Interesting Times

[poliphilo]

Gordon Brown has moved, in a few days, from being the worst Prime Minister in British history to the Saviour of the Western World. I don't remember a political turn-around like it.

Has the world changed? I mean, has the financial crisis irreparably changed things? Will historians look back and see a watershed or a blip? Too soon to say. The media are doing their best to make us frantic, but I look round and the sun is still shining- or not, as the case may be- and citizens are going about their business as normal. The hit that the high street shops have taken means they're competing for customers and prices are actually coming down. So, excellent news for consumers. The price of petrol (gas) which was climbing towards £1.20 a litre is now down to just over £1.00. Who'd have predicted that a few weeks back?

I'm reading Bulgakov's the Master and Margarita. There too, in the Moscow of the 1930s, the sun is shining, people are buying fizzy drinks in the parks, the tram cars are running and there's a jazz band playing in the restaurant of the (exclusive) writer's club- while just out of frame the most frightful atrocities and follies are being committed. Life goes on- I think that's what Bulgakov is trying to tell us- no matter what.  People- like cockroaches- are terribly- magnificently- resilient. 

Here's one thing that's changed- probably. The collapse of the Scottish banks- HBOS and RBS- and their takeover by the British government- means that Scottish independence- which seemed as certain as eggs is eggs- is now off the agenda. Or, that's what the commentator in the Telegraph thinks. Is he right? Only time will tell.

Brown's takeover of the banks is an almighty gamble. It could steady the markets, it could prove disastrous. Every morning we wake up to surprising news. It's all rather exciting. Nobody knows what's going to happen next. Nobody knows a thing.

Comments

Everything is normal

[methodius.livejournal.com]

I remember the day 90-day detention was passed in South Africa (and Brown still wants 90 days).

I was sitting in a cafe in downtown Pietermaritzburg watching cars and pedestrians passing, and everything looked so normal, yet everything had changed. We had crossed the line into a fully-fledged police state. The Terrorism Act 4 years later was just icing on the cake. And it was a nightmare that was to last another 30 years and more.

Re: Everything is normal

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I remember Bush saying- early on in his presidency- how a dictatorship would be nice, just so long as he got to be dictator. I think most politicians think that way. Democracy is hard and frustrating. How much simpler and neater if you could click your fingers and have the police round up all your opponents.

Re: Everything is normal

[methodius.livejournal.com]

I found something I wrote about 40 years ago that seemed to link with this, and wrote about it in my LJ.

Re: Everything is normal

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I must go and take a look....