Way to Put Australian Politics Into Perspective

Posts have been light for the last few days for a very simple reason.  The electricity supply at my flat resentful of being taken advantage of for so many years with so little to show for it has risen in its wrath and is shoving power surges through my flat and, for good measure, several of my neighbour's flats as well.  So far this has fried a power board, a modem an iPod dock and a washing machine.  I'm now considering a career in male prostitution to help fund the replacement of the above.  Or at least I was considering such a career until it was pointed out to me that I'd probably make more money on welfare.

While I've been huddled in my home waiting for the electricity monster to blow up another appliance the world has continued turning outside.  Australia is still in the throes of an election campaign that looks increasingly like a remake of the movie Dumb and Dumber only more boring while over in the home of my ancestors the British have voted to leave the EU.

Various inlaws of mine were stunned and horrified by the decision but ultimately it would appear that people who thought they got nothing out of the EU except misery outnumbered those who thought they benefited.  Sitting in my chair on the other side of the world it seems pretty obvious to me that Britain should remain in the EU if only for the same reason heroin users shouldn't go cold turkey, the shock will probably kill them.  Having spent forty odd years integrating your economy with that of Europe removing it again is probably going to cause problems.

Possibly, as those of the leave camp capable of uttering a semi articulate sentence assured, Britain will recover and be stronger on its own.  This is possible.  But even if it is it will probably take about thirty to forty years.  First of all you've got to clear the rubble of the house you just destroyed and then you have to build a replacement and while that's going on you're going to need somewhere to live.  And there won't be any Polish builders around to knock you up one on the cheap.

And the fact that even I can make a joke like that last one tells you why Britain voted to leave.  Forget all the idiotic promises made by the Leave campaigners.  Almost nobody believes politicians promises anyway.  The promises of politicians serve merely as justification for decisions we've already made.  However a large number of people in Britain did not feel as though they benefited from being part of the EU.  They may have been wrong in this belief but they held it.  These were people who for centuries could feel that there was always the promise of a shitty, ghastly, low paying job that they could break themselves physically doing and in doing so put food on the table and a little pride in achievement in their hearts.  Most of those jobs are gone now and such as remain are, at least in the public view, the preserve of people from poorer parts of Europe who will work for even less. 

Leaving the EU wont improve anything but that really wasn't the point.  The point was that a large chunk of Britain's population had been told the EU was good for them and they took the first opportunity to point out that they disagreed.  Things weren't helped by certain commentary from the remain camp which only served to prove that an elitist contempt for the working class is not necessarily incompatible with being left wing.  Possibly the people voting to leave were wrong.  Rather than tell them they're wrong in tones of weary condescension it might have helped if some people had pointed out why they were wrong while at the same time indicating that they had some sort of clue as to why the leavers might be upset in the first place. 

It has been said that the Brexit has divided Britain, absolutely wrong.  Britain was already divided, all Brexit has done is brought this fact to the attention of the blinkered, self satisfied and intellectually arrogant clowns whose mismanagement of the Remain campaign might have been a textbook case of why being smarter than average doesn't necessarily make you any smarter than average.  I'm smarter than average and I can barely tie my own shoelaces.

Sadly they're already taking the wrong lesson from this.  Already comments have been made about how silly it is to have a referendum decision when "only" 52% of the electorate supported the decision (better to go with the option of 48% of the electorate instead, much more fair).  Various people in Scotland, revelling in their land's brief moment of relevance, are suggesting they might leave Britain, or block implementation of the results.  In short, the lesson the flag bearers of the remain camp seem to have taken from this is that they have to be more efficient about ignoring the wishes of the people in future.

Be careful guys otherwise the next revolution might involve pitchforks and guillotines.

Meanwhile back in Australia our longest and arguably most tedious election campaign drags on as we attempt to decide whether to replace an incompetent, spendthrift government with an opposition campaigning on the promise to be even worse.  Dumb and Dumber indeed.  I have never been more grateful.