Blades of grass
Optimism can be short supply around this country lately, due to the ongoing confusion over Brexit and the inability of either of the leading parties in the government to actually govern constructively. Hopefully things will clear up once they get their acts together. Not an impressive display of maturity or proper governance on any side of the equation. Just quitting when things don’t go your way is not an option, and spending time sniping at each other instead of getting on with the task of actually doing the job you were elected to do, is not helpful.
However, there were some positive notes to come out of the tumult. One, Ireland is the friend you find you have when everyone else has left and there’s a lot of cleaning up to do. At the Dairy UK Seminar in London last week, the director of the Irish Dairy Industries Association, Conor Mulvihill, said that Ireland and the UK are partners, and “we are ready and available to help you in EU negotiations that will be very tough. There will a lot of practical support from Ireland.”
Two, this Brexit thing may take a while, and people like Angela Merkel have been kind of conciliatory to the UK about it all. There may be an issue of having to secure Parliamentary approval and legal action has been launched. Either way, to think the UK will not have to be part of Europe on some level is just an isolationist dream – Britain has been part of Europe for thousands of years, and its history proves that.
Four, there have been protests about the exit vote in central London. The vote was very close, and there are millions of people who wanted to stay in the EU in Britain.
Four, as Benjamin Graham said, “In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” The voting has happened in the international stock markets, and the weighing of the UK and its assets has begun. I suspect they will find in Britain’s favour in the end, despite the beating the pound has taken lately.
And five, Nigel Farage has resigned as the leader of the rightwing UKIP party. These are blades of grass – I am optimistic the lawn is growing. What it will look like, I have no idea.
