No Posting Today, As the Founder and CEO (yes, that’s me) Is Profoundly Depressed by the News
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Well as a Londoner we are all in shock. I sympathise with your feelings, but I just hope something good comes form this for ALL of the EU.
Yes, it’s not helpful to wallow in self-pity, we should make use of it somehow. Unfortunately, I only want to wallow at the moment ?
I didn’t want to post this on NST, especially with Robin’s extra reminder re politics.
I can well understand you being depressed, and I feel badly for everyone on the stay side. The problem with these kinds of referenda is how often they come out almost 50-50% leading to continuing dissension and how much misinformation flies around. To me the leave side so reactionary.
I found it interesting that this one seemed to split along generation lines with the young being more outward looking. Yes, folks it’s about the future not the past.
I was thinking of you yesterday and what kind of work the future holds. To me it seems like it will consist of shunting individual rail cars back and forth on a couple of tracks while trains are zipping along on a number of other tracks.
Or maybe like herding cats, once everyone agrees (hah!) on where the cats should be herded to.
No need to reply.
Thank you for thinking of me, Lindaloo. I have done a lot of thinking lately about what the future will bring. Because obviously this result didn’t come out of nowhere, the issues have been around for a long time, not only in the UK, not even only in Europe. I feel that two things need to happen, if we want to make Europe work. First, there needs to be a reality check regarding our economic, security, environmental, etc situation. Things are not good and promising that they’ll go back to the way they used to be will ultimately create more disappointment (and possibly fascist states in the process). And we need a vision (I hate that word, but cannot think of a better one) for Europe that would be relevant for people and not based only on economic arguments. Or on a vague threat of future war that most people find ridiculous. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to do it.
Thanks for your analysis. I share your concern about fascist governments. The rise of populist politicians appealing to the disaffected is scary. That their scapegoating of immigrants, women, environmentalists etc. and the pledge to bring everything back to the good old days is so popular is frightening. Canada is watching Trump with a horrified fascination. I wish they could see that it is not global co-operation that is the bigger problem, but global corporatism and their tax dodging that is making life harder for us all. I do hope that the attempt by countries to work on a global corporate tax regime will go ahead despite the divisions.
It is frustrating to hear now how some British voters didn’t actually expect the leave side would win when they cast their vote to leave. Government by referendum is so dangerous without honest information (yes, I mean you, Nick Lafarge) and the understanding that each vote does count and has consequences.
In Quebec some who voted to leave Canada were expecting that the decision would just give them better leverage in dealings with the federal government. Interestingly, it is the young now in Quebec who are least likely to believe in separatism.
PS: brilliant image
? Possibly looks harsher than I intended, but available prop selection was limited.
One of the small lights in this tunnel for me is that apparently UK’s youth are as unhappy about this as you and me. Let’s hope they will turn the tide in time. Lots of support and hugs.
Thank you! Yes, there are many Brits who are unhappy and even many people who voted to leave, didn’t think it would really happen. It’s a complex situation, let’s see what’ll come of it.
Dear Anniky,
I want to thank you for this post. I’ve been reading your fabulous, witty and rational blog since last summer (found you via NST, like others here) but I have never commented. I’m an Irish citizen living in Britain. I’ve been here ten years and I love it, and I did not think the result on Friday would be to leave the EU. You know how vulnerable small countries are. You know what a necessary and brave and wonderful idea the EU is. I came here today hoping for a sense of European solidarity, and I found it. Thank you so much.
P.S. I wore Guerlain’s Nahema on Friday, as the biggest and most defiant perfume I own.
Dear Eliza, thank you for this. I did consider writing a longer post, but it’s such a complex issue that I’m bound to do injustice to many people and arguments. I think this is partially the reason it ended like this: reducing something with so many aspects to a single question is a diffcult thing to do in a meaningful way. But if nothing else, I can express how I feel. And I don’t feel like that only for myself: I happen to work with many wonderful British (and Irish) people, I have friends who are from the UK and I’ve never seen them so shocked and worried. Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading about geopolitics lately, but I feel very keenly that it’s not only small countries like Ireland, Belgium and Estonia that are vulnerable – even UK, France, Germany are small when they are on their own. It is time to wake up to that.
PS You smelled amazing.
I’ve read and enjoyed your blog practically from its maiden post, but am only just now chiming in to comment in solidarity because, yes, absolutely, I too am profoundly depressed by the news. Try to enjoy your weekend !
Thank you for the support! And thank you for reading, I’m still amazed and eternally grateful that people actually do.
Yes to all of this – larger countries aren’t immune to anything. The U.K.’s moderate public discourse vanished in a few months, and now the concept of the UK itself has been deeply destabilised. The discussion about European unity needs to look to the future, and to focus upon more than just trade and economics, and it has to take place in a global context too. But the EU’s birth and continued existence is a political miracle, considering Europe’s long history of conflict, and it will endure even in difficulty. 16 million people voted here on Thursday as Europeans. Lindaloo’s views above on referenda and disaffected (or poorly-informed) voters are very interesting to see, as it’s becoming clear that many Leavers did not realise their votes would count for so much in a referendum, quite unlike usual electoral representation here.
Final word regarding your blog – as long as you keep writing, your readers will keep reading (and I have a glorious new bottle of Fleur de Chine to prove it). Aitäh! õnne ja julgust!
I’m sorry, Eliza, I somehow missed your second comment. But I wanted to come back and say I’m so glad you enjoy your Fleur de Chine ?
Dear Annikky,
I love Fleur de Chine! I had never tried Tom Ford before reading your blog. FdC reminds me of Arpege – very soft and nutty, subtle and intriguing. By the way, I have also picked up a couple of Dumas novels as a result of your posts (amongst other things – Caudalie cleansing oil being another). Would it interest you at some point to do a Readers Respond/Recommend post, perhaps a reflective piece at the end of the summer where we can all share our ideas in response to your blog’s main themes (perfume, books, food, weather, that pink Alexa jumper from M&S) and maybe encourage other readers to de-lurk?
What a lovely idea! I’ll do something like this towards the end of the summer. I’m of course extremely glad you enjoy FdC – it is exatly what you say.
Regarding Dumas: please bear in mind that I read his books first when I was very young. And I mean VERY young. I may have been something like 8 when I read The Three Musketeers for the first time, somewhat older for the sequels (but still too young to miss much of the stuff that was hinted at) and The Count of Monte Cristo. So they were a part of the fabric of my childhood and teenage years and are therefore unproportionally important for me. I’m not sure how well they’ll work when read by a grown-up woman of taste. I hope they’ll still be entertaining!