There are a few national and global developments at the moment in what feels like a very volatile and febrile world.
In the past 24 hours two Trump-backed national leaders have been defeated: Flávio Bolsanaro in Brazil and Aleksandar Vučić in Serbia. Tomorrow, Tuesday, electors go to the polls in Israel with the result apparently on a knife-edge.
On the counter side to this the veteran right-winger Marine Le Pen has just launched her bid to win next year's French Presidential elections. This is a volatile time in France, and elsewhere, and populists like her may still succeed.
All of which leads us to next week's midterms. Current projections show the Democrats will win the House. But will they win back the Senate? Will Texas really vote in a Democrat Senator? Or will they opt for the execrable Ken Paxton? These mid-terms really matter because they might lead to a lame-duck Presidency, which the Donald will really hate. If that happens, prepare for fireworks. Also prepare for GOP in-fighting. But will the U.S. really, really, deliver such a crushing blow to Trump? I hope so, of course, but I'm not so sure.
Not that I think it would be correct to assume that ALL anti-trans attacks comes from the Right, or the Far Right. As we know, there is a strange tie-up with trans-exclusionary radical feminists which, theoretically at least, is more from the hard Left.
Here in the UK there are a couple of interesting developments. One is that the Scottish and Welsh national parties who have majorities in their own Parliaments are pressing for independence elections. The new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, despite being pro-devolution, is currently refusing the plebiscite to these countries. Classic Labour!!
The other interesting development is a LOT of noise about the UK rejoining the EU. There seems to be widespread recognition that Brexit has been an economic disaster for Britain. But there's also now the heightened national security risk. Because of the current isolationist streak in the GOP which means NATO (or Europe anyway) can no longer rely on the U.S., because of global volatility especially from Vladimir Putin, and because of the UK being outside of the EU, the UK is currently looking particularly isolated and vulnerable from a defence and security perspective. Add to this an unfolding situation regarding the football club Manchester City. Yes seriously! Football (soccer) is a geopolitical issue because it is threatening to shake the collaboration between the UK and the Arabic countries of the Middle East. If those ties break then the UK is left even more isolated.
I write all the above in as fair and objective a manner as I hope I can. And here's my personal comment. Do I think Scotland will gain independence? No. I doubt the UK Government will permit the new referendum. And even if they did, there's no guarantee the Scots will vote for independence. Vested interests are very good at promulgating the status quo.
Do I think that the UK will rejoin the EU? No. Again, the vested interests of right-wing media barons are so huge that I don't think it's going to happen. And there are still so many people, particularly older people, who harken for a golden era (which never actually existed) that there's no guarantee at all that this sad old country will do anything other than continue its current downward vortex into misery.
All of which leaves the UK as a very exposed place to be right now, particularly for a transgendered person. And unless you are living fully out as a woman (who was born into a male body) I don't think it's okay to comment or say that it's not as bad as we think or that it will all be alright really. When you're actually living the real life experience in this country then you know that it is increasingly hostile and toxic. It's not sufficient to pronounce from outside or theoretically. Living in this place fully out as the real you ... then you see and experience just what an unsafe country this is becoming for anyone who wants to step outside and be their real self.
I am accordingly voting with my feet. I feel I have no choice if I want to be true to me.
Bye bye Britain.
xx
