Day 21 - The enigma code...

Warning.... contains political views which may not accord with yours! 😉

Reactions to my enigmatic post yesterday were varied... ranging from concern to empathy.  

In a way, all of the comments were correct.  I did do a bisque firing yesterday, which is always a tad worrying.  I had set the kiln to switch on in the early hours of yesterday morning, so that it would complete around lunchtime, which it did.

I wasn't able to open it till this morning... opening the lid after a bisque firing is always trepidatious, but thankfully, it had executed a perfect firing.

So, huge sigh of relief.

But that was only part of the story.  This week has seen a series of momentous events in the wider world, outside my cosy little miniature bubble.

Firstly, Brexit.  Or to be more accurate Hard Brexit.  Since last June, we've all been wandering around in the dark, waiting to hear details of the Grand Plan.  Turns out there was no Grand Plan.  Not even an ordinary plan.  No plan at all.  

We keep being told that the vote was the will of the British people, as though everyone had voted to leave, when in fact it was just over half.  It's no wonder then that just under half of the people who bothered to vote have been worried and scared about what the future holds.

Looking forward, exiting the EU will mean that businesses who trade with EU countries will have a new layer of bureaucracy to navigate.  At the moment I don't have to complete customs declarations every time I send a package to an EU country, and the recipient doesn't have to pay any import tax.  It's clean and simple.  But that will all change in two year's time.

Brexit has also had an impact on the value of the £pound.  The supplies that I currently regularly buy from the US are already much more expensive due to the low value of the £pound against the $dollar.  Conversely, this disparity makes UK goods much better value for US customers as they get more 'bang for their buck'.

So that's the first thing.  

Then there's all the bad stuff going on in the world.... Syria, Ukraine, The Gambia, fundamentalist fanaticism and the rise of nationalism.  Not to mention the threats of Russian internet hacking and expansionism.

Which neatly brings me to the US, and their new President.

Love him or loathe him, he is undeniably a divisive maverick.  He is replacing one elite with another.  I struggle to understand what dispossessed blue-collar workers living in run-down rust belt areas think they have in common with a billionaire businessman who lives in a gilded tower, but they have blind faith that he will make their lives better.  

However, I fear for those who will fall by the wayside and slip between the widening cracks. Those who don't conform to the all-American ideal.  Immigrants, Muslims, LGBT, Mexicans, even Women....  it's a long, growing list!

But Britain and America, have chosen their path, and now we all just have to buckle up and get on with it.

Doesn't mean we have to like or agree with it though.....