This blog begins with me in bed with a girl. It’s a Friday morning, and she wakes me up, shouting, “we’re leaving!!”
“Leaving?” I ask, dazed and confused. “Where are we going?”
“We’re leaving Europe!”
“We’re going on holiday?”
It takes a minute for me to register what she means. It’s June 24th 2016, the day after the E.U referendum vote. My friend, Sarah, has just moved to Manchester and is staying at mine for a few weeks until she finds her feet. She’s the one who delivers the news to me.
And it’s a genuine shock. Like being hit by a sledgehammer. After Scotland’s failed attempt to leave the UK in 2014, and the fact that the conservatives won the election in 2015, my general feelings towards politics were that, even though I vote, nothing really changes.
I voted “remain” and thought I’d be on the winning side. Turns out I was wrong. I’m not going to pretend I know what either outcome would entail because nobody can predict the future. Both had so many pros and cons. I was fairly sure that remain would have been the safest option. To quote Hillary, “we’re stronger together”. The Leave campaign (not the all the voters themselves, I must add) smacked of “make Britain great again”, which always sets my teeth on edge. Was Britain really that great before we joined the E.U? When I think of that time I think of rationing and racism, a time when gay people were locked up in mad-houses and black people were made to give up their seats for white people on buses.
Also, any campaign that has Nigel Farage at the helm can sod right off. Always do the opposite of what that man says.
The following morning felt like a political 9/11 – a massive explosion of news seemed to occur every fifteen minutes. Farage admitting his campaign was a lie on breakfast telly, Cameron resigning, Boris and Michael Gove seemingly setting their stalls out to be the next PM… It suddenly felt like everyone regretted the decision to leave – like we all had a drunken one night stand and woke up the next morning saying, “what were we thinking?!”
Britain is now a cautionary tale. American TV show hosts are using us as an example; “don’t make the same mistake the UK made!” It’s true; if America isn’t careful, the same could happen to them.
Donald Trump is a villain. A bloody pantomime villain. He’s treating the election like it’s a reality TV show competition. He wants to win, but I don’t think he wants the actual job that follows the victory. “I don’t need this job,” he said DURING THE CAMPAIGN ITSELF. America’s decision affects the rest of the world. Imagine waking up to the words, “President Trump”. The man is named after a fart, ffs. This alone should have stopped him even getting into the primaries.
The world doesn’t make sense anymore. The racist (“she probably wasn’t allowed to say anything”) sexist (“it’s LOCKER ROOM TALK!”) and homophobic (the “vote trump” car sticker, showing the American man kicking the rainbow man) voters are rising up, getting louder. I like to think there’s more of us than them. I’ve only been interested in politics for about two years – it wasn’t until 2012 that I found out we had a coalition. So maybe these types of people have always been around, but my attention wasn’t on them.
I’m dreading November 9th, which is when we’ll find out the result. Vladimir Putin’s best mate could be sat in the oval office, and there’s nothing we can do about it, even though it affects every single one of us. The man who uses “spin” to convince people he knows what he’s doing. “I know a lot of great people,” “I own a lot of great properties there”, “I have very good words”. And these idiots seem to believe him.
The current numbers are looking good for Hillary. Hopefully, they remain strong for her. But in a world where the E.U referendum happened, and I woke up in bed with a woman, anything could happen! Do you REALLY want to wake up next to President Trump!?
Be careful, America. And don’t fuck it up.
Tommy Talks 