And Then It Has Started....

Off we go then; the games afoot and if the TV output between now and voting day is anything like todays output it’s going to be mind numbingly devoid of substance. The majority of jolly important people I saw gave the impression they had their arguments as well organised as a kitten with a ball of wool.

Yesterday, me and her were walking abroad in the city centre of a northern powerhouse and, for reasons not yet fully understood, I found myself taking a mental note... yeah, I know... of the languages being spoken as we enjoyed our amble hither and thither and I have to say that those we passed foreign sounding talking seemed to predominate. Despite this obvious diversity I honestly didn’t detect the oft quoted vibrancy that should be accompanying this diversity.

My second survey, conducted as we walked back to the car, was to take note of those who seemed to be speaking English as we passed and assessing, while not judging books by covers, how many of the sample would know what the letters E and U, when used joined-up, stood for. As a further aside I tried to estimate how many of the sample would be able to spell ‘referendum’ without resorting to Google. In my small, unscientific sample, conducted by someone untrained in the ancient art of sampling by sight alone, the numbers were depressingly low.

This Leave or Remain thingy will, I’m sure, be decided by the younger generation who will be scared into voting by being told that leaving will result in holidays, bachelor bashes and hen nights in Benidorm becoming all but impossible owing to border controls, no more cheap flights and also, should the poor things ever figure out how to get there, smartphone roaming charges that will become prohibitively expensive.

Owing to the above, and I really do all I can to keep thinking positively, I feel we’ll remain strapped in for what I believe will become an increasingly rough ride right quick.

As a by-the-by, it’s interesting to hear all the talk relating to the fact that foreign jonnies working over here get child benefits paid for their children living over there. I see this will start to be paid, at some time, on a sliding scale relating the cost of living of the country in question. What’s the betting administering this cunning system will far outstrip present costs? Do I begrudge the incomers this money? Absolutely not. I don’t begrudge a single penny anyone can legally wrest from the clutches of governments.

However, consider this. During this time it’s strange, is it not, that a UK citizen – I say again – a UK citizen who chooses to retire overseas and thus become an expat, finds their state pension, in the vast majority of instances, is frozen.  How weird is that then?

You think some government chappie, a while ago, did a fag packet calculation and found that not paying pension increases to UK expats would, over time, go quite some way to offsetting the cost of child benefit payments to these foreign fellows? Surely not.

Quote;  Angela Kiss.

“English people don’t like to be told, ‘enjoy your meal’. They will enjoy their meal if they feel like enjoying it. It is advisable not to command them such things in case they have other plans with their meal, such as preferring to dislike it.”