Farming In The USA?

Trying to get back onto the regular blogging rota!  But I have been lucky enough to be away in the US for a couple of weeks so the new resolution starts now.  I say lucky enough because I know we are fortunate to have taken a lovely holiday when so many will not go anywhere, let alone abroad.  And we did have an amazing time.  

But it was also quite instructive to be in the States.  We were last there  three years ago.  It was the summer before Trump won the election in the November and I eagerly questioned people then about whether he might actually get into the White House.  I came home unsure as to whether Hilary Clinton could beat him.  I picked up many negative comments about her during my conversations, with people who didn't want to vote for Trump feeling that they could not face her as an alternative.

This time, I have returned to the UK with the strong feeling that Trump will win again in two years time unless there is some kind of majorly disruptive event which cannot be predicted.  I have written previously about the start of fascism and about the conditions which lead to it taking hold. And I believe the current situation in the US is ticking nearly all of those boxes right now.

Some things which I noticed or which happened during our admittedly brief visit:

1)  The news channels are even more polarised than before.  The Trump-supporting channels such as Fox are on in bars as much as any other channel and people do parrot what they have heard from these 'journalists'.  I overheard numerous bar, pool, restaurant etc exchanges of views where I just wanted to interrupt and say 'prove it!' to whatever mad point they were coming out with.

2)  Racism is definitely more prevalent. For example, we noticed a real decrease in the number of hijab-wearing women visible in all of the four cities we visited - two which we also visited three years ago.  Which cannot be a good sign.  And casual racism is almost a 'conversation starter'.  No checking to see if we would be offended by an assumption.  Whether it be about Hispanics or Muslims or 'foreigners'.  We even encountered a Brit in LA who said he'd lived in the US/Malta (yes, weird) for twenty odd years and he could not go back to Luton (his UK hometown) because of the horrendous 'Muslim problem' - he was sure Luton is a 'no go area'.  He firmly believed this despite not having set foot there and worse, was repeating these false claims to people he had just met in a bakery.  Yes we were apparently fellow Brits but who the hell else is he saying this to?  Didn't he get this rubbish from certain US news outlets? It was not from experience.  And he expected us to join in with his pronouncements.  To commiserate with him and reinforce what he was sure he knew.

3)  The above two points are also tied together by another story.  My husband was queuing for a pizza takeaway and the customer next to him asked how we in the UK were 'doing with our new prime minister?  Tommy Robinson isn't it?  Great Guy!' (Johnson had just got into Number 10 - lovely news on your holidays).  There was almost an altercation as husband, having been about to say Boris is a t**t, tried to explain that Robinson is not PM and is in fact a racist t**t.  The other customer just would not believe that Robinson is a nobody.  Presumably because Trump and others tweet about him.  Did he therefore think Katie Hopkins is Chancellor and Farage is Foreign Secretary?  We didn't wait to find out.  Boris Johnson is mad but clearly not mad enough to merit far Right coverage.

4)  Anti-Trump acquaintances were quick to say that Trump and his ilk are racist.  There was no doubt in their minds.  But there was shaking of heads at what to do about it.  It was almost like they'd given up already.  The first Democratic candidates debate was during our visit.  It did not offer much hope, I must say.  Trump opposition is badly divided.  Much as the anti-Brexit side is in the UK.

Now these are small examples but I believe many such small stories are being played out across the USA.  And in watching the coverage of Trump's tweets, it seems clear to me that he has no interest whatsoever in keeping anything other than his core support happy.  He does not respond to satire, to a Twitter 'backlash', to reasoned argument even.  

As long as he keeps the right proportion of the electorate happy, he just does not care.  The constant cry of 'fake news' is not him being thin-skinned and reactive to news.  He is simply reinforcing his message to that core - 'you can't trust anyone but me to tell you the truth.'  The symbiotic relationship with Fox News helps to push the simplistic messages.  Because his line on everything is nothing if not simplistic.  Things are 'very good' or 'very bad' in Trump world.  'American' or 'Un-American'.  This language is not because he is inarticulate himself.  He is simply aiming squarely at the lowest common denominator - his core support.  He does not need to win anyone over to his cause.

The seeds are being sown very cleverly for the next presidential election.

'Fours legs bad, two legs good' ringing any bells?....

