A Monumental Day

Today, I am very emotional. Great Britain had a referendum yesterday and voted to leave the EU. Earlier I was in tears. Silly since I no longer live there, but this is so raw, and it effects my family members who do still live there. 

I have always been against the EU, long before it even became the EU. When it was "The Common Market" and even then, as they courted us for entry, they demeaned us and made us kowtow to their whims. It was a portend of how things would be, going forward. A once-great nation, emasculated and brought to it's knees, face in the dirt, both by those it had fought to defend, France, and those it had been victorious over, Germany, in war.

Even as a child, gearing up to the inevitable changeover to decimal currency in February 1971, it stuck in my craw. They'd been talking about it, and "getting ready for it" for 4 or 5 years. Oh they had all the excuses about "other countries" and how it'd be easier for trading, but my thoughts then (which still facetiously remain today) was that because the rest of the world could only count in tens and hundreds, and the 240 pennies and 20 shillings that made up the British pound were too complex for them to figure out, that we English had to change our money because of their lack of intelligence. 

It began our downfall. Prices immediately went up. What industry or shopkeeper is going to round DOWN a price? No they rounded up and the customer got screwed.

The History of Decimalization

The /Common Market/EU has continually treated Britain badly. I remember the French "butter mountain" and how we had to "support them" but where was the support for British farmers during the "mad cow" outbreak? Remarkably invisible. British farmers bankrupted and suicidal ... and all they got was <<<crickets>>>.

Britain can and will regroup and recover from this change. Today the markets are fluctuating and everyone is wondering, "what's next". It will take a few years, I think 5-10, but then I think the Britons will have a stronger country for it.

It prompted me to write a poem:
So proud to see the people

have sprung from Europe's yoke, 

No longer to be bled dry

nor treated as a joke,

now standing once more proudly

their future, ready to face 

the next years will be difficult

but slow and steady will win the race.

The salt of the earth, these people,

despite that half century of pain,

and no matter that governments sold us out

we will be great again.

Resilience is a virtue

that two wars could not thwart,

it's still there, maybe buried,

but will return when sought.

This morning independence

again creates that spur,

to bring once more the greatness

to remember who we were,

to build on what is still there

and create industry anew,

to work together for Britain,

new partners we shall woo.

God bless that beautiful country,

and God bless its industrious sons,

as they work to rebuild a nation

with the pride that - through it's veins - runs.

There may not be a Churchill

but his words still ring true today,

and Britons can rally to them,

they know just what they say.

From me, I'd say, think wartime - 

victory gardens to the fore,

barter with your neighbours,

buy British at the store,

keep taking care of each other,

you'll make it through I'm sure,

and come out shining in the end,

just as we did before!