Our 18 year old granddaughter has just got a temporary job. Not a job in a cafe or a shop, which is the kind of thing most of us did for temporary employment at that age, but a job with Transport for Greater Manchester, which undoubtedly will pay better than a cafe or shop. After a couple of weeks training, she’ll be working mostly from home on computer and phone. She’s a mix of excited and apprehensive - a natural reaction.
She has a place at university but has deferred entry for a year. What she would like to do is travel round Europe with a friend, having adventures. She needs some cash before she can do that, just as she will need some cash to go to university. We’re almost hoping she enjoys her job so much that she will see if it can be made permanent. She can always go to university later. She’ll still have the A-levels. And so many things are in a state of flux at the moment that it would be good to see her settled and secure. We shall see!
Her plan to travel is, of course, very much in doubt at present, between coronavirus restrictions (not just here but all over Europe) on the one hand and Brexit- created restrictions on the other. A few years ago she could just have bought her inter-rail ticket and set off - no worries. Now it’ll be visas and testing!
There’s that “little” travel problem for our young people. There’s the great sausage quandary. There’s the discussion of the Irish protocol that went on, among other things, at the G7. All this brings me to a question I have asked time and time again:
Why did Brexit happen?
Well, this morning, in an article reviewing Andrew Neil’s GB News (“Now is the time to do news differently,” he said, “We are committed to covering the people’s agenda, not the media’s agenda.” - or maybe they are committed to covering Andrew Neil’s agenda!) Phil found a throwaway statistic: The “pundit” who appeared most often on the panel of BBC’s Question Time was … wait for it … Nigel Farage.
So really, Brexit is the BBC’s fault! How is that? I hear you asking. Here goes:-
I have said on more than one occasion that I believe his frequent appearances on programmes such as Question Time contributed to the rise of Nigel Farage. It’s very dangerous to invite someone to speak in a discussion programme because you think his views are outrageous and therefore interesting, perhaps amusing. Giving such people, and their views, airtime gives them credibility. People think that there must be a grain of truth in their nonsense; otherwise they would not be speaking on the telly! Just as a lie many times repeated turns into a kind of truth, so an outrageous piece of nonsense oft repeated becomes a reasonable point of view.
It is quite possible that without the free publicity Mr Farage’s views, especially on Europe, might not have been given houseroom. And thus we might not have had a referendum on EU membership. And we might not be in the odd mess we’re in right now.
We’d still have Covid-19. I can’t blame the BBC and Nigel Farage for that. But that’s a different story!
So here’s something else to think about. In an article about a photographer who starts his day by taking a pic of his breakfast table, they quoted what they described as seminal dialogue between the original Zen duo, Pooh and Piglet:
“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.
I like the idea of Pooh and Piglet as a Zen duo, rather like Charlie Brown and Snoopy. It’s a pity we can’t arrange a conference where Charlie Brown and Linus and, yes, even Lucy and “the little red-headed girl” decide on the future of the world.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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