This afternoon, a man with a beard went to Brussels to hand over a letter to a Polish chap. Meanwhile, some woman in the UK said it was a “moment of celebration for some, disappointment for others”. I refer of course to the triggering of Article 50 which starts the process of Britain being removed from the European Union. Ironically, moments after this hit the headlines I received a telephone call from a tour company asking me if I still wanted to take a choir to Belgium next year?
Despite this whole Brexit scenario kicking off last year, it’s still too early to really say whether or not it will be a good thing for Britain. Obviously all the journalists, analysts and politicians are busy telling us many contradicting things – I think for the most part they are just excited to have something to say. The fact that virtually no one is listening, and the few that are probably don’t care, is neither here nor there. For my part, I suspect Brexit will not be a good thing in the longer term, but equally I am happy to be proven wrong particularly as we are now going down a one way street from which there is no return.
Democracy is a curious thing. As far as I can tell, everyone eligible was given a say about Brexit and, albeit only by a very small margin, a majority decision was reached. Some of course are arguing that 4% is not enough, particularly given the numbers of people who chose, for whatever reason, not to vote. The thing is, regardless of your view, the deal has been struck and we are all in this together; like it or not. So, as with most things, we may as well make the best of it or at least be British and just get on with whatever happens next, without making too much of a fuss.
A few days ago, I decided to embark on a sporting activity. As many of you will know, this is entirely out of character and totally against my normal way of doing things. Not surprisingly, it turned out to be a mistake. Moments later I found myself in crippling pain and unable to move. Naturally being male, I made a lot of fuss about this and had already decided that the world had ended and I would never again be able to conduct a choir or play the piano. I immediately set about selling my piano and made lists of people, to whom I could give all my choirs. With that done, I retired to bed and continued to make a fuss about the amount of pain I was in.
In fact things got so bad I agreed to go and see a Doctor. This made me more cross, mostly because when he said I’ll see you at 9.45am what he in fact meant was twenty past 10… Anyway for once I was patient enough to wait and underwent an examination by the local GP. The news wasn’t good. Apparently I had something called capsulitis and it would get worse before it got better. I was even less pleased to discover that recovery could take weeks rather than days. I was rather hoping to be fully cured by lunchtime!
Of course, I immediately went home to Google my ailment. This turned out to be another mistake. Pages and pages of evidence suggested that I would be unable to move for at least 9 months and then may get some feeling back in my arm over the next couple of years. At this point I went back to bed and complained some more.
The next morning I got up and made a cup of tea. Being British, tea is of course the answer to all our problems and it seems to have helped with the pain in my arm. Ok I’m still in some pain and obviously I will use this as an excuse to get me out of doing anything useful for many weeks to come. Technically, however, it would appear that it’s all going to be ok. Let’s hope the same is true of Brexit.
Jules Addison is an opinionated Choirmaster who likes to share his thoughts on random events which go on around us.