Island Life

 "Lockdown" has been easier for me than for many: I have become used to a restricted existence as I have been out of work for so long. I have cut luxuries like 'nights out' from my impoverished existence for the best part of two years and before that, my stressful and underpaid job hardly left much to even run the car on which I relied to get to the blooming job so I had not been splashing the cash much before that.

I'm bothered by reactions to the pandemic: people making a fuss about wearing masks when they're in contact with other people, others who pretend to honour the "bubble" of contacts concept, and still more who just refuse to accept anything they've been told and refuse to alter their behaviours because... they're British(?).

I've been consistently disappointed in my constant attempts to find paid employment. I have railed about applying for jobs for which I am qualified and where I can demonstrate appropriate experience. I am not so arrogant that I expect to be offered every job for which I apply, but it is hard not to feel insulted by not being shortlisted for jobs in organisations with whom I have collaborated, supported and even promoted in the past. There is a refugee project run, with one exception, entirely by white middle class women, to which I have applied for jobs with decreasing requirements and responsibilities over several years, as much out of curiosity as anything else and am consistently rejected at the first step. I will be sixty years old next month, is that a factor? I have a reputation for my unusual methods and a passion for my work- especially in Social Justice, -despite consistent success, is that a factor in me not getting interviews?

The Brexit disaster creeps in its petty pace towards national disaster. My anger at the Selfservative government's continued ineptitude, cronyism and their promotion of under achieving and incompetent people to important offices of state is almost as galling as the way in which they avoid accountability for anything. Their total mishandling of the pandemic is being laid at the feet of the public whilst BILLIONS of pounds have been wasted through them awarding crucial contracts to their inexperienced mates and family members. The Labour Party, under Keir Starmer seems no longer to be a socialist party- it is Blair lite. Starmer has even suspended from the party Jeremy Corbyn and others who support him and sold out to the Zionists with a pretty phoney (although there is always SOME truth in these things) Antisemitic witch hunt. Despite the weakness of the government, Starmer seems more intent on destroying the Labour party from within in an effort to "make it more electable" which seems to mean: 'To move away from the socialist ideals on which the Labour Party was founded' especially anything originated by Jeremy Corbyn. I feel depressed not to have political representatives in Parliament. I feel nihilistic about what life in UK is very likely to be like once the impacts of leaving the European Union hit next year. I emit a dead laugh when I see the things about which we were warned during the referendum coming to pass and the horror of those true Brits who voted for Brexit thinking that everything they like about Britain's international position and domestic policy would stay the same.

Got some interesting health news the other day. At its worst, it is notice of the beginning of my end (still a LONG way off!), though I doubt it will transpire to be that drastic. If it comes to it, I will abandon the apparent futility of finding employment and see what state support I can secure AND... I will get a dog! My cats might be unimpressed, but they'll have to get used to it.