Lottsathoughts

I keep wondering: is it me? Is Brexit actually a great idea? Or if not actually great, maybe it's not as awful as all that and the politicians will eventually come up with something that works. I can't tell you how much I want that to be true. It's my point of overlap with the still-convinced Leavers. If it's true, I can step down from obsessive news-reading and sharing. I can stop worrying. I can take a break from social media. I can stop writing lengthy posts about it and blog about something else. I need no longer go to marches. I can get a decent night's sleep. And then I realise this is probably true for most active Remainers. We have been called a whole bunch of names from Remoaner to Snowflake to Libtard to Traitor. But actually the fairest name which might be more informative is "Incomprehenders". Not so catchy I guess. But that's all we are - people who have not yet understood how any of this is a good idea. We have no agenda beyond under...

If you are still looking up facts about the EU or our membership of it, you are fighting the wrong battle. We won that argument months, possibly years ago. It did us no good of course – for who is listening? Brexit is more a symptom than a cause. Sure, there are no doubt a few crazed ideologues who genuinely have strong feelings about the minutiae of cooperative government in a global twenty-first century, but the majority of the population whose votes made Brexit even possible, don't really care. They can't possibly be distressed about the EU and its governance because on the whole, like 99% of the population pre June 2016, they don't understand it. Most EU-related issues for which they profess disquiet are actually products of fake news and misunderstandings, some accidental, many deliberate. No. The bigger debate is the changing face of society and social interaction within it. What do we aspire to look like as a nation? How do we want to define ourselves and ea...

For those feeling buffeted by current politics and angst, it is relentlessly tempting to seek a universal theory of everything that could explain the zeitgeist in one fell-swoop. In all honesty it's highly unlikely that such a thing exists, and if it does, it almost certainly won't be discernible before a few decades, at least, have passed.But, if one were to indulge the mind's craving for a simple story, could the decline of authenticity be a contender? I recently attended a concert which featured a remarkable singer, a soprano who wowed the audience into enthusiastic cheering and foot-stamping. I, however, was left cold. The singer had an undeniably impressive technique and performed dazzling acrobatics but this was coupled with what seemed a self-conscious attempt to be a remarkable performer. It's hard to find the words to describe it exactly, but rather than portraying a passionate woman, betrayed by a feckless lover, she appeared to portray what a singer wo...

I can't stop thinking about the so-called Windrush scandal. I say so-called, because I think there's a danger that we have got hold of the wrong end of the stick if this is 'only' about the Windrush generation. Or rather, we have grabbed firmly on to the twig, but if we run with that, it will snap away, leaving the main branch, the bigger point, unmoved. Don't get me wrong - the Windrush scandal is certainly shocking. The way individuals have been treated correlates with my definition of criminal. But these individual cases are but twigs from a thicker branch of systemic hostility to "the other". If we allow ourselves to be focused on individual cases, we allow Theresa May and the Government and, in fact, ourselves, off the hook. If the concern is that person A is deported in error, an apology can be made, decisions reversed and even, potentially, compensation made. And there the story dies, with no hint of "lessons having been lear...

"If you lay down with dogs, you get fleas." That's what David Lammy said to Amber Rudd in Parliament yesterday and it has haunted me overnight. I keep hearing that sentence on a loop in Lammy's own powerful voice. It was an incredible speech and I really urge everyone to watch it - just two minutes long, but astoundingly on point and emotionally compelling. But back to those dogs and those fleas. The dogs he referred to are the figures of the far-right and the fleas are their disgusting policies, in this case, specifically, racism and immigration-centric exclusion and hatred. You have to hear it in his voice to get the emotional power. He's a big man yet you could feel the hurt and the pain along with the fury. It was a speech that couldn't have been given by a white man. This is a seismic moment for us as a nation. Nothing has changed - the Windrush scandal isn't the result of a new policy - and yet, potentially everything has. Since...

I do not accept the false dichotomy that being anti-bombing is to be in some way pro chemical weapons, pro Syrian war or pro Russia. It is possible to oppose war with every bone in your body simply because it is a never-ending cycle of suffering, destruction and terrible waste. In a practical way, it is also possible to oppose action that has no long-term plan attached. We have seen over and over and over again in recent times that bombing is the "easy" bit. It's the rebuil ding and recovery that takes insight, thoughtfulness, courage and patience.  I have been devastated by Syria since day one and have done what I can to help directly with the refugee crisis and to try to raise awareness of the evil unfolding there. It is dismaying to read elsewhere the suggestion that opposing bombs now is the equivalent of not caring about Syrian civilians. That's nonsense. Having said that, I am certainly NOT joining the bizarre excitement that Putin has threate...

Is it safe to “let it go” yet? The Brexit debate still rages, despite The Government doggedly trying to take it forward. Isn't resistance-fatigue setting in? Is it time to acknowledge defeat and get on with life? For those who were, for the most part, politically apathetic pre June 2016, the relief of giving-up would be huge. Go back to checking headlines once a week or thinking about party policy only once every five years. Recover time for hobbies. Repair friendships with those who disagreed on this one decision. Get a decent night's sleep. In life, there is an overwhelming imperative for reconcilliation, forgiveness and moving on. But it is a travesty of this process to reshape it as obedient yielding to injustice. Reconcilliation can only occur when all parties in a conflict agree to talk and listen to each other. Willingness on both sides to acknowledge the root of the disagreement and damage caused is essential as is a mutual search for a way forward that respe...