The EU In/Out - Shake it all about.

(As with all my blogs, these are my thoughts only, If you disagree feel free to leave a comment, or simply stop reading)

What Normal People think.........

What the politicians and the media forget, or should I say they choose to forget, is that government is about the people.
Nigel Farage and his UKIP party formed many years ago, I'm not that interested in them to know exactly when they were formed, but, the fact that they gained so much interest from the public and from the media suggests that there was a need and there was at least an interest in leaving the EU.

The reason for voting out is, I am sure, very varied, and yes I am sure some people were racists, but after talking to many people I can say quite categorically that not everyone who voted out was a racist.
I am proud to have voted out and I stand by my decision but I do not consider myself a racist in any way, those that know my personal history would know this to be the case.
The issues about membership of the EU are huge, and for me it was about sovereignty and the UK being able to make and implement its own laws without interference from another body.
Those that think laws such as maternity and paternity leave, minimum wage, the working week etc, aarere going to end, averyre  naive, or ill-informed.

Immigration certainly seems to be one of the bigger issues, mainly picked up by the mainstream Media, hatred pushed by the Daily Mail and the Daily Express and indifference pushed by some of the highbrow newspapers.
I am sure most people would agree that immigration was certainly one of the issues, my concern over immigration is in no way racist it's simply a matter of numbers, simply a matter of space in our tiny island, and simply a matter of jobs for our young people, regardless of their ethnic background.

I honestly believe that if there are two people standing on the border at Dover one is from Europe but unskilled he is automatically allowed to come into our country, the other a qualified doctor from pretty much anywhere else in the world outside Europe cannot enter, he has to meet various visa requirements, residency requirements, financial requirements, you only have to look at the Australian couple living in Scotland that have hit the news recently to realise that our immigration system is completely screwed. How is it fair when we need doctors and nurses that we are only allowed to take them from Europe when there may well be skilled people from the America's from Africa from Asia that are equally skilled but we have to give preference to those from within the EU that policy in itself appears to me to be racist.

As I have already said above, most of us who voted to leave the EU voted on the issue of lawmaking, of stricter border controls, and of independence. It's important to make clear to those people who voted in and got angry after the result because they basically don't understand democracy, that those people from the EU who are currently working in this country will not be sent back, at no point did anybody including Farage suggest that repatriation was an issue, there maybe a couple of idiots who mentioned it and of course then hit the mainstream press but people tend to forget that there are nutters about, that there always have been nutters about and they're always will be I seem to remember when the gay marriage law was going through one UKIP Council  said that they would be floods as a result, or something equally bizarre. Repatriation as far as I'm aware was never and will never be an issue this was just a scare mongering tactic after the result put out by those people that were disappointed or upset with the results.

On that point, that is something that does really wild me up there was a lot of smoke and mirrors from both sides on the in out referendum both sides were full of b******* neither side gave us the full story as far as I'm concerned so people had to make their own mind up at the end of it all 52% of those that voted voted to leave the EU for whatever their reasons may have been, so the other 48% need to get over themselves and accept the decision. I was very disappointed at the PR referendum a few years back I honestly think proportional representation is the way forward but I did not then go around calling people who voted against it names after the result.
Its a misunderstanding of the way our voting system works and just generally being a t***.

What does amuse me is the reaction of young people, without looking the figures up and trying to remember them I'm sure it was about 70% said they wanted to remain and yet only about 20% of them voted, perhaps this is a lesson to you young people for the future if you want your voice heard then you need to get your arse away from the Xbox and go to the Ballot Box this is the way democracy works if you don't have your say then you won't be heard.

It also amuses me what happened in the political world and within the political parties after the vote such as the leaving of the the prime minister the reshuffling and re positioning of  senior politicians including Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, and this also went on and in fact is still going on in the Labour Party, for those of us who are able to stand back and take a critical yet open-minded review we all know that it is in fact the civil servants, the men in suits that actually control things, those of us who have watched Prison Break know of the 'company', and although I am in no way a conspiracy theorist,  I am quite certain that a lot of the moving around was more to do with people we never see or hear about, telling our elected officials what they can and cannot do.
I will deal with Jeremy Corbyn and the labour leadership fiasco in another post, but it does show that it's not about being elected it's about whether you fit in, what school tie you are wearing, the right family background, and that you know the right people.

Only time will tell the true implications for leaving the EU, both sides said before the referendum there is going to be uncertainty, that was always to be expected. Where I believe the remain campaign went wrong, was with the extreme scaremongering and also suggesting that the leave campaigners had no plan, no I am sure there was no plan how can you plan for such a thing? we do not know what will happen, in a way that is quite an exciting thing, that we can go now, go out and deal with the rest of the world we can buy from Brazil or Argentina, or South Africa or China if we want to, we can buy from Commonwealth countries, why not purchase and sell to people that we have more connection with, our only connection with Europe is because we are closer to them geographically.

No one truly knows what this country will look like in 10, 20 or 30 years time I honestly think it will be a better place, but I also know that it will be a rocky road and there will be lots of bumps and problems along the way, we have seen Sterling drop against other currencies, it bounce back a bit and it will continue to drop and bounce back. The property market has been hit a little and there are many other areas mainly in the financial sector where things have been effected adversely. But once we are properly out of the EU, which will probably take 2 to 3 years, we will not know what it's going to be like but at least we will be standing on our own, at least we will be making our own laws with the public able to elect our own politicians, if we don't like what they do we can get rid of them at the next election
 Better than those people in Brussels we have no control over, we did not elect them in fact nobody elected them, most of the day to day business in Brussels is done by people on a very good salary doing a job and that's it they are just doing a job that they are well paid for, why should they decide whether Tesco's is allowed to sell bent bananas or beans are not green enough?

