FFS, 2016

If you’re the sort of person who values intelligence and kindness, then this has not been your year. Just when you think that we have got to our lowest point, as a species, then a man who has befriended racists beats a qualified woman to a job he is totally unqualified for. Hill-dog has been vilified for deleting emails whilst Trump can say whatever the f*ck he wants and that’s totally fine. Lesson learned. If you aren’t a white man and you want a good job, then you better be perfect.

FFS, it is Brexit all over again. All sane argument has been removed and replaced by slogans, scaremongering and tedious sound-bites. ‘We don’t trust experts anymore’ / ‘Lock her up’. And people fall for it! There are some who want to blame this on the establishment but it is entirely the fault of the electorate. We get what we deserve. If we don’t demand more from our politicians, then this is what we get. To blame the establishment is essentially saying that people aren’t capable of making their own decisions, which they are. But they are seem to be coming from a place of fear. I have yet to hear a convincing actual argument for Brexit and have yet to hear the beginnings of an argument for making Trump the most powerful man in the world.

It’s funny, because ‘millenials’ (and we seem to be totally going with that word now) are often accused of being selfish. But I can’t think of anything more selfish than voting, as an older person, to make life slightly more like you remember when you were younger. By disregarding people who have fought in recent years for their right to marry each other, or study in a different country, or have free movement, people who voted out of fear of ‘other’ people are ruining their childrens’ and grandchildrens’ lives with their own tedious, life-long prejudices. Of course, I’m not suggesting that older people all voted this way. A lot of young people did and it’s bizarre.

I am conflating the two things here but they are, in many ways, the same thing. The ignoring of a whole sector of people (which started with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair copied it). That sort of politics (David Cameron, Hilary Clinton) looks old-fashioned, staid. And of course it does; professionalism and thoughtfulness does look old-hat next to chants of ‘lock her up’ or a childish insistence that we leave the European Union yesterday, mean judges.  So, congratulations, knee-jerk-reactionists of the world! What a worthy revolution you have fought.

P.S. – In British slang, Trump means fart.

A Name Change

I got married and changed my name. To a lot of people, this is stressful enough and, to be fair, there are a lot of people I still need to inform. And I got married six weeks ago. (:p) But this takes on a whole identity crisis status when you’ve been trying to make a name for yourself as a writer. Now, admittedly, I haven’t dented the writing world yet, but I have published some things, mostly online, under my old name. No-one calls me Katharine, unless they’re loved ones who are annoyed with me, so Katharine Lunn always felt a bit removed from me, even though it is my actual name.

My brand new husband and I walk past a certain house a lot, and have made friends with some very friendly cats who live there. Being us, we have given the cats names. We found out the other day what their owners actually call them and the disconnect is strange. One we gave a man’s name to is actually called a woman’s name. It’s all very confusing (the cat in question has a lot of fur…). But it made me think about how different names change the way you see the world.

So, I suppose it’s like that. I don’t want to explain about maiden and married names every time I submit a piece of writing, and my name isn’t so far removed from my former name. But I prefer this name more. It’s more me. And that cat’s name will never by Daisy… So welcome to my new blog! I’m intending to post once a week about various things that take my fancy.