Resting today… / the culture in the uk currently.

I was resting until the emergency alert system woke me up. The noise has unsettled the cats because with their hearing they literally heard the siren from all phones in the area. The sound must have been quite loud for animals. I am quite chilled and not really wanting to get up. The cats are saying it’s time to get up for their food. They have decided they’re hungry now that they’re awake. They have been snoozing next to me xx the whole day until the emergency alert sound make them sit upright because they wondered why the sound was weird. The amount of people opposed to the emergency alert system in this country (uk) was quite surprising. The culture we have here is not the most helpful in many cases. This system has been rolled out in other countries for many years already. The people living in those countries aren’t particularly bothered, they see the alert system as just one of those things. Meanwhile, when it comes to this country the whole narrative is along the lines of ‘it’s an infringement of our privacy’, ‘ the government has access to our phones etc’. The only people that should be genuinely bothered by these coming up on their phones are the ones who have a secret phone due to being in domestic violence situations. That’s genuinely a safety concern. If our culture was more open and we ditched the whole ‘stiff upper lip’ attitude then we would tackle that abuse and reduce it even if we didn’t completely stamp it out. It doesn’t help with our current housing crisis because people can’t leave abusers so easily.

I’m not naturally interwoven into the whole uk culture. I was born here but I feel that our way of life sucks. There’s so much division and everyone takes status that comes with jobs etc so damn seriously. The generational hatred towards those that are unemployed for whatever reason referring to them as ‘benefit scroungers’. I’m not denying that there’s certain types on benefits that just sponge off of the tax payers wasting their benefit money on booze, cigarettes and drugs (all none essentials). Those types are the only ones that should have the current attitude against them. The culture of walking in this country is along the lines of ‘I only walk if I don’t have access to transport’. Legs are your natural transport. The more that you use them, the further you can go. I know that the weather isn’t great in this country. I rain dodge a lot. We need to actively discourage the current culture even if it makes us unpopular with others. The narrative really does need to be changed in this country. Yes, we are all in a cost of living crisis and our government consists of a shower of over privileged expenses claiming MP’s. The fact that they claim expenses from tax payers for basically everything while on a huge salary (that they’ve just increased using the cost of living as an excuse) is morally appalling. They can’t afford to put the wages up of those currently on strike but the money is there to pay government ministers more. If the average person can’t afford to live they get told to downsize their homes or cut back on the things that they buy. The MP’s etc get handed money to upkeep their huge properties and second homes etc. The whole balance is off in this country. We need to make sure that the tories are out asap. They fan the flames of the current culture due to their private school, financially privileged backgrounds. They have no idea what the average person’s life is like… they’ve literally never had that life. I feel that the labour leader is also a closet conservative type. I don’t like our party system. It encourages active division when the only way to solve issues is to be on the same page. I would suggest that even if you don’t like voting to go cast a vote, even if it’s a tactical vote to get the current shit show out of power. I’m a bit concerned now that we have voter id. There will be a record of who has voted for who. That could be used against us in government decisions which means that we could be actively pushed to vote a certain way or face the consequences. I don’t like the way that our system causes division but as a woman I still go to vote because historically women had to fight to be able to vote and even have their own bank accounts etc. The generations of women owe the ones that came before them. The least that they can do is exercise their rights that women had to fight to obtain. The last thing I would like to add is changing the wording of ‘on benefits’ to ‘on financial assistance’ as that would reduce the negative connotations around the current attitude that those claiming benefits are scrounging. I will get off my soapbox for today now. I am not from the snow flake generation. I am the generation who grew up when section 28 was active in schools and used by local authorities. Those that were even suspected to be gay, bi sexual or anything under that umbrella would get treated horrendously. If someone tried to go school dressed as the opposite sex (now allowed by transgender students) then you’d face disciplinary and be sent home being told that you are not to turn up dressed that way again. I know a girl that I knew at school throughout primary and secondary years. She informed me that she had been adopted, she was extremely unhappy at secondary school to the point that she kept running away. I remember that she cut her hair short in secondary school. She actually transitioned into a male as an adult. I don’t think she wants anything to do with her adoptive family now. I don’t know if she ever found her birth family. I only spoke to her briefly and then changed fb accounts. I wouldn’t mind if Jonny came found me as female. He will always be my little boy in my memory but he’s still the same person I gave birth to regardless of whatever he decides to become in life. Section 28 generation wasn’t as unfortunate as the previous ones when being homosexual was actually illegal here. There was so many people who got married to the opposite sex knowing that they were living a lie thinking that they had no choice because that was life and what was expected. That is why I’m not a huge fan of religion. Our laws, traditions and way of life was based on religious teachings. Religion goes back thousands of years and their ‘rules’ on how people should live life are old fashioned in a sense now. I think that it is possible to have morals without following things like the bible. I have faith and belief but it’s more spiritual than traditional.