The Sunday Ramble: referendum

I have some new readers today, so I thought I would remind everybody that I live in the heart of England, here in the Black Country. I have some readers overseas and so I should explain that the United Kingdom consists of 4 parts.

The north of Britain is Scotland, where fine things like scotch whisky comes from, to the west we have Wales where the sheep are. Then the final part of the Kingdom is Northern Ireland. The less said about that the better. Anyway Scotland will soon have a referendum to decide whether to go independent.

I think we should have some referendums for the Black Country too. We could be independent. I’ve never been too keen on being part of the same country as David Cameron and George Osborne.

They’re always re-organising things aren’t they? It costs money and so most people prefer the status quo. It’s like when your bedroom needs redecorating because there’s a few dead flies in odd places. You look and think remove the dead flies and it’ll do for another year or two. Politicians don’t think like this, they have the room gutted by 3 guys from Eastern Europe and then get the decorators in and not only have it redecorated, but new fitted wardrobes with bed linen from Debenhams and a new light shade from Ikea to match.

In 1974 they reorganised all the councils in the Black Country. Wednesbury became part of Sandwell or bloody Sandwell as the locals like to refer to it. Darlaston, otherwise known as Darlo became part of Walsall. The M6 motorway separates Walsall and Darlo, it’s a nightmare to cross over.  What were they thinking? Anyway that caused chaos and cost a fortune and we’ve been moaning ever since. Many people in Darlo want a referendum, they would be happier being part of Wednesbury. We have a lot in common, we speak the local dialect, we’re this side the M6 and we both like Banks’s beer.

Imagine if we were independent, we could get rid of all the speed humps, charge people a fiver to come off the motorway at junction 9 and use the town halls again for proper events instead of Zumba.

I have some sympathy with the people who want to leave the European Union. That costs money and despite the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, I see people’s human rights abused every day. Some foreigner preaching hate, jihads and telling women they have to dress head to toe in black or get stoned to death have their support. Poor buggers being threatened with eviction because they can’t pay the Bedroom Tax are on their own. If membership of the EU only gives rights to foreigners and the rich, we want out.

I don’t blame the Scots for wanting out of the United Kingdom. The politicians don’t want it, there would be fewer people for them to lord it over. That’s what the referendum is really about, power and who has the power to control the lives of others. The government, the European Union, the Scottish parliament and the Welsh assembly are all monuments to the culture of ego mania serving power crazed politicians like Iain Duncan Smith.

I hope the Scots will accept their share of the United Kingdoms debts. The debts are now at a record high thanks to George Osborne destructive policies. To be fair it wasn’t all his fault. Thatcherism swept away regulation of the banking industry and privatised everything that wasn’t nailed down. Lehman Brothers collapsed because of lack of regulation both here and in the United States. One aspect of the lack of regulation and control is high pay and bonuses for the people at the top. Despite the fact Lehman’s was technically bankrupt, the head of the company continued to take absurd bonuses and the affair put the whole country in crisis that spread to a world wide crisis. The Head of Lehman brothers paid himself $300 million over 8 years (maybe more). The high pay and bonuses culture in the finance industry persists today and it’s spread to other sectors. Conservatives and Liberal Democrats might like to note that Gordon Brown didn’t work for Lehman Brothers…

Yes, I know about this stuff, even though I live here in the Black Country where we have really sh*t education and opportunities.

My chats to students has become more interesting. I talked to a few this week. One in Hong Kong, one in a place on  mainland China that I can’t spell, but it’s a big city. I also talked to a student from our local uni, who is in Paris at the moment. I think the University of Wolverhampton could do more to help local people to acquire education and opportunities. I’m still waiting for them to make me a honorary professor. I promise not to do anything disgraceful to bring the university into disrepute…

I’ll end with a bit of advice for my new readers, many of whom are bloggers and writers. The most popular topic for blog posts is photography, which is why I’ll be out this afternoon with my camera. My subject today was politics and life in general, they are also popular topics. My other readers today will be local people and so I gave the post a local flavour and topical stuff is popular so I mentioned the forthcoming referendum. Above all else, be creative and don’t lose your freedom of expression…

You can comment and tell everyone what your think and you can also follow me on Twitter. There’s a fun day at Victoria Park in Tipton today. I might go!

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