Being, as you may have spotted over the years, at least a tad left-of-centre in my political views, not to mention quite fond of remaining in the EU, it might come as a surprise to regular readers to know that I'm feeling considerably better about the current political situation than I was at this time last year.
"How can that be?" I hear you cry.
We have just elected what appears to a hard-line Conservative government who are showing every sign of wanting to ride roughshod over workers' rights and protection for child refugees, not to mention locking Parliament out of scrutiny of the Brexit negotiations whilst also enshrining in law an almost-inevitable no-deal Brexit. Whilst banning the use of the word Brexit. What's to feel calm about?
The calmness comes not from any happiness, or confidence that all will be well. It comes from a resignation that there is nothing left to hope for, nothing to change, nothing to influence.
To re-use a phrase that is an inherent part of being a Burnley FC fan...
It's the hope that kills.
While there was a hung Parliament, and a cross-party consensus could operate to hold the government to account, every vote held out the possibility that we could divert from the most calamitous path that the ERG were slavering over. Now that hope is gone. Now I feel no compulsion to watch the Parliament channel, or follow the hour-by-hour reporting of votes in the House of Commons. The Tories will have their way, and I can read a summary of what they are inflicting upon us after the fact. I no longer hope; so I no longer suffer from the obsessive anxiety that characterised my interactions with the news last year.
The good news for you all is that this means I'm much less likely to launch forth political rants here.
Apathy has won the day.
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