I wasn’t planning on posting today, but WP has reminded me of a short piece I wrote ten years ago today, well before most of you were following my blog. 24 June 2016 was the day after the UK voted in the Referendum to leave the EU, in a collective act of mass suicide. All I wrote was this:
NIGHTMARE
It seems an appropriate time to revisit this brief piece that I wrote two months ago. The Nightmare is beginning. We have voted to destroy our country and to seriously damage future European unity.
Today, I’m ashamed to be British.
The piece I referenced was written on 1 April that year, with the same title, and was this:
NIGHTMARE
Taking liberties with the format, a little piece of 100 word flash ‘fiction,’ especially for today:
“It’s April 1 2020. The news is worrying. The UK General election is coming fast, and the country is veering towards a post-Brexit win for Nigel Farage’s renamed UK National Socialist Party. President Trump has just declared war on Mexico for its continuing refusal to pay for his wall, and has threatened Scotland with armed retaliation for the nationalisation of his golf course. President Putin and Wendy Deng now control her ex-husband’s media empire: their newspaper, Pravda of London, has begun circulating.
Am I dreaming? Is this real? A bad April Fool’s Day joke? Or is the world really stumbling towards oblivion?”
Far-fetched? I hope so, but there is so much happening now that makes me worried about our future. I hope I’m wrong! Happy April Fool’s Day!
……………………………………….
Ten years on, the details of that may not be entirely accurate, but the prescience of my fears was anything but far from the mark. The template set by the Vote Leave campaign, of scaremongering and telling blatant lies, has become commonplace in politics on both sides of the pond, and you don’t need me to give you any examples, do you!
We live in uncertain times, and whilst I have far fewer days ahead of me than behind me, I fear for the future of the world in which my grandchildren are growing up. I just hope it isn’t too late for change.
©️ The Guardian
Take It Easy 
Hi Clive – has it already been ten years since this event happened – sigh – time is flying by! –
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Hi Yvette.
It is, and things are getting worse!
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It is so sad, shameful and alarming. The vast majority of people in the US HATE Frump – and once the stranglehold the Republicans have on the House and Senate is stopped, changes will come. We will prevail. As you have seen in the past year and a half: Everything Trump touches DIES”
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I hope they get destroyed in the midterms, so that some semblance of the USA that we knew can begin to return. It will take time to undo all the damage he has done, though.
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Since 2016 from time to time this song comes into my head.
I hope my fears will be way out of line. Because they way they pan out, no one, including of all the current slough of opportunists and hate mongers wins.
Take care
Roger
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I hope so too, if only I knew what the song was! I get a montage of four videos, none of which makes sense 🤣
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Oh fer cryin’ out loud WP….what are about this time🤬
Suggestion- Youtube: Epitaph by King Crimson and see what you get Clive.
That’s what WP told me it was sending😕
Roger
PS: Four videos…..? Lookin’ at you WP
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I looked further and it was my homepage!
I’ll try that one, thank you 👍
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I’m still blaming WP Clive.
It’s my default positioning….with good justifiable reasonings.
Best wishes
Roger
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Very prescient, you were Clive. For alas, though the details may be different, your predictions are largely happening … only even worse! Like you, I have a short time left on this earth, but I worry for future generations in both our countries … in fact, around the globe. 😟
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That was written three months before the Referendum and seven months before your Presidential election. It seems I feared the worst but, as you say, I didn’t realise how bad it would actually get. Unless there are some major changes the future does indeed look bleak.
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It looks more bleak with each passing day, my friend. I’ve just about completely lost hope … I’m glad I’m near the end of my life. My heart goes out to the youth of today.
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I just hope the midterms are allowed to be fair and they get obliterated.
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I hope so too, Clive, but … it’s not looking good. 😟
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I saw that another judge has decided against him today, so hopefully others will too.
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Trouble is that Trump appeals the rulings of the lower court judges and eventually his appeals reach the Supreme Court. And … well, we know what happens then. 🤬
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Brexit still haunts your nation, Clive, and I’m sorry for that. I’m not an “insider,” but I think Starmer’s heart was in the right place, wasn’t it? He’s decent and had noble goals. On the contrary, my country has given the extremist fringe the keys to the palace, with its indecent and ignoble leaders (to put it politely) and the results have been devastating. The world needs a strong UK and EU – hopefully united again – to stand up to the fascism my U.S. has now become.
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Starmer’s heart was definitely in the right place, but he was considered indecisive and dull. What worries me is that we are also moving to the extremist right, despite the obvious lessons we should learn from what is happening over there.
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An almighty act of self-harm 🤯
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Indeed. And one which we will still be paying for long after you and I have shuffled off this mortal coil.
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And behind it all one abhorrent prejudice
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That’s what Vote Leave played to: racism and xenophobia. Alive and well in today’s right wing parties and, sadly, in much of the population.
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Sadly I think our recent isolation has magnified it. I seriously worry about the future
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As do I.
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It’s a mess, everyone blaming everyone else, and nobody doing anything to sort it out.
New PM in the wings. New cabinet. They say things have to get worse to get better………… personally I see little light at the end of the tunnel, or is the light an illusion?
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You’re right, it’s a huge mess. But many have enriched themselves on the back of it and have a vested interest in seeing it continue. Self before party before country is never going to produce a workable solution.
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I agree Clive. Transparency? What a joke. One rule for them, one for the rest of us who have to foot the bill for their egos.
I wouldn’t want a job in politics, but if I did, for a start I would scrap MP expense accounts and second homes in London for when they have to be in parliament (to shout and argue like the spoilt brats they are) and open a government hostel where they could stay overnight on a B&B basis paid for by the Treasury direct.
Self before party and country is right Clive.
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There’s much to be worried about, my friend.
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Indeed there is. And ten years after I wrote that it feels as though things are getting worse, not better.
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so do I Clive, hope it isn’t too late! I fear for our kids, the future generations, what will they face!
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It’s scary, isnt it!
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