As I write, I can hear Sky News on in the background and the focus is Boris Johnson’s decision to join the ‘Vote to Leave’ campaign with regard to the EU Referendum. Is this a genuine concern for the ‘sovereignty’ of the United Kingdom or a strategic move in his bid for leadership? Who knows? Sad that, today, one must automatically question someone’s motive as the desire for personal gain seems to over-ride all else.
I have given some thought to my views on remaining in, or leaving the EU and, knowing myself, my default would be to leave. Individuality is of great importance to me: character, one’s own voice, standing up for what one believes in, regardless. The United Kingdom should not be swallowed up by the EU; should not be just another member. David Cameron agrees and I was impressed listening to his reveal on the outcome of negotiations but perhaps the key, at this time, to persuading me to vote ‘yes’ to remaining is the issue of defense: the threat of ISIS requires that we support each other and stand strong.
On a somewhat lighter note, catching the end of the BAFTAs last week offered up the gift of another topic close to my heart, that of respect. I happened to switch on as the award for Costume Design was being presented and I watched as the recipient left her chair and headed for the podium. Dressed in jeans, a leather jacket and scarf, having apparently made minimum effort, she seemed confident in her attire as she addressed an audience of dinner suits and evening gowns – appropriate dress for a black tie event. I shook my head in disbelief convinced that, perhaps, I was a lone voice until … Stephen Fry, hosting, voiced exactly what I was thinking: she was collecting the award for Costume Design dressed, in his words, as a ‘bag lady’! Thank God! Someone with the guts to comment; to say what so many were thinking. It was a sarcastic barb made in the humour with which it was intended to be received by the said lady, a good friend of the host. The next day, however, it was revealed that Stephen Fry had been bombarded with abuse on twitter and had, subsequently, cancelled his account. Once again, the ‘tyranny of tolerance’, rears its ugly head. It is a term I heard on the radio, some time ago, used by a member of the catholic clergy and, regardless of the subject matter at the time, I thought it a term appropriate for so much in this modern society bereft of manners, morals and, moreover, respect. I laud anyone who has sufficient self-belief and courage to stand against the crowd and defy the ‘tyranny of tolerance’!
You know me and my love for quotes … In Waterstones, yesterday, I took a photograph of a quote attributed to Harper Lee who, sadly, died on Friday. It, too, is about courage:
‘Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.’
Aside from the comma before ‘but’, I totally agree!
This is Trish signing off until next time. As ever, nobody forced you to read it!
