Election 2015 and Referendum 2016

The hype is starting to die down now, 10 days after the General Election.  I wanted to write sooner, to capture all the excitement, but I'm not the most productive or proactive person.  This isn't going to be a great philosophical, political or historical tome, rather just catching some of my experiences of the election and the result. 

... Well, I never got any further on this post from May 2015. It is now 27th June 2016 and I feel I want to record about the latest dramatic events but I'll still try to write a little something of last year. I had big detailed visions for this post which is probably why it never went any further! I'm definitely of the belief that little posts are better. Or at least plan then little and if they get big then that's fine. Oh well, we will see where this one goes. 

All the polls had been suggesting it would be very close in the 2015 General Election between Conservatives and Labour. I seem to remember the figure 273 or 271 being the number of seats each party was likely to need, quite a bit short of the amount needed for a majority which was something like 320. There were coalition predictor games you could play on the BBC website where you tried to build a government depending on the likely number of seats for each party. There was lots of talk during the debates about who would make a coalition with whom. Ed Milliband and David Cameron both said they weren't planning a coalition, they were going to win a majority and I (and I think most other people) thought 'yeah, right, get real!'

The day of the election came and we set up the projector in the bedroom to watch tv at 10pm when polling stations closed. I remember the absolute shock when David Dimbleby announced that Conservatives were far and away the largest party. I have just found this clip of it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32634100

It was amazing that Tories could go in to coalition again with just the Lib Dems. And the other big news was the sweeping success of the SNP in Scotland.  But then the news in the morning was even more surprising when it turned out the Tories had got enough seats to get an overall majority. Woah! 

So I've now managed to up date you on last year. Now it's time for this year's shocker that managed to put last year's result in to the almost mundane category! 

In January (I think) they announced that there would be a referendum in June 2016 on whether the UK should remain part of the EU. There was lots of talk early on about what a boring campaign it was going to be. Nearer the time there was more talk on how close it was looking in the polls. I was pleased we were back in the country for it and we managed to organise to be registered for postal votes. I went to bed on the eve saying I felt quite confident that it would be a 'remain' vote and I wasn't nearly as worried as for the Scottish Independence Referendum. 

Then I was awoken in the morning to 'I'm afraid it's bad news. We've voted for Brexit'. Absolute shock...! What?!?!? And I was so sure we were safe. And this isn't like an election where in 5 years time there will be chance for someone else. This is it. 

So many points flash through or come slowly as the day goes on:

- this is like saying the country support Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson - that's almost worse than leaving. 

- I've been laughing at the US and how they have been heading Trumpwards and we appear to be no better. 

- As I found out that every area of Scotland has a majority to stay in the EU, I realised they would be totally justified to have another independence referendum and leave 😕

- Also a lot of Nothern Ireland areas voted to remain so it's up in arms about what will happen there. 

Maybe I should try and put a bit in here about my reasons for voting remain which I have found hard to put in to words during the campaign. I feel it's better to be together and I don't like the thought of going it on our own as if we are better than the rest. I like that the EU came from a desire to avoid further conflict after the Second World War. I also hate the way that immigration has become so much a part of this campaign. I feel very fortunate to have been born in this country and why should we have the right to be here more than those born in other countries? We should be helping refugees and if people come here to work, they are contributing to society so I feel they are entitled to be here. 

The referendum result was 52% Leave and 48% Remain. So close enough to be super frustrating but still over a million difference so not close enough to demand a recount. I was just getting dressed on the Friday morning listening to the radio when David Cameron came to make a speech. I was listening along and then he said something and I thought, oh my, he's going to retire. So I grabbed my phone and ran down stairs to join the others and I couldn't really say anything as I got there but I managed to say something eventually and then indeed he did announce his resignation. It really felt quite a moment. 

We went in to school that day, and forgot a little about the devastating news. As I walked through the playground and had children coming up to me saying, 'I'm in Year 2 now', 'I'm 7' etc. And then one classic boy came up and spoke in his way of dominating the conversation 'I'm...I'm not...in the EU anymore'. Well, I don't think I am either. 

It's now a week since we got this shock and depressing news and even more has happened since I started this post. There have been shocks in the Tory leadership contest- most notably that Boris didn't end up putting his name forward. So who knows who is going to lead the nation. There has been huge troubles with the Labour party leadership with votes of no confidence and most of the shadow cabinet resigning. There's been awkward meetings for DC with the EU leaders. The Pound has been all over the place as have the stock markets. Lots of talk of the Bank of England doing things. All in all I'm sort of feeling glad to be escaping it all for 6 weeks on Sunday. 

Pleased to have written more this time 😀 (though not reread so not sure if it makes any sense or covers what I wanted to say but oh well!!). 

An Appreciation of Agatha Christie

I bought this at Murder and Mayhem at Hay on Wye in the Easter Holidays.  Although not a perfect read (the style at points wasn't great and it spent a long time on the negative sides of Agatha), it did get me thinking a lot about Agatha and her books and I felt a blog post was in order.  I started reading these at secondary school when my Ma put me on to them.  I started reading hers and Grampys and then I was away and would spend a lot of time in WH Smith and Waterstones in Watford looking at all the spines (I can still picture where the shelves were in the shops; they were both the bottom shelf so I would spend a lot of time on the floor!).  Somehow, I stopped with only about 10 to read, there are about 80.  I have occasionally looked out for them at charity shops and have now decided that I will only get them if they are in the same publishing series as most of the ones I bought.  They changed just as I was stopping reading them so I think I have one of a newer set. 

I bought a few while I was at uni and it was then that I realised I could no longer remember everything about all the stories.  And now I would say there are very few where I even remember who the murderer is.  Oh, now there's a challenge, I want to make that list.  Maybe as an appendix to this post.  I'm not sure how I feel about not being able to remember.  I remember conversations on the way to school with J. K. about rereading books and not doing it at the time.  And I remember Mum saying she never remembers the murderer so she could read and watch Morse numerous times.  I not distraught that I can't remember, and do feel it gives me more opportunities to enjoy them again, but it does seem a little of a brain failing.  Maybe I just have so much more in my brain now than I did as a teenager!

I started annotating the bibliography at the back whilst reading the book with ticks and crosses of the ones I should read.  I feel a may do an excel spreadsheet so that I can sort it in various ways.  Here comes geek time!! 

This also got me thinking a lot more about reading in general and I do want to share more on here about my reading diaries.  I would love a master copy here of all my diaries.  I'm sure I started a book diary post once upon a time which I could update and finally publish now!

Appendix 1 - Agatha Christie books off the top of my head where I can remember the villain.
Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Murder on the Orient Express
Death on the Nile
The Crooked House
And Then There Were None
A Murder is Announced - that was heavily written about in 'A Talent to Deceive' so I can't say how honestly I remember that!
Lord Edgeware Dies - but I did read that last week!

--> Appendix 2 - teehee!  Written 16/5/15  I completed my spreadsheet this week.  It took a surprisingly long time to type up.  I am looking forward to sorting it by different categories.  Not sure how best to display it on here...

Appendix 3 - 6/8/15 I have now compared my excel list with my list of books I wrote that I have when I was in Malvern.  So now here are a few more lists that I've sorted.

Here they are sorted by the ones that I still need to buy to complete my collection.  So hopefully I can refer to this if I am at a Charity shop.  I did also sort them by year, but I still can't find how to display a pdf on here so I have only done a screen shot here.