Eye-catching

Wide Wednesday: Eye-catching

After failing to stick to the subject for Mono Monday I have tried to stay absolutely true to today's Wide Wednesday brief of "eye-catching" all though I have tried to approach it from a slightly more subjective perspective.  

This is a shot of one of the windows of Rossiters - a fantastic family owned "department" store in Bath that occupies about 3 floors of several conjoined buildings.  Its actually a really small shop and somehow they manage to include some furniture, kitchen equipment, crockery, pet stuff and some small leather goods.  At Christmas they have a great decorations and a section of stocking fillers that is normally rammed full of people. It is a reminder of what shopping must once have been like 70 years or so ago.

Feel free to ignore the views expressed below, many of us come to Blip for a break from the problems and burdens of the real world and I am more than happy for you to ignore my thoughts on Brexit!

In the meantime its worth recording for posterity that Boris has gone for dinner in Brussels to try and strike a deal with the EU, having announced in advance that it will be almost impossible to agree a deal.  This is of course the world beating trade deal that Bozzer had previously described as oven ready and which would allow us to trade with Europe on the same terms as Canada, or was that Norway or Australia?  I loose track.

The financial and economic burden that will result from Brexit is about to become painfully clear to everyone. Of course, the supporters of Brexit will blame the Europeans for not giving them the nice easy free trade deal that is our right as the successors of the British Empire. But as Boris candidly acknowledged with his F*ck business remark, Brexit is not really about the economics, but "Sovereignty" - i.e. complete independence and self government.

If you are see yourself as European, your view of sovereignty will be different from that of a person who seems themselves as a "Brit". But if you are Irish, or Scots or Welsh your view of sovereignty may also be different from that of some who live in England.  Oh the irony that the Conservative and Unionist is as a result of its pursuit of sovereignty likely to be the party that puts the final nails in the coffin of the union that was the United Kingdom.

On the other hand, if that bigger picture wasn't your concern and you were, on a more personal level, closer to home, worried that the Europeans were interfering with your personal freedoms, it might be worth taking stock of just what the current government that we elected has done, or tried to do, over the course of the last year or so.  Attempting to prevent Parliament undertaking its role by proroguing it, entering into multi-million pound public sector contracts without attempting to get best value, ruling by decree, pursuing legislation that broke the rule of law etc.  It has been quite a while since we've had a government that has played quite so fast and loose with our personal freedoms.  Now, you could say that they needed to do this to ensure prompt action in a time or crisis.  But did they?  Really?  

Now it strikes me that if things don't go swimmingly for this country post Brexit, and there really is very little actual evidence to suggest that they will, we could be looking at a period of recession and increased unemployment. I very much hope not. I really am looking forward to enjoying the omelette that all these broken eggs will enable the government to create - with its sunlit uplands etc. 

But let us be very clear about this - there are going to be a lot of egg shells lying around, so there really had better be something very tasty for us all to share to make this in any way worth while.