My Barber Voted Leave And Doesn't Want A Fresh Referendum

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

The thing about Christmas is this. Even the curmudgeons amongst us (two thumbs pointing at this guy) have to prepare for it in one way or another. We have been invited to a Christmas Day dinner by brother-in-law and his partner where various other people will be attending. I have to smarten myself up and this starts with my hair, which looked like a bundle of silvery spiders fighting.

So this morning I went to the barbers to get my hair cut. And as is the way of such things we started a conversation which began with Christmas. Despite my earlier view of people spending money as if it was the last supper before an execution things do not appear to have resolved themselves that way (as my earlier post on the lack of office parties in Cardiff refers).

This malaise appears to have hit online retailers. ASOS has spoken of losses in this period. This surprised me. Largely as I thought my daughter's purchases gave them a healthy profit.

Then however, and I can't exactly say this word for word, he told me that he voted to Leave and that there shouldn't be a another ballot. I, as regular readers know, voted Remain and told him so. I also said there should be a second referendum as the choice was now clear. Remain, Theresa May's deal or the long dark Brexit of the soul that the rightwingers in the Tory party seem to prefer.

He did not agree and questioned the long term effect in this disunited kingdom. I responded by saying that potentially Brexit could devastate jobs throughout Wales. I sighted (as I have in this blog before) the Ford engine factory in Bridgend as an example.

Now all of the above implies a full blown argument. This was not the case. Certainly from my side that definitely wasn't going to occur. If only because he was holding a sharp object by my face. No it was perfectly amicable. It resolved itself by using the tactic the British government seems to have deployed for most of the negotiations with the EU by just simply pretending it didn't exist.

But for most of the rest of the time there was silence as he cut my hair. My opinion of him and his of me appeared to have changed irrevocably.

Of course he is going to cut my hair again. He did a good job. But the reason why I'm writing about this is that it illustrates how split this disunited kingdom truly is. Such conversations will continue as the deadline day approaches and will probably increase with intensity.

2019 has the potential of being a very unpleasant year indeed.

Until the next time.