REBELLIOUS TRENDS

I got a call the other day. It was a wrong number, a Mr Sculley from Nuneaton who was sorry to bother me. He said he was old (actually only a bit older than me) recently bereaved and prone to misdial. He blessed me for being kind and said “can I ask one thing?”

“Please tell those politicians to sort things out. It sounds like they might listen to you.”

Not even me I’m afraid. I suspect there are Sculley’s all over the UK desperate for people to stop this nonsense. We have made our bed – that was the referendum – we got a result a lot of us hate but we have to get on with the best departure we can fashion. That’s what’s on the table and now we need to progress. The option of the crash-out at the end of this month is no longer in our hands if the EU petulantly refuses an extension to Article 50 and this has to be possible.

Whichever way this goes our automotive industry and other businesses will be wrecked, although new technology would have made this probable eventually anyway. Sadly many of the people cheering on BBC Question Time for a no deal exit will soon be out of work partly because of it. Their relish for self-destruction is mystifying.

We are in a period of global readjustment and tough times for everyone (except, as ever, the very rich).  I’m not sure when in our history 2019 most resembles. Perhaps the early 16th century when Henry VIII broke free from Rome. (In the way he’s generally depicted he resembles a recklessly autocratic Donald Trump.) But in that late medieval troubled era England managed to punch above its actually rather meagre weight. The key similarity was the rebelliousness of our behaviour and a deep seated belief that normal rules did not apply.

And it’s still here and like the kraken it’s re-awoken. We see schisms appearing in politics  and in social attitudes to institutions. We used for instance to believe that the unanimous decision of a jury in a trial was final. It would be unusual for the media, as the Times did on Saturday, to continue to describe the pilot, Andy Hill, in the Shoreham Air Show tragedy whom a jury found not guilty of manslaughter, in terms which implied he was actually guilty.

Disruption is becoming rebellion and this feels dangerous. Our societal tectonic plates are  shifting around. I doubt if any of us would put money on May and Corbyn (described by Jess Phillips as being as old fashioned and irrelevant as Tom and Margo from the old TV series the “Good Life”)  still being in office by the summer.  Dangerous times but they also feel challenging and perhaps offer us the possibility of a new start rather like a relegated football team and that’s how we feel right now. 
 We are becoming increasingly rebellious but rather carelessly are about to score an own goal. Oops!

TIME TO GET ANGRY

Angry? That doesn’t begin to describe how most of us are feeling. We are not close to doing a deal with the EU - will probably fail to do so -  and we’re strategically at odds with each other as to what we even want Britain to be like. To help us we have a vile cocktail of brexiteers, remainers, alt-righters, Marxists, Liberals, pundits, EU bureaucrats, Merkel, Macron, the rest of the 27 - several of whom are imploding politically.

It’s like being on US Airways 1549 - no engines, too low, New York City below, and a crash landing in the Hudson our best option. But no one is flying the plane let alone our having a Sully on the flight deck.

We have to start by asking what we are, where we are, what we’re striving for, how we can achieve it, how long that will take and what legacy we want to leave. Let’s ignore (as a given) that this is a mess, a debacle and a cock-up. Like it or not the referendum gave us this hand of cards (like Northern Ireland being out of the World Cup through a mistaken penalty - everyone agrees it was an error - but they are out of the World Cup and we are out of the EU.)

Forget Lord Kerr, author of Article 50, who’s popped up 18 months after the referendum saying “it’s not irrevocable” making the remain-ideologues believe Kerr, prayer and procrastination may save us. They won’t; so move on.

How do we as an independent entity make our lives happy, lucrative and fun? Let’s focus on the long list of what we are great at: from innovation (world number 1 in patents) to the arts to finance to technology to tourism to lots more. Currently business is waiting for the politicians. It needs to be more pro-active. I am not advocating addlebrained Boris euphoria - “jolly good country Britain yeeha!” We need a dose of rational self-belief and a plan to make the most of where we excel.

In a world as messy and conflicted as this, working within the straitjackets of existing party “alliances”, behaving as though everything’s normal, is ridiculous. We need a new party, like they have in France, where the rules are re-written. The talent that will solve our problem does not sit on either front bench right now but sits everywhere. Imagine Ruth Davidson, Hillary Benn, David Miliband, Yvette Cooper, Jesse Norman, Tom Tugendhat and a few others working together and you get the idea of what good government might look like. Not like this…

Have I turned into a brexiteer? No but almost anything’s better than being a wait-and-see-er. We can’t go on like this; we can’t allow ourselves to drift into disaster; our political parties are past their sell-by date and our respect and confidence. Our grandchildren born and unborn deserve better.

Don’t just be angry; do something. E-mail your MP constantly. Write to no.10; be a nuisance.

"THERE IS NO CURE" THEY CHORTLED

This week as our politicians debated (sic) the invoking of Article 50 I was reminded of a Bob Monkhouse joke:  “I want to die like my dear old father quietly in my sleep not like the passengers in his car screaming and terrified.”

I am tired of being treated like a lemming, being told to get over it and make the best of it, that they were right and I was wrong and that no one likes a bad loser. Why am I so gloomy? Why am I so uncharacteristically pessimistic? Quite simply it’s because nearly all the people who’re most likely to make this county prosper and grow, especially our young people, think Brexit is a terrible idea.

Just look at the people who most vociferously espoused it and of course still do. They are bringers neither of joy or greatness. They are mostly mediocre in their ability to change things except in levelling downwards. But apparently I should like and appease them now they’ve won a referendum which proves that they and what - if anything they stand for - is right.

H. L. Menken, one of the greatest socio-politico writers ever, said this:
“Democracy is the theory is that the common people know what they want. And deserve to get it - good and hard”

I do not believe in schadenfreude so it pains me hugely to say I believe in the medium to long term we’re in for a horrid time. Like wars many major disruptions start slowly so it’s probable the consequences of Brexit will unfold only gradually.

Amongst the many myths we’ve heard recently is the assertion we are a great trading nation. Well this is isn’t strictly true. We were a great and successfully rapacious Imperial force but trade has never been our strongest suit except in finance and creative services. It’s myths like these that the ”voice of the people”  have proclaimed as they reach back into history comparing Theresa May with Elizabeth1 and talking about “Henry V111 powers”. Churchill that gnarled old bulldog has also inevitably been dragged from the kennel of history - our spirit is his spirit. Oh really? Here’s what he said about the voice of the people:
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”

A five minute conversation or a referendum….

What can we do? We can keep on arguing and being awkward. We can and should be intransigent and disputatious unlike most of our timid parliamentarians. That after all has always been the British way. We answer back and are stroppy.

And if all else fails we can stop eating breakfast.

Professor Terence Healey, a leading biochemist, said he’s reversed his own Type 2 diabetes by giving up “dangerous breakfast” which raises blood glucose levels. Giving your kids breakfast is he claims “child abuse”.  But he has some good news for us.

Alcohol, especially wine, reduces blood glucose levels.

Cheers. I just love experts.