E.U. Referendum and Brexit

I don't usually mention politics in my blog posts, but on this occasion, I feel I need to say something about today's events. All I can say is, thank goodness the E.U. Referendum is over. We've had around six weeks of squabbling, bitching, back-biting and thoroughly nasty behaviour, I did vote to remain, but we now know that the result is we'll be leaving the E.U.  Or, to use the horrible word 'Brexit' to refer to Britain Exiting from the European Union. It is no doubt as a result of Greece possibly leaving the E.U. and that being referred to as Grexit (Greek Exit.)It was a very narrow margin between both sides, which, had it been a General Election I imagine we'd have a government with a tiny majority of perhaps 10-15 seats. Well, it's the will of the people, so they'll have to go with the result. I have to say that the E.U. is it's worst enemy. It's just a huge faceless bureaucracy, very distant, and whenever there is any sort of news about it, it's always negative and makes the headlines in the tabloids, whether it's some health and safety issue or the fact that you can't sell bent cucumbers or some such pointless bit of red tape. And these are the things that get made into issues by the likes of the 'Euro-Sceptics' and the Nigel Farage's of this world. Thinking about it further, it does seem crazy in a way that we've been members of the E.U. for around 43 years and it seems mad to now leave it. It has its bad points but I think the good outweigh them. It was a very different organisation in 1975 when we had a referendum about whether we joined and I now learn that we had joined a few years before so why did the government of the day decide we needed a referendum to remain in? I don't think I had many ideas of what that referendum was about at the time and I don't think I had much interest in politics and don't remember voting. But it's a much bigger organisation with far more member countries (I think 27, I may be wrong, but around that number. I'll have to do a bit more research.) There was no single currency, The Euro and it was called the E.C. (European Community.) Up until then, it was always referred to as The Common Market. It's rather like being in a club, a union or even a marriage. You don't leave, or get divorced, just for the sake of it. Over something minor, you should sit down and sort out any differences because the good things outweigh the bad ones. There must be quite a few things in Britain that have been funded by E.U. cash, such as infrastructure, probably road repairs, tourism and education. So it will be interesting to see what this will mean when this cash dries up.

I don't usually continue writing a blog after it's published. But I feel I need to write a bit more on this subject. I have been reading that some people, who voted in last Thursday's Referendum (either to Remain or Leave the E.U.) are now saying, because they voted 'Leave', now wish they had voted 'Remain.' Well, are they totally stupid? How can you vote for something, which in this case is going to have ramifications for each and everyone living in the United Kingdom, and then turn round and say you didn't even know what the Referendum was about, and some people DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE E.U. WAS! It would seem that a great many people are more interested in their mobile phones, Facebook, Twitter and other social media, celebrity and taking selfies of not only themselves but each other than the important issues, things that matter, such as politics, government etc etc. When we go out and about, visiting various places, such as National Trust properties, Whipsnade Zoo and generally to shopping centres and other places, we so often see people with their mobile phones, more interested in taking pictures of themselves rather than the place they visit. Why spend quite a bit visiting, for example, a zoo, and stand in front of an enclosure full of some of the most amazing animals and just take photos of THEMSELVES? It's narcissism gone mad! Then you see people walking around with their mobiles in their hands, and not engaging with the world around them, or others with headphones stuck over their ears. I have even seen people riding their bicycles whilst texting on a mobile or with headphones on. Isn't that dangerous? Aren't they more likely to get run over by a car or they walk in front of a vehicle on the road because they're not paying attention or can't hear a car approaching?

I've seen a piece which shows how much money the E.U. contributed to certain projects around the United Kingdom, for example, the Eden Project. I wonder whether that project would have gone ahead without the E.U. funding? So, where is the cash going to come from to fund other similar projects which create jobs and thus help the economy of this country?

Unable to Login To The Internet

Yesterday morning I was unable to get into the Mac Laptop yesterday morning, unfortunately, which means that I couldn't get on here to write up a blog post. I am now writing this on our second little laptop, which may not be an Apple, considerably slower, but it at least works and I'm able to do all the work I need to do on a computer, including this blog and reading and writing emails. It is taking a lot to re-learn as it doesn't work anywhere near the same as an Apple.

Yesterday, Thursday 7th March, was General Election Day here in the United Kingdom. Seeing how the S.N.P. seemed to take virtually every seat in Scotland it makes you wonder how much longer we will be a United Kingdom, because I imagine there will now be a second Scottish Independence Referendum. Elsewhere, it looks as if David Cameron will continue as Prime Minister and no doubt Ed Miliband will resign as Labour Party leader as Labour didn't do very well, particularly in Scotland where the S.N.P. took most of the previously Labour-held seats. I spent most of the night watching the Election results coming in on BBC Television.

I rang Apple earlier this morning regarding the problems with the MacBook Air laptop. I thought I was actually ringing the Apple store in Midsummer Place in the Milton Keynes Central shopping centre but it seemed to be a call centre. I had to go through a voice-activated menu, which knew my name, even though I hadn't mentioned it. A bit creepy. It's difficult to know whether the system has actually respond, as you have to repeat some words which it's unclear to know whether it has understood, but the very idea of a machine 'understanding' you seems creepy. I eventually go through to a human, and I had to go through a few system-checks to find out whether the laptop was working, which it plainly isn't, but it's difficult to take instructions over the phone, hear the instructions whilst attempting to use the keyboard, but in the end I decided it was easier to go into their showroom and get someone to check it out and if they can fix it there and then, then O.K. So I made an appointment for Tuesday at 11.45 a,m. I just hope it it done there and then and doesn't incur any sort of expence, as, what with the car needing repair as well at the moment, we don't need this sort of expence also.

Solar Eclipse

Who saw the eclipse this morning? I'm not sure whether I actually 'saw' it. Around 9-9.30 this morning I was waiting to see what happened. It had been over-cast since early morning so it wasn't clear whether the cloud would disperse so that the sun could shine and the eclipse be seen in all it's glory. We had been told not to look directly at the sun because of damage to the eyes, as this was covered all over the B.B.C. Breakfast programme from around 6 a.m. They had sent reporters to various points around the United Kingdom, from Lewis in the north of Scotland to somewhere on the coast in Cornwall in the south. I was going to go shopping in Sainsbury's at around 9, but thought better of it because I wasn't sure how dark or, indeed light, it was going to be. Just as I was about to get in the car a large black car turned up in the road outside the house and the man in the driving seat seemed to be busy with his mobile phone. I wasn't sure whether he was hoping to capture the eclipse on the camera in the 'phone, but he sat there for quite a while and in such a position that I wasn't going to be able to reverse out into the road. It went sort of overcast and a bit like early evening, the sort of light you get at dusk, just as the sun is about to go down below the horizon. And then it was over so I was able to get in the car and drive out to Sainsbury's.