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Xenophobic graffiti post-Brexit
[I remember the marvellous Polish airmen who fought for Britain in WW2] |
A
rather splendid few days in many ways threaded through with absolute
despair at the result of the Brexit referendum. In spite of a
beauteous garden and a low key wedding to visit at the weekend, the overwhelming
sense of doom and bereavement have persisted. Disbelief, early Friday
morning, with the helpless sensation of a veritable house of cards
about to tumble down with no power to stop it or
mitigate against its
worst effects. The awful realisation of the huge divide in the UK;
the less educated, poorer, low paid, obsessed with EU 'regulation' and UK supposed
loss of sovereignty, plus huge fears over immigration, all confirmed to them by the right wing media and the Leave leaders' right wing ideology. This enormous part of the population feels dispossessed, ignored, overlooked and angry. Opposing views
from Remainers came from Scotland, London [the financial powerhouse of the nation] and
more affluent, educated pockets. As usual in the UK it is a class thing involving inevitably, income, education and culture. But perhaps more noticeably than usual, the old were ranged against the young in the saddest aspect of the whole exercise.
It is only Tuesday June 28,
but already the UK has lost an A rating meaning more expensive Government borrowing, leading to more cuts in benefits, or more taxes or both, value of sterling has dropped; large international firms are talking of moving out; three banks have lost over a third of their value;
punitive signs come from the remaining 27 EU countries who won't, and
can't, make an exception to cushion the UK departure; the two
main political parties are in meltdown with little governing being done and Labour in a particularly self-destructive frenzy.
Fingers are crossed against recession which would mean more unemployment,
more austerity. Added to which, there have been alarming, unpleasant and downright menacing xenophobic behaviours released with unashamed vigour.
Suddenly this doesn't feel like Britain any more. Referenda don't exercise real democracy; the UK has the ancient Parliamentary democracy; referenda over-simplify and release pent-up tensions and dark hatreds, leaving division and incipient chaos.
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14th century City Hall
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| Les Amoureuses |
But to
other distractions! The daughter of an American friend who was living
in Brugge for seven months last year, got married the afternoon of
the EU Referendum result. What a story! Jen came over to visit her
Mom from Arkansas where she worked and after they had explored some
of Europe, she stayed for three or four days in Brugge. They went out for a beer, sat at the bar, and a young man came in and sat next to
the daughter. This was last October and on Friday last, they got
married in the magnificent fourteenth century City Hall. She had
given up her job and home, came over in early Spring, a brave, brave
step for an American girl, and then experienced huge problems with
the necessary paperwork from two different U.S. States. In fact, an
American can only stay in Europe for 90 consecutive days and her
paperwork permissions arrived almost at the wire; the wedding,
hastily arranged, was two days before her 90 days were up! It was a
joyous occasion indeed. The setting was superb, the sun shone [after
two days' heavy rain], the bride and groom and guests, enjoyed the
part Dutch; part English ceremony and afterwards
we all drank champagne sitting in the sun, in the Burg near
the statue of Les Amoureuses. Altogether a delightful afternoon
following, for me, the dark beginning of the day!
More
pleasure was in store; on Sunday to the Kasteel van Oostkerke, a
handsome building set in wondrous gardens, not far from Brugge. There
remain some remnants of the Kasteel still from the fourteenth
century, the moat is early too with the handsome round brick towers
also from the fourteenth century. Over the centuries there
came warfare, looting, occupation and arson and in the
Second World War,
the Germans removed ancient beams from the Kasteel to use as
fortifications against the advancing Allies thus desecrating the
building. Immediately after the war dreadful flooding in the area
completely destroyed the gardens too but in 1946 Baron van der Elst,
the owner, commissioned the notable landscape designer, Mien Ruys, to
redesign the ruined gardens.
Since
then the gardens have been loved and tended by successive van der Elst owners and
have come to be considered perhaps the most beautiful in West
Flanders. There are several separate garden areas, [at times,
reminiscent of Sissinghurst] a courtyard, and the long, wide rose
garden, planted amusingly when we were there, with several metres of
healthy-looking leeks among the luscious roses. There is also a
marvellous vista looking down an avenue of tall trees, all arched to
the right as if before the wind, to the focal point, the body of an
old stone windmill. As a mellow, historic background stands the
lovely old house garlanded at various points with climbing roses
against the mature brick as if created by Nature not planted by hand.
There is a feeling of plenitude, of abundant beauty and a sense of
peace as the eye takes in the gardens, while the Polders beyond
seamlessly extend the panorama.
