A stark monolith stood defiant in front of me on my way home last night. As I turned the corner on the alley short-cut, the church steeple loomed large above me out of the night sky.
As I stopped to look up, the lonely English Flag of Saint George seemed to be starched and pointing eastwards. It is a sign of how I feel about my country at the present. The English will be alone soon like that flag. The words on the first page of my novel, “The Dream Team” rang true, “the United Kingdom, a misnomer for a country that is certainly not united.”
The whole country of England is split roughly 50/50 about leaving our European neighbours, while the majority of the rest of the U.K. wishes to stay linked to the European mainland. The so-called “Brexit”debate has brought a realisation that they had always really been ruled by a predominantly English government and a class riven one at that, which looks down on most of the people.
The debate has moved from just politics to day to day insults and violent rhetoric on social media and has highlighted the unfairness of the whole electoral system. There are essentially two main political parties and both of those are reluctant to change the existing democracy to a more proportional version, which would quite frankly be, well, more democratic! The hate speech on social media has already seen one Member of Parliament mudered on the street, and I don’t think she will be the last.
As with the election of Trump in the U.S.A. it seems that the political discourse has been hi-jacked by a neo-fascist hard right wing, which campaigns used the new technology to brainwash or inspire, depending on your point of view. An elite of wealthy individuals seems to have hoodwinked the rougher elements of the working classes to believe that they are looking after their interests, instead of their own.
Maybe the fact that the flag pointing eastwards was another sign, that England is also pointing to the East and new bedfellows in Russia. They do seem to be aligning with the wishes of Russia and its President in splitting from Europe, in much the way that the old allies of Trump’s administration appear to be hurting N.A.T.O. The politics of Divide and Rule used in so much of England’s past history seems to now being used inwardly.
I’m scared for my country now and signs like that church tower’s flag do not ease my mind. My mysticism and spirituality has increased my prescience of late. Should I leave soon? If I could get another passport right now, I wouldn’t hesitate, but unfortunately I only have my U.K. ancestry. I suppose if Scotland was granted independence I might be able to claim a new identity by virtue of a great grand-parent, but I fear I’ll be too old by the time that argument is settled. Am I being to much of a doomsayer?
