Parochialism: good for Fare Dealer… bad for the UK
HAVING reached 70, permit me to be selfindulgent and to reflect a little - not least on recent circumstances.
I know many people think I’m parochial because I’ve rarely travelled overseas, but in the 33 years since I left teaching and became self-employed in transport work there has been a constant need for me to keep abreast of railways in Britain.
I have come to be recognised as having expertise in British fares and timetables, just as Mark Smith (‘The Man in Seat 61’) is the acknowledged expert in overseas travel. Each of us needs to travel extensively to maintain firsthand experience and I have found Britain, small though it is, big enough to take up all my time.
We English are generally lazy at languages, and my generation perceived an obligatory French O-level (necessary for university entrance in the 1960s) as an achievement, whereas in reality it was virtually useless.
I envy today’s younger generation, particularly those from other European countries who speak English so well. Had I their fluency in languages I would have travelled extensively in Europe, probably fallen in love with several countries, and perhaps eventually lived in one. Freedom of movement was, for me, the ideal.
I shared that post-war Churchillian view of a stable united Europe. The ultimate for me would have been a United States of Europe, universal ID cards and the euro.
OK, it was a dream, and had it come to pass someone else would have been writing Fare Dealer! However, I never expected the dream to
be shattered in the way it was in June. I currently feel rather ashamed of being British.
It’s odd how when rail unions vote for industrial action and achieve it on (say) 51% of the turnout, the cry goes up: “Yes, but only a quarter of the members voted.” I agree, and have always felt that for a union to strike it should achieve more than 50% of the membership in favour.
Yet in the recent referendum a mere 37% of the electorate voted Brexit. That’s also only 27% of the UK population. Yes, that happens with General Elections under our ‘first past the post’ system, but at least Governments are temporary and there’s always an opportunity for change within five years. This, we’re told, is forever.
Anything as important and final as this referendum should have come with a proviso that to win, either over 50% of the 46.5 million electorate or two-thirds of those who voted (22.4 million) would have been required, otherwise it would be rejected.
Politicians are saying that we ‘must respect the people’s verdict’. Which people? We now have a divided nation with a large majority who did not vote Leave.
My Eastern European friends feel they are no longer wanted, yet they’re doing jobs for which few English people ever apply. They do a wonderful job in the buffet at Bournemouth station, for example, and (of course) at many other stations around the country.
I guess I’ll wait and watch. Is it too late to learn a language and emigrate (but risk being sent back when the UK leaves the EU), or move to Scotland? For if it weren’t so serious, it would be amusing that the outcome of the referendum could yet be a united Ireland and an independent Scotland.
Well, a senior railway manager agreed with me that Virgin Trains East Coast could yet end up with a customs requirement on their IEPs as trains leave ‘Little England’ and enter the EU stronghold of Scotland! Isn’t parochialism a disaster, as well as lacking compassion?