I hate to bring up the B word but it is pressing...UK politics has become somewhat of a farce and cabaret act in this last few months (years) and I don't blame people for just wanting to ignore it all but fact is, it really isn't going away... Here in the UK we have a Prime Minister who has been found guilty of breaking the law (re proroguing parliament), lying to the Queen, consistently comes out with offensive and inflammatory remarks that he refuses to apologise for and seemingly right now as we speak is being investigated for using public money to do political/financial favours for an American woman he was screwing or at least intimate with and in regards Brexit, it looks like he is aiming to break the law, once again by trying to find loop holes around The Benn Act so he can indeed force us to leave the EU on the 31st without a deal...

The financial repercussions of this will be disastrous for your average everyday person, never mind those already struggling or in poverty.

Amidst poring over all the different media outlets I can to get a balanced view and perspective I remembered an open letter I had written a few years ago, not long after the referendum and managed to find it...it is a stark reminder that Brexit is not simply about the farce that is British politics, or the economic emergency that will soon ensue but also about the social divides it has caused and will continue to... It is a disturbing piece, read only if in a decent place, as it contains an upsetting relay of an incident that happened not long after the referendum...

Dear powers that be,

I write this feeling angry and hurt and shocked and deeply disturbed at having read about the young pregnant Muslim woman who was attacked in Bletchley, Milton Keynes today, the result of which was the loss of her unborn child. It is enough that she has been attacked and had to suffer this terrible and tragic loss, but the racially motivated reasons bring this whole tragedy into another, more sinister arena and light.

I am a woman of colour and I have two children. I, along with many other non-white and non-indigenous Britons (whatever that actually means) have been feeling the swell and rise in general xenophobia post the Brexit referendum. Hate to bring up the ‘B’ word but this classic failure in British politics will go down in history as such. Those at the top feel it less, obviously. Whilst those on ground level pay the price. Few of us as harshly and disturbingly as the woman who lost her child today.
What is being done about this? I mean properly done. What is going to be the reaction, on a government level to this massive swell in post-referendum racially motivated attacks? Prevent, well, that just seems to target the Muslim community and deepen the divide. Give wings to those who already feel anti-Islamic tendancies and further isolate Muslim communities. As Brexit has also done. I think we can all agree that the anti-white European sentiment swept up in the run up and following the referendum has also blown up the already highly flammable gulf between white and non-white communities in the UK. And specifically non-white Muslims, who seem to be the scapegoat for so much.
The out of control and self justified brutality of the man who assaulted this woman and killed her child has an unfortunate air of familiarity. Unfortunately, many people in the UK, more than we banked on evidently, feel that they don’t like sharing their airspace with people who don’t look like them, speak like them, pray like them and think like them. And Brexit, that 52% majority, not saying that all of those people who voted to leave, did so for racist, xenophobic reasons, but that 52% has given an air of credence to the growing community of those who feel that ‘there ain’t no black in the union jack’. And more recently the extension of this to the white Europeans living here too.
I pose the question again. What is being done? What is the plan? Unless this is the plan… It seems sometimes that there is an air of acceptance from above, because there doesn’t seem to be an awful lot that is being done. Other than weak gestures.
I have grown very distant from the BBC in recent years, due to the timbre of their reportage. The most recent breech in correctness I can bring to mind is their slogan the ‘Migrant crisis’. They weren’t, aren’t migrants, they are political asylum seekers. Refugees. Fleeing horrors that are still frighteningly out of control. The subtle ways in which the media support and maintain xenophobia is gut wrenching. Feeding an already jittery public, gagging for scapegoats to blame for the misappropriation of government spending that has left them poorer, less secure and in general less happy. Gagging for it and then lo and behold, they are drip fed it by the media.

*************

I genuinely worry what is happening here in the UK, all across the globe to be honest. It is in so many ways like WW2 all over again, the rise in the far right, scapegoating, spread of fear and hysteria, lying self serving politicians and people just feeling powerless... All I can do is say my piece (which I do, frequently and in many arenas) and bring up my daughters to be good, strong, open minded and compassionate warriors and hope the landscape of their adulthood is one they can make a change in... The youth of today give me hope, not that I've given up but I think we have become too used to old, posh white men running shit, we need to empower the youth to not respect that authority and to fight for a freer, better world. In the meantime though, we, the adults need to make sure we are engaged in what is going on around us politically. Burying our heads in the sand is not really an option. 

Cheers

Llewella 

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