More for #the5million

Hail

2 years suspended
Uncertain futures
A life of broken plans
A Home with a bolt on the door
Who will slide it open?  Will they unlock it and when?
Aged old friends too embarrassed to think
Too frightened to look lest they feel the burn of personal responsibility
Sops and platitudes rain down as
cold projectiles of hail
fueling grieving resentment freezing forgiveness
Slowly dwindling to silence then distance

‘We didn’t mean you’
Too proud to admit your error
You hide behind these words with your fake tans and polished smiles
Your Marks suits and empty eyes.

@redalphababe


Movement

An open horizon beckons its hope to excited people
A reflection in the sunlight of potential new fates
Children learn languages
Parents, new skills
Beautiful girls learn words of passion whispered by lovers on strange moonlit shores
Students pack sweet memories in their rucksacks, currency for their life ahead
We can breathe in our freedom
We can drink it’s energising adventure
We pack our bags with glee undiminished by our pasts, undeterred from our future possibilities
We remove freedom from those we would punish for bad choices

yet we have done no wrong - so why send ourselves into solitary confinement

@redalphababe

Resignation letter sent October 2017

I sent the letter below in October 2017 to the Labour Party.  In view of Jeremy Corbyns insistence in an interview today that he would press on with imposing brexit if labour won an election without referring back to the people first, I checked what I had written and decided to post it on my blog page.  In fact most of my points stand, though I was wrong about one thing,  a large majority of labour members and supporters want to remain and want an opportunity for a public vote on the matter.  The level of anger I have seen today related to the guardian article below is worse than I have ever seen it.  People who I have followed who have remained with labour defending the party working for the party are feeling completely let down today.  The Labour Party must listen to them if it is not to make itself a minor footnote in the history books when they are written about the Brexit disaster. 

Here is the article that prompted my post today 

Corbyn: Brexit would go ahead even if Labour won snap election

My original letter 

Dear  Labour Party

I am sorry to say but for some time I have felt I cannot  support the Labour Party by being a member and have therefore cancelled my direct debit.  I will continue to support  Labour campaigns on local issues and local candidates where appropriate but as a member I feel very constrained to express my opinions which it seems are at odds with a large portion of the current membership. 

The contentious issue for me is Brexit.  I am 100% against Brexit – I think it is the most damaging and dangerous political direction ever taken by a British Government in my lifetime and I feel disappointingly that most of the Labour Shadow Cabinet continue to take a very weak confusing and schizophrenic line towards Brexit.    I understand in a way, Labour are trying to keep the support of hard brexiteers amongst labour voters and woo back UKIP voters and they want to honour the result - but frankly all members of a government including HM opposition have a primary duty to put the good of the country before ANYTHING ELSE INCLUDING THEIR OWN PARTY.  

Leave won the EU referendum with a very small majority which in my view simply was not a big enough majority to warrant such a  massive and disruptive and damaging change.  In addition watching the government lurch through negotiations as all the realities unravel it is increasingly obvious to anybody with a modicum of sense and logic that leaving the EU is so incredibly complex and damaging that it serves the country very poorly to continue down this extremely damaging path or to support in any way the government on this policy.  

Furthermore the long standing wholly unwarranted British hysteria about immigration which, it grieves me to say, has been spread not only on the right of politics but also amongst some Labour party voters, members and MPs has been hugely hurtful and harmful to EU citizens some of whom have been here for decades, since they were children.   This is perhaps the worst aspect of Brexit because it was fought by its proponents primarily on anti-foreigner arguments.  I actually joined the labour party in 2015 because I was extremely distressed at the growth of the anti-immigration narrative that was all over the press and TV and having always voted  Labour I thought I could support them more directly in their principles that all citizens should be treated fairly including people who have settled here from other countries.  I sense that this is not really what Labour is wholeheartedly behind nowadays and many are simply increasingly indifferent to the reality that  members of our communities in effect are being treated as second class citizens and any deal that is done will change their current status as equal EU citizens to something less.   I must be free to oppose this anti FOM narrative resolutely in the name of  family and friends who may or have already been affected and in memory of my parents who came here in the sixties as foreign migrants and started a new life here.  We, their children, have gone on to create employment and spend our working lives paying taxes and contributing to our local communities and contributing to the growth the economy.  Every serious study has shown that the story sold to some parts of the electorate that EU27 citizens have been driving down wages is false and again it grieves me that some members of Labour Shadow Cabinet and MPs have on occasion actually publicly  promoted this false argument in order to support giving up EU membership.  The anti-immigration narrative plus the shambles of Brexit negotiations unfolding has also hugely damaged our standing in the eyes of our strategic partners overseas too and HM opposition should be firm in its opposition to this.   

I run a business which since the 2008 crash has seen most of its strongest growth in sales throughout Europe – this has counterbalanced the poor growth we have seen in our UK markets in the same period.  As a small business without the single market we will see significant damage to that income stream as our bureaucratic and  export costs and complexities increase in whatever the new arrangements end up being.  The best Brexit is no Brexit from the point of view of the wellbeing of our business and the security of the local people we employ whose livelihoods depend on us continuing to remain strong and viable.   