*in looking for an image to use for this piece, I came across an article which is kind of saying what I am saying.  I promise I wrote my piece before I read it!  But click here - it's worth a read.

Lowborn

It is half a year since I wrote anything on this blog.  Is anyone still out there??!  Apologies if anyone (!) has been looking out for my musings.

I wasn't in a great place at the beginning of the year and then it all just felt too overwhelming.  I didn't seem to be able to write concisely or in a reasonable fashion.  Brexit, Trump, austerity, the climate, it all just felt too much.  So I concentrated more on trying to stay happy in my small place in the world.

However, I am just reading a book which has spurred me into blogging action finally.  It is called Lowborn and is by a brilliant writer called Kerry Hudson.  You may have seen it around - in the UK for sure - as it is hotly tipped for all sorts of non-fiction prizes.

Kerry Hudson was brought up be a mainly single mother who dragged her to towns in all parts of the UK.  She says she attended 9 primary schools, for example  She experienced a grinding, seemingly never-ending kind of poverty which has, I believe, rarely been written about in this country - for the reasons that she details from the beginning of the book.  Namely being in a class who are considered worthless and feckless.  People rarely drag themselves out and even more rarely discuss their pasts if they do. 

Reading her story is an incredibly sobering experience.  I would like to think of myself as a caring person.  Someone who tries to be aware of differences between people.  To be sensitive.  To give what I can when I can.  But reading this book makes you all too aware how almost impossible it is to offer much respite to those living such lives unless you could house them, give them bank accounts, give them jobs.  Simply the act of sending your own child to school well-fed and in a clean uniform gives daily pain to those who are hungry and whose uniforms are too small, too dirty.

And then how much difference would that make in the end because so much is ingrained in terms of lack of parenting, alcohol and substance abuse, casual violence and abuse.  The cycle goes on and is difficult to break.  Yet Kerry Hudson came through and others have too.  There are ways to turn this section of society around and as I have argued many times on this blog, the UK is not a poor country - despite what many in government would have us believe.  There is money, a great deal of money.  But there is no desire to make any real change.  Thousands and thousands of people are living below the poverty line.  Daily forced to choose between food or heat, bills or school shoes, etc etc ad infinitum.  Food banks report that they can barely cope with the onset of school holidays - the loss of free school meals for six weeks simply breaks the delicate finances of many families.  

This is the twenty first century, people.  Weren't we all supposed to be equal and disease-free and living in high tech, violence-free communities by now?  Some the most terrifying parts of Kerry's book are when she revisits the towns that she lived in during her childhood.  Most have not changed, many are worse off than thirty years ago.  No wonder so many of such places voted for the grotesque clowns who promised that the EU was the root of all their troubles and that leaving the EU would bring endless cash injections.  'Beware men bearing gifts'...

Read Lowborn, I urge you.  It will probably make you weep.  But I hope it spurs you to action too.  Protest.  Donate.  But most of all, start trying to think differently about why someone might be where they, looking like they do or behaving in a certain way.  

Who's Queen?

One of my favourite comedy creations is Miranda Richardson's Queen Elizabeth I in Blackadder II.

'Who's Queen?' is her continuous retort to anyone trying to prevent her from doing exactly as she likes, whenever she likes.

But it has occurred to me that now might be the time for Queen Elizabeth II to final zip into action, aged ninety two and after sixty six years on the throne.  As we know, in a constitutional monarchy, the sovereign is not supposed to do anything more than lurk in the background.  Advising once a week to the prime minister of the day, turning up for ceremonial tourist-pleasing duties and so on. 

Yet we in the UK find ourselves in total limbo at the moment.  And being terribly British, the refrain is now 'oh for heaven's sake, just get on with it'.  Our politicians have shown themselves to be completely unequal to the task in hand.   And the EU has nothing to gain from assisting the UK in making our suicidal leap any easier.

Isn't it time for the Queen to knock a few heads together?  We pay an awful lot for the Royal Family to be there.  Could this not be the ultimate payback?  That the Queen saves us from Brexit chaos?  

Our economy and businesses, our government and public services both national and local and our lives in general are hanging on the Brexit thread.  No-one want to invest, to move, to travel, to buy stuff.  There is talk of stockpiling food and medicines.

