Getting TF

Feeling tired and run down at the moment. Our falling EU sales at work have not improved, and despondency is setting in. My husband and I gave an interview to a local paper about the difficulties the business is facing, and of course, as with everything these says, there was online abuse from people with strong opinions and no expertise (some claiming to live in our neighbourhood). I purposely avoided reading replies, but a member of our staff wanted to speak about them after seeing them and finding them upsetting. We all work hard, and it’s horrible being insulted when events are out of our control.

I can still remember a time when there weren’t anonymous trolls ready to pounce on anything that doesn’t fit their narrow world view. Just this morning, I saw a horrific Question Time clip of a woman calling for the borders to be closed because immigrants are running down the country. Is it paranoid to think there is some sort of conspiracy to push the anti-immigrant narrative? Both the UK government and the national broadcaster do it on a regular basis. December 31st isn’t far away, and it seems the conservative powers that be are busy lining up the blame for the impending disaster.

The Home Office’s new guidelines make it quite clear I’d not be welcome if I’d arrived in the UK at the end of this year, and it’s a bit of a punch in the face. A business associate once said to me ‘but you’re not really an immigrant’ when I spoke of my offence at the way we’re sometimes spoken about on programmes like Question Time, and I’m pretty sure I know what he meant. I’m one of the ‘good’ (ie, white) ones. I’ve never accepted that view. We all contribute in different ways, and I can’t help but wonder what would happen to the UK if we all fucked off en masse. I’ve had fleeting thoughts of leaving in the past, but more and more I’m giving serious thought to taking my business, my jobs, and my tax contributions to a place where they’ll be welcomed and appreciated.