Brexit overshadows everything else in these worrying times - no issues such as poor wage growth, housing or austerity can be addressed properly in a post Brexit UK as even just the costs of its negotiation and  implementation will be enormous without even starting to take into account the long term economic damage to our industry and business. 

After months of indecision from me about my labour membership and increasing disquiet at my personal position which is at odds with the Labour party and the disappointing lack of firm anti Brexit policy from the national party,  I feel I must follow my principle.  My money and time will be better spent not on political parties but specifically supporting grass roots/cross party Anti Brexit campaigns for the time being.   My resignation is no personal reflection on individual members I have come across who have been in the main very nice people or indeed on Welsh Labour and the work they do in the Welsh Assembly,  but I feel this is the right thing for me to do.

I wish The Labour Party the very best of luck in the future.

Kind regards

Maria del Pilar Gomez

Daglo Man

There are new kids in town, so angry and bitter

Follow  MPs 

Moan loudly on twitter 

Think democracy stopped on a day

 in June ‘16, hate #finalsay

But their side told lies, Leave cheated and broke

The law to beat reason and logic and hope 

Daglo boy stands in front of the bus, 

In his jacket of yellow tries to look tough.  

Thinks his voice is more equal than those who disagree 

Thinks he can stop protest, democratic and free

His ilk stop ambulances 

Follow women through the park 

And yell in their ears 

Shout they are Nazis

Aggression stark

In his yellow vest uniform borrowed from France 

He fancies his own power , a real self romance 

A bit of Quixote lives inside his mind 

Perhaps dear reader that’s a little unkind

Since he hates the EU and thinks he is best 

Why borrow from Forrins, just thump on his chest. 

@redalphababe

Fawn Socks

Fawn socks, Rimmer checks 

Girls are getting it in the neck

Roll up our skirts get legs a-tanning 

Forget the pervy neighbour scanning 

Dreaming of romancing, sunshine and dancing 

In the hall Assembled, a letter read

Complaints to be dealt with by the head 

A Sister’s anger fills the stage 

A leader, tall, cross on a chain, all  beige 

Trying to make us all the same, maroon and bland but kind and sage 

Singing  echoes around  the walls, 

scores of crescendos, summer stalls

Hockey matches 

Hitting balls, 

fearless, tackling, lots of goals.  Important wins to keep school pride 

To keep onside 

Not be denied 

To gain respect 

The team accept

Reaching the sixth, boys in the classes 

Less supervision, more blusher,  eyelashes

Fluttering

Pretending 

To be aloof 

Gossip the currency, fitting in, the desire

Parties and music fanning the fire 

of passion 

of love’s lost  agony 

Unique to the young 

who think the world’s over when it’s only begun 

Fawn socks are gone, blandness is history 

Now to become a mystery 

But Never to be Sisterly  

@redalphababe 

Pictures from Twitter - 4 little verses

Refugees

They see swarming
We see calling
Mourning
For Histories lost
And futures stopped

Food bank

Full shelves
Empty stomachs
Frozen minds
Gurning suits look proudly on
Their creation of shame born out of patronage
Victims required for illusion of empire.

Ugly thread

Lack of care
Or hidden behind the caps of hate?
Envy and anger designed to inflict damage
Troll or bot or friendly fire?
The hurt is the same, the journey has been long
Pick the right fight
We are close to the finishing line,
Reject the ugly, embrace the goal.

Freedom of Movement

A right to live a life your own
A right to love in sun or snow
A hope and dream which can be real
No bank nor birth can stop the zeal which which we dare to start again
or try some shoes not otherwise worn

You would give that blessing away
to give mine too is not a game
It's a pain endured, an agony, a crime
Our identity
ripped
shredded
Undermined

Our pattern pieces make sense sewn up
Torn apart, they are rags forgotten, unworn
in a drawer, an incomplete project
mothballed
abandoned
left behind
As elsewhere the future is forged without us.

You lose too.


@redalphababe

SUPPORTING A PEOPLES VOTE

As the dramas unfold in parliament, it is clear  there is no agreement amongst our parliamentarians on the deal that Mrs  May has come back with which has taken 2.5 years to negotiate and no agreement as to how to resolve the impasse.  It is an appalling deal.  We will have had our voice and vote removed completely when we should be in the heart of Europe continuing to shape it with our partners.

You cannot have the benefits without the membership fee.  You cannot shape the EU without the membership card to get you in.  You cannot have the SM and CU without embracing the four freedoms.  You cannot have the exact same benefits of EU membership, SM or CU without being members.  The other option, No-Deal, contrary to public opinion does not mean we remain as we are just not in the EU, it means we literally fall out of every single treaty and framework agreement with no arrangements going forward.  All the systems and regulatory and business-related apparatus that we rely on to manage our complex economy and public services and way of life will have to be rebuilt or remade in some form.  Either way, May’s deal of the blind future or no-deal of complete chaos, it will not be the end of Brexit.  Either option will lead to many years of arguing and negotiating and distraction when we could just be getting on with growing our economy and shaping our futures at the top table with our friends.

