Late posting today. Partly doing school holiday stuff and partly because everything I thought of writing seemed to pale compared to the increasingly mad UK political news.
As if leaving the EU wasn't enough, our 'politicians' seem to have lost the will to live. And apparently in two days time, the one who started it all - David Cameron - will retire to his estates having graciously handed over to (gratefully chucked it to) the second ever female prime minister, Theresa May (apologies if by the time you read this, the news has changed again and Kermit the Frog or someone equally well qualified is taking over).
This weekend, the debacle over Andrea 'Loathsome' Leadsom did at least spark some interesting teen 'show and tell' events in our family. We were staying with friends and the adults were busy exclaiming over the hideous parenting-related claims which had burst forth from the woman. And our nearly teen was earwigging. The journey home therefore severely tested my powers as a politics graduate. Rather large questions such as 'what is a feminist', 'what do Left and Right mean in politics' and 'why there has only ever been one female prime minister before now', fired from the backseat for most of the way.
I noted on Facebook this week that I was horrified to find myself wishing for a Theresa May victory and even more disturbed by the failure of the Left to produce any female leaders. I spent my own teen years protesting against Thatcher - for the miners, against the Poll Tax, in favour of CND, etc. I can only hope Theresa May manages to conduct herself and the government in a less adversarial way. Mind you, at least Thatcher had a well-honed plan - whether you agreed with it or not. No-one at the moment seems to have a clue. (Must have Brexit-itis - I have just expressed a positive sentiment about the Milk Snatcher.)
Previously I have posted about where our political beliefs come from. I had one Left and one Right parent growing up. It never occurred to me to vote Tory though. My innate tendencies were firmly Left wing. I am now very curious to see where my children end up on the political scale. They too have one Left and one Right parent but their father is more economically Right than in terms of equal rights etc. But how will their views be affected by what we are living through right now? By the time they are - hopefully - coming out of university, we will have Brexited. What will they be concerned about? Britain's place in the world? Or basics necessities like finding a job in a shrivelled economy? Or all the rights which they know their ancestors enjoyed and which no longer exist?
Will May be the saviour of the country or the bogeywoman of their teen years? Who will grasp Brexit and make the best of it? Theresa May is the best of a very sorry bunch - and I sadly include Labour in that.
Mind you, Youngest might have an idea. She asked me this afternoon whether David Beckham would now have to move out of Downing Street... Maybe we should be moving him in... his management would never have let things come to this. A worldwide PR and financial disaster.
