Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey Topics), 19 June 2016

AQ  good news.

LMAC  Good for you, helping the young Blackbird.  Hope you both enjoyed your walk.  We had a 2 hour walk by the canal with Benson this morning. Just to think that when we first got him (our first small dog) I didn't think he would be able to walk any distance, or climb the stairs. When we got home he would happily have done the same walk again.

LINDY   That is just as it should be.  A friend and I had lunch together yesterday.I voted leave and she remain. It made not one bit of difference to us enjoying a meal together.

Back at the farm as we got drenched to the skin early afternoon, so came in for warm showers - will be going out for dinner which we have booked, being Saturday.  Currently blue sky (there was no rain here although we were only about 7 miles away), sunshine and happy cows chewing the cud

Good to see AQ is doing better this time; hope MARGO is having a good weekend; hope Lindy is getting her strength back after tummy episode (worth getting checked out by doctor?

Quite unlikely to post tomorrow and I know Monday will be very busy!

I'm not convinced it's racism either, although I think that does play a role and much was made of it by the Leave crowd (we all saw that poster of the alleged hordes of unfortunates) but - sadly - a desire on the part of the older generation and, even more sadly, at the expense of the younger, to put the clock back to "the old days."   And the old days don't exist anymore. Not for any nation, any people, anywhere. So I can understand why young Brits are outraged that their futures have been hijacked by this nostalgic hankering on the part of their elders combined with the ignorance of others who apparently had no idea of the implications of their actions. Economic considerations aside - and nobody knows what they are - what worries me is the potential for political disruption. The UK's departure from the EU will possibly set off a rush to the exit by other members. And where will Europe be then? Back at the turn of the last century: little nations with varying resources living side by side awash with nationalistic fervor. We all know where that led. Twice. We only have to look at the fractious conglomeration of interests formerly known as Yugoslavia to see a very recent example. I don't think that's an unreasonable fear. A group of nations unified by shared economic interests is much more stable than a rag-tag collection of well-meaning patriots and would-be dictators.

Reaction here was one of shock mostly. Nobody other than Donald Trump and his followers think it was smart. My family is really devastated and feels even more frustrated today given the reports that some voters had no idea what they were voting for. Me too.

Annette: I could write reams.......

If you had your laws given out by say, Mexico.....  would you be happy?    If they said that they would not accept your meat unless it was brought to them still alive, thereby condemning many thousands of poor lambs and cattle to hundreds of miles of travel in unsuitable transport, and without food or water, terrified, and all because the Mexicans like their meat to be examined alive before they will eat it, would you? That's what the French do to us.

The same people who set fire to two trucks full of live lambs in a dispute over their lorry drivers strike.

If the Mexicans told you that you could not deport a man who had murdered a family in USA, because he had some family there, and his 'Human Rights'  were priority, you would not be cross?   If they told you how to fish in your own waters, even though they were miles from there themselves and it had nothing to do with them?

I heard today of a woman whose nine year old son had to be in pain at home for 36 hours with an appendicitis problem whilst they tried to find him a bed in a hospital - our city centre hospitals are overflowing. Many old people are being sent home when they are not fit to be discharged, just so that they can use the bed. Another woman had a daughter with a problem with her pregnancy - there was again no bed and she had to suffer for two days until they could find room. This is all because our cities are full.  Full of people.  We are a tiny, tiny island.  Personally, I wouldn't care if people were sky blue pink but I don't want them to all think that they can come here to a place which would fit into the breast pocket of most of the countries they are leaving.

They are proposing to double in size the tiny village where my husband was born.  It has hardly any amenities, a full school and an overworked Doctors practice.  But they need to build more houses.  They are going to build hundreds of houses in a place which years ago was described as unfit for housing, because of the location (right underneath a very busy airport runway).

We who voted to Leave are not living in some La La land where we hanker after a twee old fashioned England.  We are thinking hard about our children and their children.  The E U  is a failing, expensive and arrogant organisation who are bent on bullying everyone who doesn't agree to their terms.  If we stayed, goodness knows where it would lead us.  We must not be pulled into a world where bureaucrats who have not been elected can tell those in a far country how to run themselves.  I voted for the EU in 1974 as it was all about Trade:  we thought how good it would be to be regarded as European.  After the first ten years it was sadly evident that we had all created a monster.

Unknown said:

Lindybird: "that woman's gigantic ambitions"? I'm voting for Hillary Clinton this November (another woman with "gigantic ambitions"). I guess some women just don't know their place....

I only called her "that woman" in the same way as I would have said "that man" - it has nothing whatever to do with her gender.  I have, all my life, admired many women in politics, even those who were not of a political leaning which I liked.  She is very ambitious for herself, and its evident once again now that she is trying to bring turmoil to Scotland when they thought that they had voted, once and for all, two years ago.