Tag: uk

Day 71, part 2 – Moved

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After 8 years of occasional bliss, overnight – while you were sleeping – 6000 miles… moved from South Africa to a new home amongst the bright lights of London town. The Big Smoke, innit.

Not me, obviously. I’m still here. Like I could get a flight anyway. Like I’d go to London anyway.

No: the blog. Away from Afrihost, and hopefully away from all the recent problems from which it has been suffering, and off to a new, more professional, much-recommended host.

The address remains the same. Do not point your browsers elsewhere. 

I cannot thank The Guru enough for his monumental efforts and extreme patience in sorting this out for me. From dealing with the slings and arrows of outrageous coding, through to taking  arms against a sea of well… actual troubles; and by opposing them, still having to deal with me and my lack of technological knowhow.

I am very grateful, and as soon as Level 5 lockdown is rescinded again in Cape Town, there will be wine.

In the meantime, please enjoy the new, faster, more streamlined and still every bit as poorly written offerings on here.

Giving me ideas

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It’s time to register to fly your drone if you want to use it in the UK.

It’s because they’re nuts about Health and Safety there, and they want to prevent things like this.

I don’t have to register, but if I want to fly over there in the future, then I will have to register. It costs 9 quid a year and you have to score 80% or above in a 20 question multiple choice test.

There’s also a list of do’s and don’ts  on the site, including this one:

A person must not cause or permit any article or animal (whether or not attached to a parachute) to be dropped from a small unmanned aircraft so as to endanger persons or property.

Of course, these are the rules for the UK, so they don’t necessarily apply here in SA.

All of which is giving me ideas for some fun with next door’s gerbil (whether or not attached to a parachute).

Hmm.

TSROD understandably making gains

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Further to my post yesterday and my ongoing and increasing disillusionment with anything political, be it British, European or South African, this fits so nicely.

 

To be honest, the only reason that TSROD isn’t sweeping the board is that it’s clearly a new option which people haven’t considered before.
If you offered the average man individual on the street The Sweet Release Of Death, they’d likely politely turn you down.

It’s only when you offer them the choice between The Sweet Release Of Death and any of the political parties on offer that TSROD suddenly becomes such an attractive option.

And that’s completely understandable.

 

image credit: the brilliant General Boles. 

Fed up with Brexit

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I am. And I’m not even very involved.
(More involved than some people think (bless him and his little army), but still…)

I’m fed up with the mess that it’s made of politics, the economy, the people and the news.

I’m fed up with the drama llamas on both sides, of the constant wailing and gnashing of teeth of the Remainers and the blinkered stiff-upper-lipism of the Leavers.

I’m fed up of either side twisting any given news story to somehow suit their narrative.

I’m fed up with people expecting their elected MP to listen to their specific viewpoint rather than that of their electorate. Can you imagine if the vote had gone the other way and yet the Government had still gone ahead with leaving the EU? Because that’s pretty much the equivalent of saying that the referendum shouldn’t count. You don’t get to keep trying until you get the result you were hoping for.

I didn’t get to vote in the 2016 referendum: I wouldn’t have been able to anyway: I was on the beach in Mauritius when it all happened. Shame.
But for the record, I would have voted to remain*. And that means that I would have been on the losing side too. Bummer.

Because yes, democracy is great until people don’t choose the option you wanted them to. And step forward that old “but there was so much disinformation, so many broken promises!” chestnut. Well, sadly that’s politics. It’s crap, but show me any political campaign that’s been entirely truthful; any manifesto to which the party in question has kept. It simply doesn’t happen, and yes, maybe (some of) those voting to leave were naive enough to be seduced, much in the same way that you likely were (subconsciously or otherwise) whenever you last voted for anyone**.

Some of the stuff that I’ve heard from bitter Remainers has had very little to do with the truth as well. This breaking news, just in: Not everything is about you. Not everything is about Brexit.

Perhaps the one redeeming feature of Jeremy “the scruffy communist” Corbyn is that he was also going to follow through on the result of the  democratic vote if he were ever elected [laughs in that’s not going to happen]. Kinda weird for him not to take the low-hanging populist fruit, but still…

And one other thing that has struck me about this whole thing is that while the EU “respects” the UK referendum result, there’s very much a Hotel California vibe in their “you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave” message to the rest of the EU, probably brought about by some other close polls in other countries.

While I believe in some benefits of the EU, holding it up as some sort of bastion of freedom and honesty is clearly misplaced. It’s every bit as rotten and hypocritical as any other political organisation. If you choose to overlook that simply because it suits your argument, then expect short shrift from me.

In fact, don’t expect much from me at all if your day seems to consist solely of stuff about Brexit. No matter which side you’re on.
Yes, I’m aware that it’s important. I’m aware that it’s current. I’m aware that you’re not very happy.

It’s just that I’m totally and utterly fed up with Brexit.

 

* thus alienating half my readers immediately, because you’re not allowed to like people from “the other side”, just like when you were 5 years old in the school playground. Analogy very deliberate. 

** But of course not. Because you would never allow that to happen to you, would you? That’s something that only happens to other people. Not you. Right. Ok then.