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Reflections on 2018 a week into 2019

Posted in From The Editor's Perspective

When George H.W. Bush died on 30 November, 2018 aged 94, it signified the end of an era, where politicians may have disagreed, but they always had respect for one another.While he was never a favorite of mine, he is looked upon more favorably than his son, and he lived to see many changes, both good and bad in the world. The day of his funeral, 5 December was a day of national mourning, as the country said goodbye to a man who had served his country. As the citizens of the USA joined together to mourn and pay their respects, I wish they could do the same to find some common ground to create stability in the fractured society where the cracks seems to be getting bigger each day.

George H. W. Bush being sworn in as the 41st President

Currently there is a partial government shutdown in the USA, because of the dispute over financing the cost of the ‘wall’. and the Democrats have voted Nancy Pelosi as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Perhaps there will be changes to come, but the Democrats need to be united and act. That is where they have failed, and those who opposed Pelosi becoming the speaker do more harm to the party. In times of crisis (and this is one if you count how many members of the cabinet have been fired in two years, and with the Mueller investigation) you need someone experienced and who knows the state of play. Introducing a newbie would have meant the Democrats worked for two years in vain.

Elizabeth Warren is running for the 2020 presidential election, and I am not surprised and am glad. She can hold her own, and the Bernie fans need to get over the fact that they may prefer him, but in doing so and refusing to back the Democrats they handed the keys to the White House to #45. Not exactly a bright thing to do, and what they need to realize is that they are partially responsible for the state of the union which is cracked and broken.

Brexit is going to happen, but the Conservatives are still fighting amongst themselves. The problem is Theresa May says the right thing, but her actions aren’t tallying with that. Several ministers have resigned, others have spoken out and I had an American friend who read somewhere that the UK has a shortage of goods and food due to Brexit and offered to help. I told them it was ‘fake news’ and it was mere scaremongering, as he told me whatever he is reading is saying people are stockpiling because the EU will not allow imports soon! Such rubbish, and I don’t see the point because this is really about profits and that companies will make less and pay more taxes, but then get taxes cut in other areas. They think they can still stop Brexit, and all they do is harm the country instead. What they fail to realize is that documents have been signed and acts passed, so there is no going back. It’s about the best deal possible now.

There were barely any January sales this year as retailers started their sales early, and online they started a few days before Christmas. Did Black Friday kill the trade, or were people shipping last minute? I did go out on Christmas Eve and people were buying gift wrap (men mainly) and some shelves were already bare! Stores prefer to sell out rather than lose money by reducing the price.

Companies will publish their figure shortly, and will some stores decide to call it a day or reduce the number of brick and mortar stores? The best bargains I got were online on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day, then on Boxing Day there were left over brussel sprouts and a few selection boxes at half price. I grabbed a few, but the sizes of the items are getting smaller each year and aren’t worth it unless they are at least half price.

As I enter 2019, the world to me is still very unstable and while it seems out of our hands, pretending it’s all okay isn’t the best way to go about things. That doesn’t mean we all have to go and protest, but what we should do is voice our concerns and look for ways to resolve things without harming others. I believe and have hope in humanity, but people do need to unite and stop pretending everything is okay. That’s why the great wars came about and no one wants another one of those,


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