Plebiscite

I took a few days off over the second May bank holiday and went to Herefordshire and the Welsh borders. Anyone who knows me, knows that I go there quite a lot, partly because of the availability of free accommodation provided by my in-laws, but also because it's a beautiful part of the world. Our holidays there may seem a bit boring and habitual to many people, but we both like low maintenance holidays and have yet to get bored of any of our habitual activities. I won't list them all, but they mainly revolve around cooking, eating, walking and reading. 

We always go to Hay-on-Wye and buy some books. I always buy old science fiction - way more than I have time to read - and end up stockpiling it in my bedroom there ready for the day when my life has enough spare time to devote to unloved sci-fi. Given the frequency of our visits, it was perhaps surprising that this is the first time we've been during Hay festival. Naturally, we bumped into someone we know from London. "It's crazy," she said, "and so far away!" 

I'm happy for other Londoners to think that, they can all hang out in the Cotswolds and Gloucestershire with David Cameron and Giles Corren. I don't really want to share Herefordshire with others. Several times over that sun-drenched weekend I sat in the garden or outside a country pub drinking in the sheer beauty of the British countryside and feeling glad I didn't have to share it with many people. I don't even actually live there and I want to keep it from 'incomers', so I can only imagine how the locals feel when a bunch of London dickheads like me turn up. To be honest, I doubt I strike fear into the hearts of the people of Herefordshire: they know I'll go away again, having spent lots of money on old books and 'authentic' local produce. Londoners are part of the problem though, they might not 'come over here and take our jobs', but they do buy holiday homes and retire to the countryside reducing the stock of affordable housing, or pushing up house prices in general. Unable to afford to live in the countryside, the young migrate to the cities and the countryside becomes a haven for retirees and holiday makers. Of course in working countryside, someone still has to do the labour, so immigrant labour is brought in because only immigrants will suffer the living conditions that the associated wage will allow. Of course the countryside's affluent new residents - just like me - don't want to share it with incomers and the most obvious incomers are those who don't speak the same language, so they become the focus of fear and loathing. Certain politicians look to exploit that natural fear of others, stating that it's the cause of our problems rather than a symptom of some of them. Perhaps not surprisingly I saw a reasonable number of very large 'Leave' posters as I drove around the countryside (note: that is very different from a large number of reasonable ones). I understand the desire to preserve our green and pleasant land, I feel it keenly, but I cannot legislate to keep Londoners out of Herefordshire, I can only rely on their natural laziness. Besides which, as I have already intimated, outsiders bring a much needed chunk of the wealth and labour into the county. 

Since that weekend, I have tried to listen to the arguments of people who want our country to cecede from the European Union, and the only concrete one I have actually heard beyond some vague notion of 'taking back control' (as if our country is suddenly going to become palpably more democratic) is so that we can control immigration. It's the word 'control' that is key here; I think many people who may vote for it would be wildly disappointed should it come to pass. The talk of Australian-style points systems give the lie to any assertion that Brexit would mean an end to immigration, and those who fear immigration are not going to be comforted by the fact that the people coming in to the country are better qualified to take their jobs. Unfortunately subtleties of the argument such as this are not even hinted at in the idiotic shouting match that will determine the future of our country. I find the level of debate (especially the level to which the old right wing trick of simply dismissing any fact that is inconvenient has been employed) so depressing I tend to turn off. I increasingly look for escape and find myself spending more time reading the one work of old science fiction I did bring back from Herefordshire. It is a book written in 1978, partly about a colony in space (of course), but mainly about a cynical cabal of coporations (one called 'International News' owned by a belligerent old Australian man) who ferment (and fund) a series popular nationalist revolts against a benevolent but slightly ineffective international government so that the weakened national governments that result will be no barrier to the power of the corporations. What fanciful ideas they had in the seventies: who could imagine a cynical elite blaming a political organisation for social problems that they themselves are at least partly responsible? And seeking to gain more power though it? 

Who indeed.