Fair enough, it was only a partial fabrication on Boris' part.
No I agree on that he took a small part of just 1 regulation and then embellished it to emphasise the point. But bananas wasn't the target. It was "needless regulations" that was the target.
And you are right that the tone of the Brexit debate is frequently too shrill to allow for much real communication.
The country really is more divided than it has ever been, but maybe that actually predates June 2016. Maybe the divide isn't really between pro and anti Europeans, maybe it's between those who, despite this long drawn out recession, are generally quite optimistic about the modern world, and those who feel left behind.
I think it is longer than that. This has been brewing since the nineties. The eighties were grim but people knew they had the chance. Since the nineties those at the top have seemed further and further away. Even with more Uni places and more "quotas" it has seemed further away and most definitely for someone that was in the generation before the mass Uni degree push because not only is someone from my generation (or earlier) now falling further away from the higher echelons. There is now a new generation of younger people, that in many cases are not more intellectual, intelligent or able to do jobs but have a piece of paper that employers seem to love. This generation HAS been given an advantage.
Far from it being babes vs babyboomers It is a 3 way thing. The babyboomers (that worked hard to get what they want) that are now nearing or in retirement. The new generation that are jumping ahead of my generation because they have a piece of paper and then my generation that is having to fend off the generation below because they have that qualification AND because we now can't get those middle jobs (as we have families, mortgages, commitments etc) that are fighting for the bottom jobs because we can;t get the middle ones (unless we are incumbent) and have those graduates that can't get a job AND influxes of migration to compete with.
Yet all we hear on the TV is how THIS generation has it the worst!!! I would say that those who schooled in the 80s/90s had it the worst (if we discount how the babyboomers had nothing) because if you lose your job you have to go down the ladder. Added to that we have this constant blah about how the modern business world is and government can't do anything about it, which many translate as don't want to rather than can't.
And thus the people you see and hear moaning are not the 65+ so much. It is people like me in their 40s / 50s!!!
When I was made redundant in '95 and '2001 I moved straight into a different job. My experience counted for a lot. (Admittedly I made a decision to ditch ambition and work in a food factory the second time.) 16 years with 2 redundancies but never once claimed nor needed to claim dole.
Since the mid noughties that has all changed. My experience counts for nought though because there is a flood of graduates out there and they seem to be a prestigious addition to the workforce. Can't move down because I can't compete with migrant workers and thus agencies go through the motions of taking my name.
I don't blame immigrants for "taking my job." I blame business for utilising every avenue to shame British people.
I would bet there are many more people in the 40-50 age range that are being vocal on the EU, politics and all other things than the older lot. They can paint it as babyboomers vs babes all they want. It is Generation X in the middle that they ignore despite Generation X being the ones hardest hit from the past 2 decades of "progress." Trapped in the mire because we can't afford to retrain ourselves and ignored by government and employers because they don't care anymore. They don't need to care because they've created so many myths (lazy Brits, boomers vs millenials) that no-one is talking about generation X.
I am no kipper nor EDL or any other madcap leaning however it seems a fair chunk of both Momentum and the madcaps are generation Xrs.
why is there no popcorn emoticon?
