So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, goodbye

It's been ever such a long time since I've put anything on this blog.  Mostly because I've been so busy getting 'outputs'. [Outputs are a fancy way of saying 'the things that you are supposed to do for the money you've been given'].  So for the past few months I've been in schools and Sixth Forms assemblies and classes to make sure I've reached enough people to show I've earned my wage.

But there are two reasons why I've decided to write a blog post today: one, it's my last day in post.   After today I am no longer the Youth Regeneration and Development Officer for Copeland Borough Council, no more forum meetings, no more regeneration projects; and I wanted to say goodbye, and make it official.  My out of office reply is set to say:

Hello,

As we have reached the end of the three year period for this project, I am no longer working as Copeland Borough Council's Youth Regeneration and Development Officer.
If you have anything you wish to discuss regarding community regeneration or economic development, you might like to contact Sarah Mitchell, Economic Development Manager s_________@_______.gov.uk
If you wish to contact me personally, I am available at g._________@_______.com

Thank you,   

My desk is cleared, and I have a box of tea bags and pens and a potted plant to take home.

(This isn't me by the way, it's a stock picture to make a point).

The other reason that I wanted to do one last post is because the world seems to be going Pete Tong at the moment, and if I don't comment on this I think I'll explode.

If you look at all the stuff that I've written about over the last couple of years, quite a bit of it is pointless or frivolous or just plain rubbish. If there's been a slow news week I've tried to squeeze a story from something totally irrelevant (remember the story of the Lynx being released into the Lake District? I got two weeks out of that).

Now we have the biggest political event since the Second World War, and that's no exaggeration: the economy is all over the place, the Prime Minister is resigning, the Labour Party is tearing itself apart, Scotland is threatening to leave the United Kingdom, one MP has been killed, others threatened, incidents of racist abuse have increased, and no-one, and I mean NO-ONE, knows what to do next.

This is big, this is huge! 

In fact, in order of hugest things we have this hat

then this dog,

this fish,

this pizza,

Donald Trump's ego,

and then Brexit.

   

Just to let you know, I voted to remain in the European Union, because I believe we are better together.  In this age of world travel, and the internet, it's not possible to be separate as though we still lived in the days before aeroplanes.  It feels a bit like the guy at a party who refuses to have fun, thinking everyone else will stop enjoying themselves to notice him.

 ain't gonna happen...

  That said, the majority of voters want to leave the Union, and being the champion of democracy that I am, I have to respect that decision.  What we need now is stability, good planning, and a clear idea of what we have to do next.

But we haven't got that: the government are split over who will replace David Cameron as Prime Minister, the MPs of the main opposition party (Labour) are trying to replace their leader, but the ordinary members don't seem to want that.  The Scottish National Party (who you'll remember are talking about trying to leave the UK again) now argue that they should be the main opposition party.

Know what that sounds like?

If it wasn't so crazy, this would be funny.

So, there we have it, everything's going crazy and I'm going home.

Laters.