It is time for us all to accept that the problem with Brexit is Brexit.  After 40 years of membership, our systems of trade, of movement and, in our private lives, our mix of cross EU relationships and families  which have grown and developed are all inextricably linked.  Is that a bad thing given the enormous benefit we have seen to peace and the improvements in the protections of citizens in many areas and the fantastic opportunities that Freedom of Movement has given us and of course genuine frictionless trade with access to FTA agreements across the world beyond the EU?  Leaving is like trying to take the ice out of the ice cream so in the end it just leaves a melted lukewarm mess in your bowl.  It will leave our bank balances lower, our futures more uncertain, our public services desperately damaged especially the NHS which will become extremely vulnerable to becoming a two-tier system of more health insurance  vs a public service struggling to make the budgets work and find enough staff.  The NHS is already struggling in these areas.  Brexit will make it worse.

I agree with Chris Matheson, in his thoughtful column on the issue of Brexit recently and the dangers of no-deal and I am very glad he is not prepared to compromise by agreeing to Mrs. May's bad solution.  There is another way.  We can choose to change our minds and remain.  There is only one way we can legitimately and fairly break this impasse.  We need to have a referendum and test the May proposition properly, a proposition which Parliament by the looks of it cannot agree on and examine the costs and the consequences and the so-called benefits to our lives.  Then we need to re-examine our EU membership by the same standard.  Then we need to decide whether May’s deal is what we really and truly want.

@redalphababe

Saving the Nation from WHAT?

The Great Deal that will Save the Nation from the Pesky Foreigners has been revealed

How proud is the cry from Mrs May and her Government?

“Free movement will end once and for all” proclaims the slick advert. 

Forgive me for not falling over myself in the rush to proclaim this a great victory although there doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm in general to be fair.    What a mean-minded piece of triumphalism.   Slow handclap to the people of this great nation who have continued to support the removal of freedoms and rights on the say so of 17,410,742 people out of a total population of 66 million.  This is the most amazing case of the tyranny of the minority I have ever seen.   This figure equates to a percentage of 26.37% of the population imposing their desires on 73.27% of the public.  I don’t know about you, but these figures make me angry and have continued to make me angry since that day in June 2016 when the Leave campaign cheated to get over the line and fear and suspicion of the “other” won out. 

But we didn’t vote leave because of immigration, I hear you say.  Well Mrs. May believes you did because she has been clear from the start, she wants to stop freedom of movement and reduce immigration and it’s the very first thing her tawdry advert proclaims.

Tell me again. 

Why have you given up your rights to easily live, study, love, work or retire in any one of our beautiful European member states?  Why have you given up the benefit of pooling resources with our closest neighbours and partners?  We cannot take part in the myriad of schemes and initiatives that bring back targeted assistance to the regions struggling the most.  We must reinvent a whole list of agencies for ourselves that we have been an equal party to developing over 40 years.  Every aspect of our lives is connected to the structures around the EU.  Not even the remain community knew the half of it and leave politicians certainly had no idea.  I mean, Raab only just realised Dover is an important port!

Why have you voted for the 3 million EU27  amongst us and your fellow citizens in the EU to be relegated from being equals within their communities to second class citizens?  How are you going to resolve the challenges we face?  Is it not better to work together, for example, to deal with the multinational corporations arranging their tax affairs to the detriment of their tax paying customers' nations? You all sit there moaning about this company and that company not paying tax, this is exactly the kind of thing our representatives in the EU work on together with our partners and we can carry on working together to come up with some solutions that are fair to the citizens and the businesses alike.  We can only do that as a bloc.  

What about climate change?  Remember that?  With a White House which currently declines to place importance on environmental issues it is more vital than ever that as a group we stand together in Europe, sharing our science and research in this area, no borders no obstacles, seeking political consensus that will help us find solutions to deliver the planet to our children in better condition than when we found it. 

How are we to tackle the big problems coming in the more distant future – the demographic time bomb of an ageing population, automation reducing the amount of skilled well-paid work available. These are problems best faced together, working out ways to make our industries work for our citizens rather than the other way around.

How will being a third country increase your wages?  How will it reduce your living costs?  How will it build you new homes or take the homeless off the street?  Why are Germany able to magically export massive amounts to China whilst being members and why is Denmark  seemingly not hampered in running a generous progressive welfare system by being in the EU.  Nationalised Industries such as trains and utility companies are all over the EU. 

All these things have been offered as reasons to give up our membership.  Funny that, nothing about our membership is stopping us doing any of it. NOTHING.   Yet every day we ask the same key question and get no logical reply.

graphic via @BrimhamG

What are you getting back for throwing away your EU citizenship and that of 3 other people who did not want to?  It had best be something really good. What are you saving the nation from?

Politicians who continue to enable Brexit and cannot answer this question convincingly, well it had best be something extremely good.  When the people have figured out the truth as the consequences start to bite, the Parliament of 2018 will not be forgiven.

Its time for you all to spell out the consequences of Brexit to your constituents and remind them we don’t have to do this.  We can choose to REMAIN and keep our rights as citizens of the EU.

Its time for you to offer informed consent

#peoplesvote with #optiontoremain  #finalsayforall 

@redalphababe