Britain used to be envied around the world as a country, we have lost that, the EU has attempted to suck most of it out of us, give us time and we as a country will bounce back, as for Scotland who want to remain in the EU you silly silly bastards.

car drivers are idiots

First of all, if I offend anyone, well tough really, these are my personal views, you don't have to agree, and if you don't like them you can stop reading.

I suppose I need to start by pointing out that due to an eye condition I don't, nor have ever, been a car driver, this puts me in a unique position as a constantly pissed off pedestrian.
Over my life I have seen a huge increase in car ownership, and as a consequence increased traffic, increased parking issues and increased stupidity.
Part of me understands the way car drivers behave, but that is in no way me making excuses for any of them. I must further point out that I believe most of my grievances are directed towards a certain type of driver of certain vehicles, this tends to include BMW drivers. Audi drivers, white van man, delivery drivers and post office Vans and trucks.
It seems that this group of people seem to think the law does not apply to them, for whatever reason they consider themselves above the Law I should also perhaps mention security vans who while I appreciate may need to get very close to a bank or somewhere else where they are collecting money seem to be quite happy blocking pavements and generally obstructing the highway I did on one occasion  mention this to a security guy, unfortunately the response is unprintable.
On the subject of the law, as far as I can establish this seems to be up to individual police forces and local authority rules which seem to vary all over the country, it does seem however that if a vehicle is blocking the highway the police will intervene, and, I have seen it where a police officer has suggested the vehicle move from blocking the road and to sit on the pavement, completely obstructing the pavement giving no thought to pedestrians that may need to pass by,

I have many issues with the car driver, (not all of them, I am generalizing)
First has to be the inability to park in a sensible and considerate way, the car driver when parking becomes a selfish and lazy entity, often parking in such a way as to block driveways, block oncoming traffic and worst of all block pedestrians from walking safely. This includes forcing parents with pushchair on to the road,wheelchairs etc to struggle to get past, and generally being a complete and utter nuisance.

Let's consider pavements, it seems drivers think pavements, paths, sidewalls whatever you choose to call them, are these days considered as extra parking bays.

Laziness appears to be a key Factor certainly with Audi & BMW drivers I think the case with delivery drivers is more lack of brain than anything else. I once saw a delivery driver stop in the middle of the road and hold up the traffic while he delivered a parcel , I understand he's probably on a time limit but perhaps someone with this limited brain capacity should not have be an employed as a driver.

As a perpetual pedestrian I see all these problems on a daily basis, most people are immune and even a car driver that does the occasional walk is probably just doing the final bit into work, they don't see what some of us see and despair of frequently.

Parking on the path either completely or with two wheels up on the pavement may seem sensible to the car driver as they are not blocking the road but they seem to have no inclination as to the inconvenience and hassle they are potentially causing to the pedestrian.
I have on many occasions had no choice but to almost remove a wing mirror as I pass by, I openly admit that I have caused criminal damage to cars in the past by Simply trying to walk my way to where I am going. And as long as these t**** continue I also will continue with no intent to damage cars.

The other issue with parking on the pavement is the damage it causes. Councils are cash strapped as we know, and have had to make cut-backs, so the repairs they have to do when  you crack the pavement because you are too lazy to walk an extra ten feet, are done in a sub-standard way, so do not work, I then might trip over on the pavement, sue the council, so your council tax may have to go up, you stupid twat.

Parking on the path is just one issue, the list goes on.
My next grievance is with the car manufacturers who don't fit indicators to BMW's, Audi's , delivery drivers and post office vehicles.
As a pedestrian this is a life-threatening decision not to have an indicator perhaps these vehicles are fitted with indicators but the tw**s that drive them either don't use or don't know how to use them.
As someone who is often a passenger in a car I know that the lack of indication by this group of people is also an irritation and a danger to other car drivers as well as the pedestrians,
I remember one instance where I was teaching one of my young children how to cross the road and general Road etiquette we looked to our right and left and then to our right again there was indeed a car approaching the roundabout to our right on the right-hand turn but with no indication my presumption was that they were going straight on incorrect, they turned left just as me and my young child stepped onto the road the car obviously had to come to an abrupt halt the lady driving also had a young child in the car she was not happy with me, I explained that I was trying to teach my child how to cross the road and the fact that she didn't indicate was not very helpful, her reply considering she had a child in the car was quite rude I decided not to continue the conversation when I realised she was driving a BMW.

There are of course many other issues such as not stopping at pelican crossings ,zebra crossings or jumping traffic lights.
The pedestrian of course are not always the innocent party and many stupid people walk the pavements of Britain, that said, my biggest irritations in life is the ignorant car driver.

BMW - Hairdresser, Drug Dealer, man in his 30's who thinks he's cool. (no indicators installed)
Audi - More money than sense (no indicators installed)
Citroen - I cant afford a proper car
Vauxhall, Peugeot, Renault & Ford - Normal family people