Firstly, Hail Dave!
Prime Minister UK, David Cameron, who has always seemed like a decent sort of chap and done nothing stupid so far, displays both statesmanship and tactical genius with his EU referendum proposals.
Vote for me and I’ll try and negotiate a more sensible deal with the EU and then we’ll have a referendum on the results.
He says he will campaign to keep us in, but of course he has left himself room and reason to change his mind if we don’t get a sensible deal.
He has wrong-footed the continental euro-federalists, for other nations will plainly join us in demands for reform.
So Britain can now either put the EU right or leave it. Splendid.
Cameron has also taken the wind out of UKIP’s sails for the time being. They have done a fair job of forcing this matter into the open, but they will probably always remain essentially a pressure group. Nevertheless I hope they stay in the game to prevent any backsliding on the renegotiation and the referendum.
The leaders of the illiberal dimocrats and the dreary spendthrift labour party don’t seem to have anything of substance to respond with. They effortlessly confirm their caricatures as a pair of whingeing twerps perhaps better employed as sociology lecturers at some obscure polytechnic.
We could end up with an EU that reverts to its original writ, as a free trade zone, in which case we should stay in it; or we could end up with an EU that develops into a full blown Non-Democratic Synarchist Totalitarianism, in which case we should not only leave it but also strive to destroy it.
In the meantime we need to prevent the vast influx of Bulgarians and Romanians into the UK that EU rules will allow next year. I’m sure they are all delightful people, but our housing stock, our benefits system, and our labour market cannot accommodate them. Neither can those countries afford to loose a whole generation of their younger, more mobile and ambitious people.
Secondly, a Poem. Two years into Bardic studies and rhyme and rhythm still elude me, but here goes anyway……….
Snow
I awoke a bit early, it seemed strangely bright
And quiet, so quiet, an odd muted hush
Its happened its happened
I can hardly believe it
The ground seemed too warm the previous evening
But my gardens become a fantasy scene
And I feel like a child again
Sparkeling whiteness and patches of gloom
Brightness vies with the shadows of doom
It looks so fragile in its parts
Yet so awesome in its extent
Blanketing the lawns, the sheds, the car
All up the trees, over the hills and far away
Its eight miles to work and I don’t have to go
What the heck, any excuse to go and see this
On Henbury Hill I begin to have doubts
Its cold with a full facial blizzard
Vehicles aslew and abandoned
Driver’s curses and screaming engines
Made soft whispers by the whiteness
Falcondale oh Falcondale
Thy slopes make mockery of transport
Shadenfreude, I have good boots
But they have lousy tyres
They slip and they skid
And they bash their panels and lights
Residents set up tripods and cameras
To immortalise the folly forever
Then up on the Downs its so very pretty
When its all black and white
You notice the things you didn’t before
And the pavements are full for once
With chatty people and their children
Saying hello and helping each other
Its Blitz Spirit time
And we’re all having fun
Then down by the uni
Post modernist snowmen
Traditional snowball fights
Then down Christmas steps
We cling to the shopfronts
‘Gainst treacherous slush and the ice
It feels like holiday at work
We few, we happy few, that made it in
Getting home was a bastard
Uphill in now greying mush
But the weekend awaits
A walk in the woods on Saturday morn
My dog seems perplexed
Maybe stuff looses its smell under snow
But the woods look pure magic now
Stark trees hold impossible burdens
With patient sombre dignity
In the cold still air
Even the birdsong goes strangely quiet
White silence pervades like holiness.