Daughter Is Growing Up.....But Is Entering The Unknown....As Are We All

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

A few days time daughter will be going to Prom night. It is in truth a tradition that I don't really get, rather like Halloween having been installed somewhere between when I left school and when I got old and became a parent. Some sort of American cultural institution shoehorned into the British way of life. And yet do the Brexiteers care? Of course not. And yet if it was a European import.....

Personally I'm not that comfortable with what girls are expected to do in these proms.Hair, dress, shoes, jewellery, handbag for goodness sake  As if expected to look round groomed like a parade of show horses. Of course I'm overruled in this. By daughter, wife, mother and assembled female family and friends. In other words women. So what do I know?

And of course given that I'm Dad there is nothing I can do to help her prepare. Good. Let's face it we're going to disagree and being Dad I know my advice will be listened to the same way I listen to wife when watching football on TV.

In this supposed ritual into adulthood then I feel nervous. A question enters my mind and has been knowing into me for a while. It's this : how do can she prepare herself for Brexit when Westminster has been unable to do the same? What type of Disunited Kingdom will it be?

I've always been interested by the idea of parallel universes in literature. So let me throw two such universes before you one is if Britain had voted to remain in the EU. The other is that Britain voted to leave the EU but there was a clear plan whether I liked it or not as to what happens next. We live in the third world though. The third world though of Britain voting to leave the EU but without clearly being told the route to get there and the only thing "clear" about whatever "there" turns out to be is that no one really knows.

So my daughter grows into a Britain where parents have difficulty helping their kids with the future because no one who should have known have given a clear indication as to what it shall be. I felt that Wales should be an independent nation before the referendum. But everything since has solidified my view especially that there is a purpose and clear vision. Young people respond to a clear path in the way few of us tired oldies do.

For there is a danger regarding Wales that it will emulate Ireland in the financial crash where because of the situation there the young left for a better life overseas. It's amazing how the world has changed since then (where seems the more secure country now. Ireland or Britain?) but that scenario cannot be overlooked and indeed feared for those of us who stay.

Let's stop for a moment. What if my daughter, in a future Britain ravaged by economic hardship decides to leave? Well of course Brexit will mean lack of freedom of movement within the EU so the logical step would be around the other side of the world. Australia, New Zealand. I'd obviously be saddened. But I would not try to stop her. How could I in a situation as grim and a future uncertain? I would stay and fight for Welsh independence as the best route for the future. But I could not guarantee that the fight would be successful.

And being a woman what daughter will need to realise is that in the time of future uncertainty her rights as a woman might be in danger of being eroded. The danger is there for all non-wealthy of us (ie the majority) but women are more venerable to exploitation and expectation than men ("You've a child to look after!"). Economic and social instability will lead to a decline in her rights as well.

I could go further. I have a "foreign" surname. Therefore Britain could be a country where the state will target you for that reason. Already hate crime is on the rise.

Now all of the above are "scenarios" at the moment. But the thing is that no one. Well no one who is honest anyway can say that none of them are impossible in the Britain at the moment . And that's the point. As parents we are trying to lead our daughter through a future which could lead us into things that we have not experienced in our lifetime. And that's truly the scary part.

Until the next time.