The Queen has lived through the War, through rationing, through endless crises.  No public figure has more experience than she does.  I am not a Royalist particularly but if anything was ever going to convince the country that it is worth having the Royal Family, surely this is the time.  Take action, Ma'am!  Use whatever powers the constitutional experts can dredge up! For the love of your people's sanity (and the endless news agenda), take action.  The uncertainty has gone on too long.

I want to Remain.  I always have.  But I don't see how another referendum can address the fact that we are supposed to leave the EU in sixty seven days...  Millions (billions?) have already been spent on leaving.  Millions (probably billions) will be lost from no-one having a clue what is going on.

Who's Queen?

Shopping For Our Lives?

First 'real' day of the year 2019.  Dragged the kids out of their beds and got them to school.  Walked the dog twice as far as usual to offset the Christmas food overload.  Started on house jobs - actually moving immense piles of 'stuff' around the place.  And had a look at Instagram.

Now, I do look at Instagram most days (probably too many!).  But today my blog post is directly influenced (that Instafamous word) by Instagram.  For a good while, I have been following a hashtag called #mystylephotochallenge  It is all for fun but it brings together a whole community of interesting women.  The wonderful organisers @mystylephotochallenge post a monthly list of the themes for each day and followers interpret the themes as they want.  It can be fashion, humour, landscape, a film.  Whatever you want to share.  It is mostly fashion-related though and for this January/February, #mystylephotochallenge has linked with another hashtag #50daysofshoppingmywardrobe  (organised by @joannewalker62)

The idea of shopping your wardrobe has been gaining much currency and there are a variety of hashtags, influencer, bloggers, whatever pushing the reduce, reuse, recycle agenda in fashion.  Stacey Dooley's Fashion's Dirty Secrets BBC documentary* last year brought much needed impetus to the movement.  Our desire for fast fashion, for cheap jeans, for the latest look is contributing big time to the environmental problems on our planet.  

Yet - at the same time, we are supposed to be shopping to 'save the high street'.  Shopping to help local retailers.  Shopping to help our communities.  I myself posted on Instagram last year about the decimation and under-investment in my home town's high street.  Our out-of-town shopping centre has since also been severely affected.  It is confusing.  We don't want to lose the shops and yet it is quite clear that we all have too much stuff.  We can all declutter as much as we like for spring but where is it all going to go?  We like to think we can 'send it all to charity' or put on eBay or Depop.  But how much is going to landfill?  And won't we just fill the gaps in our cupboards?

I was whittering at a friend who has an independent shop about all this before Christmas.  I think I was probably really annoying.  Because they are living it, this weird and worrying juxtaposition.  It is their livelihood.  Whereas I am just confused by what to do and how this is going to pan out so was pondering out loud.

When I was a child, we still had mobile shops that came to our housing estate.  Right into my teens, there was still the Alpine pop lorry that delivered drinks.  Those were seen as innovations by the older generation though.  Until I first went to France in 1981 I had never seen a hypermarket.  The 'freezer centre' was amazing enough to us - potato croquette, anyone? Now, all of our supermarkets are so overly massive that they are renting out floor space to other retailers in an effort to curb their costs.  And whatever happened to Knickerbox, Tie Rack, Sock Shop, the Sweater Shop, et al?  I don't think their demise was due to online retailers?  

I have definitely bought less this last six months, since watching the above mentioned documentary.  It is a really thought-provoking piece.  But an interesting point was made on my Instagram after I said I had felt bad at shopping in Primark for the first time in a month, after watching the programme.  The comment was about the jobs which 'fast fashion' provides in so many countries.  At great environmental cost and definitely not at decent wage levels.  But still some kind of income for so many people who have next to nothing.  And what about those employed in retail in developed countries?  Plus, wages are low and prices for so many things are high everywhere.  Many, many people really need cheap consumer goods.  Just ask those who are having to go to the food bank, those who cannot afford school shoes for their children despite living in an apparently advanced society.

I don't have any answers.  I will be shopping my wardrobe for 50 days but I wouldn't dream of judging those who are still buying.  It is quite clear that something is going to have to give but as to what...  We can only hope, here in the UK, that the changes which are surely coming will not be on the scale of the Seventies and Eighties upheavals in employment and consumption.  I fear Brexit  - deal or no deal - may be what pushes the retail sector into freefall though.

* Note:  when creating the BBC link, I noticed that the documentary is on Last Chance and will leave BBC iPlayer on Wednesday 9 January.  Download!