out of the mouths of…
Well, as it transpires, out of the mouths of middle-aged blue-rinsed ladies. ‘Brenda from Bristol’ caused a viral stir when asked what she thought of the recently announced election and replied: “You’re joking? Not another one! Oh for God’s sake, I can’t honestly… I can’t stand this. There’s too much politics going on at the moment.” Go Brenda, and I’m sure she speaks for a large proportion of the non-Westminster-obsessed population. At times you can’t get an election for love nor money and then, like proverbial London buses they turn-up en-masse: The Scottish referendum, David Cameron’s 2015 general election, the EU referendum, and now the 2017 general election. A veritable conveyor belt of diesel-driven decision-taking.
Notwithstanding Brenda’s sound-bite-social-media-friendly knee-jerk reaction, we all appear to want change, and when do we want it: now! I’ve commented several times on the fact that change has become the modern static in that it’s the one-thing we can be assured off. And the constant change in today’s politick is in some way due to our diet of rolling 24 hour news consumption. We expect headlines, society-shattering action on a daily, if not hourly basis, and politics has evolved to deliver this. Questions, once considered generational at best, now need to be asked, and answered, again and again, like some dystopian Groundhog Day. Not happy with the result? Don’t worry, sit-tight and another one’ll be along in a mo.
Furthermore, and make no bones about it, this latest general election is all about Brexit. Theresa’s ‘snap’ decision is a contrived and cynical ‘my way or the EU highway’ gambit and no amount of hard vs soft debate (of which there will be precious little) changes this. The sole aim is to paint all other potentially competitive parties as anti-Brexit and railing against the earlier referendum decision, and Labour, unlike the Lib Dems, have no credible or discernible alternative policy. Factor in a leader that even many of his own MPs believe should not be Prime Minister and it’s going to end in tears. Jeremy Corbyn’s. Keir Starmer and Chukka Umunna need to start working on their leadership anointment speeches.
As Mrs May told us a couple of months ago ‘Brexit means Brexit’ but it’d be nice to know what it means with regards to our public services (health, education, defence, security, pension, foreign aid et al), international economy, European commitments and future political structure. Mind, in a totally unsurprising move, Gideon’s resignation “for now” from his Tatton constituency proves every cloud can indeed contain a silver lining!
The only man known to have held down more jobs than Gorgeous George is my ol’ man, who was, for a very short space of time, the fireman on the plate of The Royal Scot, sister-ship, so to speak, of the most famous steam train, Flying Scotsman. Consequently, from an early age I was attracted to letting-off steam and, had I not been prevented from entering Preston railway station for being too short, could well have descended into the anoraked world of post-Beeching train-spotting. Lucky escape me-thinks.
Steam trains. Pub closing times. Clippies on the buses. Pipe smoking. Looney bins. 45s. Black & white telly. Football matches that started at 3.00pm. Jeans that you bought without rips already in the knees. Old Spice. Prams. Sour school milk at eleven. Pick n mix. Woolworths. Watney’s Party Four. Labour clubs. Tick. The man from the Pru. Playing-out. Pitch & toss. And contrary to what EastEnders would have us believe, launderettes.
Thankfully, if it wasn’t for mainstream TV, I could almost end up feeling sorry for the passing of these. Call the Midwife, Last Tango in Halifax, Mr Selfridge, Last of the Summer Wine, Heartbeat, Doc Martin, Morse and Midsomer Murders, together with the aforementioned long-standing soaps, all hark back to a wistful, peaceful, romanticised but long-gone past. Notwithstanding its SMEG fridges, induction hobs and Kenwood mixers, even ‘Bake-Off’ wishes to transport us back to gentler, less-troubled times when a nicely-risen Victoria sponge would cure all ills.
However, most of today’s viewing, and voting, public have not experienced this nostalgic past first-hand, so what is the hold it has over us? Why do we seek an unrealistic view of post-war, millennial Britain? Ah, yes, this was when the Great Britain still exerted its influence over its empire, and when Britannia ruled the waves: a time before Europe and the EU. Those halcyon days before both colonial and European immigration. And it is this vision that I believe many Brexit voters are yearning to capture – voting to return to the way it was. Even though in reality, it never was. Brexit proved to be an emotional response, an irrational rose-tinted reaction attempting to regain an imaginary and largely irrelevant past. Yep, nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.
