cross Bones Graveyard...

Today, I finally visited the site of the graveyard for prostitutes in Southwark, London. 

The Cross Bones Graveyard in Redcross Way began as a cemetery for medieval prostitutes, who worked in the stews or brothels of Bankside under the auspices of the Bishop of Winchester, who also took a slice of their earnings. Sadly, these working women weren't allowed a burial in consecrated ground among 'respectable' people, regardless of how much their efforts filled church coffers, so this is where they ended up.

Used as a cemetery for the poor and the undesirable until the 1860s, it lay neglected and undiscovered for more than a century. The graveyard was then re-discovered at the end of the 20th century and cared for by a group of supporters and friends. 

It's an astonishing place. I may be spending some considerable time here in the future, particularly as I'm about to start work on version two of the play about the Contagious Diseases Acts. 

I also adore the term 'the outcast dead' that adorns the gates.

Back on the Baize...

I’m on a good run at interleague at the moment, having won 11 out of 12 frames against some decent opponents. I’m well aware there are stiffer tests ahead, but I’m trying to do simple things well and it’s working so far.

I’m putting in some table time and I’m on course to be in decent shape when I make my return to county next year. I’m also hoping to qualify for county by finishing in the top eight of the county-wide interleague, which pits the best players from different leagues in Surrey against each other.

In my most recent match, we played an all-ladies team and they had some solid players. I met a few of the newer county ladies, too, and this was good. I also saw a teenager play and her temperament was superb. I went over and had a chat with her parents later and, after explaining that I wasn’t some sort of weirdo, said I’d like to spend some table time with her because I think I could help her game improve.

I’m really excited when I see potential and I think I could help her develop into a really good player. It’s a path I’ve trodden once before when I spent some time with a county junior player and helped him become an England international.

If I’m going back to play county pool, I also like the idea of helping to bring somebody else through. It will help focus me and give me a defined pre-match routine for practice and it will also mean they get something out of it by practising with me.

It’s something I’ve learnt from a decade and a half of martial arts: by teaching others we help refine and define ourselves

I hope she and her parents realise it’s a genuine offer and don’t peg me as some sort of freak.