Local Life

  • London needs more than a pro-EU Mayor

    The opinions of Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan are as repetitive as some social media posts.

    They’re as frequent, too.

    It may not be usual for UK citizens because Mayoralties have not been elected positions for long, but it’s definitely a part of politics and Mayor Khan has brought this into his own role.

    His idea, by example, that the UK rejoins the EU is about as useful to London as abolishing its own financial services industry.

    It satisfies a willingness to work with others but it doesn’t justify doing things differently, if we need to, which is what the London economy largely is to some experts.

    This holds no promise.

    Mayor Khan is better placed to identify real problems than see countries getting back together in a fruitless enterprise of enlargement.

  • Long Report: Getting UK-based

    The effort to help people understand your own country in modern times is often the most difficult with people born in your own country.

    It’s been found by researchers that a lot of confusion has set into public society and while many have tried to pacify the results of it it still hasn’t been cleared up yet.

    The breakdown of this situation however has been looked at from one particular angle and this is the issue with many UK citizens trying to or choosing to live overseas.

    Life overseas

    The place in the sun ideal is something that was understood to mean retirement and not a lifestyle choice midway through life.

    However, due to misconceptions surging through academia and also thoughts reflected in popular media it has seeped into public thinking as something that’s now possible.

    This presents difficulties. It means that professional services are split between continents. It means that local law becomes an issue of international regulation. It also means normal civic duties are confused with events back home.

    It has dragged many other people likewise into having to form new professional practices that reflect the basic realities of having to do this every day as a job.

    Never understood

    It’s curious that some researchers believe it has to be handled as if those overseas are celebrities. We know what this is and we know that the culture is deleterious if it’s not handled properly.

    But more importantly, it means that much of life is lost in translation so-called. It means that many problems are resolved in ways other than the ways that we’ve long had. This creates a cavity in society.

    It has meant there have been many close calls of a serious nature. It has meant that there has been chaos in some recruitment practices. It has meant that some of our fundamental services have seen breakdown.

    If left as so, it may instill a sense of disillusionment in young adults and also hopelessness in adults. This is something that many charities and religious groups know a lot about and have engaged with a lot.

    Coming home

    The issue has abated to some extent because of sage advice that has got through to many people here, and some abroad. It means that life has settled for many people.

    It’s not meant a full return to UK life yet, but it’s getting there – steadily. In time it will be the case that everybody will know how to live here and also how to travel.

    The lesson is a basic one for most people, and it’s also being taught in other parts of the world. It’s about how to treat anybody, and not just those that you live with.

  • Why is Tommy Robinson so mad?

    The state of affairs in neighbourhoods across the UK is the subject of much study by historians of all kinds.

    Yet the current events of politics has brought out some of it for us to see.

    This is who we are.

    We are spectators in a developing, evolving story on the English landscape.

    It’s happening everywhere.

    Some of our worst adversaries are seeing the same things, but these are not interconnected.

    Who goes there?

    The story of Tommy Robinson is not something that’s easy to understand, and this is what locals in Luton attest to themselves.

    There’s a lot of detail to it.

    However, it’s possible to know more if the person himself is subject to contemporary scrutiny.

    It’s clear that he’s agitated by the state of things. He doesn’t like how some people fall out of prosperity.

    He doesn’t like ‘new’ things, and this is said by former friends and some former school girlfriends.

    “He’s a person who likes his life sorted,” one said to me, thinking about how it was to date him before he became famous.

    He’s also not someone to hide his identity or to be disingenuous about his real intentions.

    The troublemaker

    The thing is, Tommy Robinson is like a lot of people in the UK. Many people follow his trend of activism in Scotland, for example.

    However, his is a sort that has taken its unction from many more English things than personal.

    His movements have been centred on assets here in the UK, but more particular things he’s known from youth, like the Army.

    He’s not necessarily a racist at heart, but he is, like many others, haphazard in the way he puts the world together.

    It’s the same in his personal life, where his business dealings are the subject of much scrutiny.

    The roots

    The root of Robinson’s anger go far back into his family past, and only some of it is in his life.

    It’s not possible to note all of it here but it comes out occasionally.

    It’s a fact that English activism has a particular way about it, and it usually fits together coherently.

    To understand Tommy Robinson is to seek to explore more of it. It’s not right, but it’s not leaving.

  • Long Report: Notes in murder town

    It’s not easy to keep a record of events. I’ve met local historians that find it tough. If staff of media companies are one problem, crime groups that target it specifically are another. It entails more work than is usually understood.

    In Reading, many were trying their hardest to keep track of its unfolding events. There were serious crimes underway. Although the people tried hard, bad folk were trying harder. Those making local records felt the stress.

    Denial

    Aside the terror networks that had a presence in the town, there were others making headway in ruining local life. A large number of murderers were found in its many sprawling neighbourhoods.

    They were active due to the presence of terrorists. They hid in houses to spy victims. It was a “coarse” time to be there, a resident told me. He lived in fear for his life having already lost his son.

    It was kept off record by a local Police force in chaos. A few Officers spoke to me before moving on. They said matters were out of hand and murder wasn’t a priority. It was a bad state of affairs.

    Obfuscation

    I spotted two Officers making strenuous efforts to stop any investigation into murder. They kept close contacts in America who advised on how to do it. A number of European Journalists got around their advice. The news of it began to be passed out.

    The locals threatened by it had few choices. They could let a relative know or a close friend. They didn’t get a hearing otherwise. “It was dark at times”, one resident said. I could feel it. I made efforts to track assailants. It was easy to tell their mental illness.

    Heartache

    It’s in a therapy diary after a daughter’s death. It’s a man still looking for the body of a lost son. It’s a young figure retracing steps after an abduction one night. Their streets are marked with sadnesses of many kinds.

    The families I met had stories too troubling to say fully. They had house raids. They just saw blood left on a floor. They suffered together. They suffered in silence. No one helped. They were left to heal alone.

    Reprieve

    I spoke to a man who lost his only daughter. Initially he couldn’t tell anyone. He was able to recover contact with a friend. It was finally safe enough. The last time I spoke to him he still had mixed feelings about living in the town.

    I made notes. These were taken. A suspect snatched a notebook out of my hand. She ran off with it. It indicated a strange mood in a place of social unrest in a time of so many difficulties – and in which murder was only one.