British Expat Newsletter: January 2018
Hello, a belated Happy New Year, and welcome to those of you who have recently signed up.
In this issue
- This month: British Expat update
- Write for British Expat
- British Expat Amazon Shopping
- How to subscribe
This month
“Drift” seems to be the word of the moment. It’s becoming ever more evident that far from resolving once and for all the Tory Party’s internal wranglings over Europe, David Cameron’s decision to make a referendum on Britain’s EU membership a manifesto pledge has exacerbated those wranglings beyond measure. The Cabinet remains divided between the Brexiteers who think that Britain can somehow turn the clock back to the days when it was a truly global economic superpower, and the Remoaners who see Brexit as utter folly but don’t have the courage to say so openly.
And in the midst of it all sits Theresa May, a Prime Minister paralysed by Parliamentary arithmetic and intra-Party politics. She’s spent so much time trying to stop her government falling apart that she’s made next to no progress on her ambitious promises from July 2016 for a fairer Britain. And she continues to negotiate on Brexit as if the UK were somehow in a position to dictate terms. German Chancellor Angela Merkel ridiculed May’s stance to journalists at the World Economic Forum recently – when invited to describe what the UK wanted the future relationship with Europe to look like, May reportedly replied, “Make me an offer.” Merkel countered, “But you’re leaving – we don’t have to make you an offer. What do you want?” To which May could do nothing more than reply: “Make me an offer.”
In fairness, May’s playing the poor hand she’s been dealt, partly by the Leavers but above all by David Cameron. It was a monumentally stupid idea to offer a referendum on leaving the EU without presenting the electorate with a clear idea of what leaving would look like. It opened the door to the Leavers to offer all sorts of empty promises without any kind of reference to reality – assuming that the rest of the world would be beating a path to our door to sign trade deals (unproven, but let’s see) and that the EU would bend over backwards to accommodate the UK with special terms (unlikely, to say the least – otherwise what’s stopping others leaving and bringing the whole structure crashing down?)
Meanwhile, we’ve turned on the telly for some light relief. Series Two of The Crown came and went. Ripping yarns, but more far-fetched than Series One. And Blue Planet II enthralled us with the beauty and variety of marine life and the surprising revelations of intelligent behaviour – but with some chilling warnings about the threats to the often fragile marine environments. Compelling viewing if you get the chance. (We bought the original Blue Planet on DVD a while back and thoroughly enjoyed it. The second series is even better!)
And of course we’ve added more content to the website. This month, the focus was on Jamaica. It’s the Caribbean’s third largest island and, even if hurricanes and high crime rates mean it’s not entirely the laid-back tropical paradise people imagine, there’s still plenty to fascinate the visitor. Try our Quick Quiz to find out about some of them! You can also find out about the other Falmouth in the other Cornwall with our Pic of the Week, taken in the chief town of Trelawny Parish in Jamaica.
Are you ever flummoxed by fancy foodie words, mystified by menus, or confused by culinary terms? Then head on over to Scoffopedia.com and become enlightened by our quirky A-Z of food. And it’s got cartoons in it! Don’t forget to tell all your friends about it too.
Meanwhile, of course, the forum continues to provide information on a wide range of expat issues, as well as the opportunity to socialise with like-minded people all around the world. You can see the full range of discussion boards here.
Write for British Expat
Would you like to write for British Expat? Sorry, we don’t pay for articles but if you have a website we’ll link to it in the author’s blurb below any of your articles we publish. We use all sorts of content as long as it’s useful and/or interesting to our readership.
Besides articles, we also publish quick trivia quizzes—five questions about any subject. So, if you’d like to write for us but don’t feel like producing a literary masterpiece, then why not try writing a quickie quiz about your city, country, or even your hobby? Please use our contact form to get in touch.
British Expat Amazon Shopping
Amazon don’t just do books, you know. We’ve teamed up with them to bring you the ultimate in online shopping—from a micro SD card to a garden shed! A great way to do your shopping online, especially if the shops aren’t up to much in your part of the world.
BE Amazon Shop: UK & EU | BE Amazon Shop: non-EU
So there’s a round-up of all that’s been going on. Come on over and see for yourself! Don’t forget…
Visit the BE website and join in with our lively community!
Till next time…
Happy surfing!
Kay
Editor
British Expat—the definitive home for British expats
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