Ill-timed

Who lets off fireworks at 3.30am? When last night’s obnoxious concert ended, it did so with a final loud flourish. I imagine the neighbourhood was as thrilled as me. In my daze I believed armed conflict had broken out on the streets of Maputo.

I was discussing recent political events with my dad, who is a lifelong Labour supporter until recently, was a civil servant for his whole career and was born in the council house my grandparents were allocated after WWII. My childhood was comfortable and secure and we were not bathing in fifty pound notes. I was encouraged to read a lot and was educated at my local comprehensive school and sixth form college in Stoke-on-Trent. I ended up politically left-wing and I support socialist policies. We agreed that the strange position is that someone in a Brexit, and incredibly now, a Tory-voting city such as Stoke, could now be labelling me ‘liberal elite’ faster than they would call Boris Johnson and his pals elite. This feels preposterous and I blame hard-right media for misrepresenting socialist and liberal values as elitism, and diehard liberals for suppressing the thoughts and opinions of more conservative voices. I’ve heard many negative views towards ‘liberal elites’ as ‘enemies of the people’, which I don’t believe they are, and this is going to take many years to unpick after being made mainstream during the Brexit referendum. Prominent right-wing politicians regularly rubbished the evidence-based opinions of experts trying to predict what would happen if the country was to exit the EU and this came to be seen as a conspiracy theory instead of objective information.

Jeremy Corbyn’s position was tough for the general public to take on subjects such as military intervention, and he lacks the charisma of politicians we’re used to seeing. However when I saw people on the streets of Oldham saying things like ‘that Jeremeh Corbyn dunt speak fo’ me’, I was dismayed based on their other choices. Compared to any Conservative MP the voting record of a socialist MP should make absolutely clear that they are much more on the side of everyone on matters of equality, social justice and redistribution of wealth. These facts are not easily available to the electorate to analyse before social media soundbites take over. It’s a complicated situation to understand at the moment and I don’t know if the country is going to heal its divisions any time soon.

Despite having some bits of leave over the last few months, I’m really feeling work stress when I don’t have that full escapism. I went to a café for a few hours this afternoon to try and relax. It had been calm and hot all day until light rain and winds started battering the windows, and I walked back to my apartment at dusk amongst big warm splotchy rain. During the evening I tried to make headway on a report but abandoned that for a chat with the magnificent Leigh, who was brimming with sage advice about how to handle the sensation of being overwhelmed.