I have just been crunching some numbers and based upon number of votes cast the biggest percentage differences were as follows: Number of votes 2019 v 2018
Bojo has a massive majority so now is not beholden to the cliques which put him in power. Given his either/or position before the referendum and his ability to trample on red lines, ignore solemn oaths not to do this or that (including dying in a ditch) and, I think, an inbuilt pragmatism, Iâm not too worried about the future. Heâs not stupid and he knows that the votes he got from former Labour supporters are only on loan, so to speak, so he needs to deliver to those in the rust belt, some of whom are immigrants. Why should he make life difficult for people who are working and paying taxes in the UK ? Heâs never struck me as being a brutal man, just lazy and careless. Read his Bio - interesting reading. As for Labour, once JC has gone, they really need to rid themselves of the Marxist tendency, who have infested the party since Blair went. If they can find a suitable giant of a candidate, under a new leader they can reinvent themselves for the 21st century. Theyâve got 5 years; long enough. Same goes for the LDâs.
Wonât be enough - Labour is in a similar position to 1983, if anything worse - it took them until 1997 to be able to be in position to actually win.
Labour need to decide what it is for and who it represents, the political and economic landscape has changed enormously in the past 40 years and Labour hasnât caught up yet.
These people over there in their âLittle Englandâ, whilst waiting for Scotland - Wales & N.Ireland to disappear along with the EU and the NHS , certainly donât merit my holding hands with them!
They tried to destroy my way of living, and will have ended up destroying their own - all to benefit a bunch of Eton Schoolboys desire to be able to Bank offshore and pay nothing to the Country they just âhappenâ to Govern now!
My future time (saved from watching clowneries and the Circus of Brexit) will be spent in watching the unraveling of âLittle Englandâsâ businesses, trade and unfortunately Health and Social Benefits, seeing the reports of close downs, increasing prices, increasing unemployment, increasing deaths due to lack of Health facilities, sell offs to American sources of anything that works , and the flight (over 5 years) of those fraudsters calling themselves âPoliticians and Ministersâ - away from the scenes of their crimes.
Doubtlessly, the âsmall working manâ in âLittle Englandâ will no longer understand life, nor the fact that He/She has destroyed the upcoming generations and made their lives a horror as well.
I wonât laugh openly, Schadenfreude is something for others, but I admit - if Iâm alive, I wonât weep tears for âLittle Englandâ imbeciles!
But then - Iâll be a âNEW SCOTSMANâ - and IN THE EUâŚ!
Itâs a pretty universal human failing, isnât it Peter? In my own field - enterprise - you always have to correct the entrepreneurâs assumption that the world is full of people just like them, who will therefore love the new product/service they have just thought upâŚ
I do see the sense in what you say, Geof. And is there an effective way of appealing to an innate decency, sense of what is fair and just?
And perhaps more to the point, how to build on the sense that many people have, perhaps a substantial majority, that a fulfilling life is not based on acquiring ever more âthingsâ, or gaining more self-importance or higher âstatusâ amongst peers?
I am not immune to either, but I know that in the right environment, my wish to be free of these hindrances can come true.
Coming to France has rekindled that spirit in me, and meeting people like you and many others here has been a huge help, if a little late in life!
I share your feelings Peter,
When my wifeâs gites are in full swing, I talk frequently to temporary refugees (holidaymakers) from England and other âanglo-saxonâ economies who are falling in love with the French lifestyle. They express themselves in many and various ways â they hardly know themselves what they are feeling â but their message is clear enough to me: they are glimpsing the French focus on family life, relationships, well-being, community - not on making money, working all hours, acquiring more stuff, the trappings of âsuccessâ.
But these days my real inspiration are the young social entrepreneurs I meet through my work, everywhere in the world I go* - around half of whom are setting up specifically green businesses, and all of whom are determined to both carve out their own place in the world and change it for the better.
A few years ago I washed up in Outer Mongolia with a fellow âexpertâ who was actually from Chile - literally the other side of the world from Mongolia! First evening, we chanced on a restaurant, âModern Nomadsâ, and in the centre of the table were little cards explaining that the restaurant was run by formerly homeless kids - who believe it or not live in the sewers in Ulaan Baatar, because that is the only place they can survive the extreme cold of the winter, What on earth were we doing there? - parachuted in as international experts on social enterprise, when the kids there were in fact already doing it just fine. As they are everywhere now.
Unfortunately itâs you!
How on earth after another publicity speech you can at all trust him/conservatives I canât understand.
Letâs face facts at least 90% of politics is about money⌠for them.
They grow like weeds, you spray them, think they are dead then they come back.
I dont trust them nor any political party. The die has been cast, for 5 years at least and there is nothing any mere mortal can do about it. Those who realise that they put thier cross in the wrong box can try again in 2014 but not me as I will have been ex UK for 15 years, and glad of it.
I will continue to observe how the UK Survives under this new administration with great interest but thatâs all. My life is as a European within the EU, strength in numbers!
Quite the opposite for me John. I have no further interest in UK politics (also will have been here 15 years at the next scheduled GE). The sound of no-sho BloJoâs voice is enough for me to reach for the sick bucketâŚ
The global reach of your interest, concern and critique is, for me, very reassuring, and chimes in with my own now-dated and much more limited experience of the wider world, still outwith the reach of global industrialisation.
Itâs perhaps time that what have been regarded as remote and backward peoples and cultures are reappraised, and seen for their hugely progressive potential. Or if this is unlikely to occur, at least not interfered with or undermined.
Sadly, we donât know whether everybody here in France now will be OK for the next five years.
A lot depends on what your status is - retired, student, working, resident with dependant family or somebody who is potentially dependant on their family, do you work cross-border or as a posted worker.
Then there are those who own property or a business here but arenât resident, those who reside here and have qualifying years in another EU27 countries but not here in France.
Not forgetting UK citizens living here who have a non-UK spouse or children, if they decide to return to the UK will their spouse/ children be allowed to?
The list is endless and many of the rights and procedures are still ill-defined, not forgetting that a No-Deal exit may(will) happen on 31st Dec 2020. If it does than how much will be back in the melting pot.
