librum, solidus, denarius

Balance, solid, 10  - somehow dominated my day. Actually originated in a remark a UK friend (Ofcom regs prevent me mentioning his/her name) made just as we had to end the conversation and I couldn't ask them what they meant:  "If the UK Pound was to be under threat, I would vote to leave EU". Did he mean it like those who made similar type statements just before UK's last D-Day on 15th February 1971?

I'm sure not. Even if he has much more grey matter between the ears than I do, he surely didn't enjoy the typical questions at school : " If a ton of coal cost £1.15s.0d How much does 15cwt cost?" (stolen from a comment elsewhere). Does the piece of paper symbolise  "sovereignty" to him? Does he think the Euro would mean the end of "Britishness"? Does he simply mean it would mean losing financial control?


I know one day I will find out but without this personal knowledge I would probably have taken my own pick of what I thought I wanted him to have meant and made my judgement that he was a total idiot.


And I have been doing exactly this kind of unacceptable practice in the last 24 hours. I think it was well meant - attacking people making wild statements, almost all hypocritical and with no facts to back them up. Boris wanting open markets and free competition and complaining their isn't enough protection for the City's financial institutions in the Cameron package. A guy who posted a picture of the two bogey men of the EU with the title "If we can't sack our leaders, we don't live in a democracy, UK OUT" . No doubt he had a picture of the Queen opening parliament in front of a packed House of Lords, right next to his keyboard. So I fired a salvo and then frustrated at not getting a reply and seeing no victorious signs of blood, thought I would look at who I had shot at. A young artistic entrepreneur in Wales who had set up a small 3 man business doing some exciting work with several large pan European clients like Airbus, Cap Gemini .... The website full of European interaction. This simply confused me totally and made me angry at myself and frustrated at the difficulty of having a proper discussion.


Boris' announcement this evening finally did me in. I deleted my Twitter and similar accounts and turned off my Blip comments. I would have killed Facebook too but for the fact I need it for one important lifeline.



I did the evening dog walk - the two photos were taken within 5 minutes of each other. Brain whirling with "setting of the sun" ....... and such things. All very depressing. It's not that I have any personal interest to gain or lose in IN or OUT. I simply have the feeling that the whole referendum process is flawed and is being used solely to advance certain peoples egos and wallets and at the cost of a nation.


When I got home I Wiki'ed Boris. I didn't know anything about him except he was Mayor of London. Well, what a lad! He can claim it seems to have had a large influence on the birth of UKIP.. It also confirmed the referendum is a farce and has nothing to do with the EU.


So I am now going in to a period of Lent. Taking a back seat, doing some navel gazing, lots of deep breathing and uttering weird "uuuuhhhh" chants. Lent may last until early summer.


I have turned off comments as I don't want anyone in Blip to feel under any threat or offended. I love Blipers (I don't love -the workings of the EU in- Brussels, either) and don't want the referendum to besmirch this relationship. And it also prevents you all getting out a piece of paper, drawing three columns and trying to remember how many lbs in a stone and stones in a cwt and cwt in a tonne or was it a ton? I forgot - the answer would have to have been in guineas, florins and farthings.