So the prods/loyalists "Orange" types wanted to march over the summer, and to do so right by a Catholic church where last year one of the marchers spit on the priest. (Kudos to the cops, who did a DNA analysis on the priest's robes and caught the guy.) The Oranges were told they had to re-route and threw a fit about how their rights were being violated, and cancelled the march. So on Friday the Catholic/Irish Unity marchers planned a march through a "Green" neighborhood. Apparently they got wind that there were Orange yobs waiting on the route, so they re-routed to avoid them. But a large mob of Oranges crashed the parade anyway, threw bottles, flares, rocks, etc., all of which were returned. Bringing out the riot police in force, for several hours. Subway shut down, buses re-routed, shops having to hurriedly pull down their shutters, etc. On Saturday there was another one-on-one attack, up the street from us at a bus stop outside our Spar, where a guy was left seriously slashed and bleeding. Same basis, as far as has been reported. And yesterday, another bloody fight, down on Dumbarton Road. I haven't checked the papers today to see which faction has done what.
I didn't like the KKK when I was a kid in Texas, and I don't like what I'm seeing here now. This is getting freaking old. I'm not Catholic, but it certainly seems like they have
not been the ones who are starting the violence in these episodes. Orange yobs band together and show up to cause trouble. And they seem to be good at it. Unfortunately now there are Green groups that are vowing reprisals as needed. [Sigh]
The Daughter is not sure about walking to and from work, especially when it's dark out - which is unfounded, as she's neither male nor one of those groups, and it's unlikely there'd be a fully-fledged riot materialize around her on her way to/from the shop. Wrong neighborhood for it. We're not in one of the neighborhoods where there is typically trouble, but we are sandwiched between two generically opposing ones. Plus, she's applying like crazy for other, daytime office jobs, so hopefully her days at the shop are numbered. But the fact that she's brought it up does raise the spectre of trouble. "So what do we do, Mom, if things turn bad here? Move to Edinburgh?"
An interesting question, really. We have already noticed an uptick in crime here - numerous local shops have been burgled over the summer and some attempts have been made to get into flats in the building next to ours. Several small businesses have folded. If Brexit proceeds, as it is appearing that it will, there is an awfully high "poverty" burden in Glasgow, comparatively speaking, that will be disproportionately impacted. There's only so far you can compress impoverished people before there will be a rebound, and sometimes that comes in a not very pretty way. The News is always talking about a shortage of food (often neglecting to mention that is mostly to be green veg and fruit) with Brexit. I'm thinking a shortage of French cheeses, tomatoes, and strawberries is not going to cause riots (except maybe at Waitrose). I think what would be worse would be unemployment - if people lose what income they have. You can't pay rent with "wish I could's" and landlords not getting paid their due rent can't pay their bills, either. People just scraping by are going to bleed. And if they and the surviving businesses are not paying taxes (either payroll or on purchased goods) governments will be short of cash. You can't really raise taxes at that point to try to make up the shortfall (although they well may do) without causing more pain. (I know if ours go up very far, we're outta here.) So they'll have to cut government services like rat-catching, trash collecting, free nurseries, schools, libraries, etc. Which compounds the misery of people who are already just teetering on the edge. I kind of doubt people will just sit back and continue to take it... unless they drop the tax on alcohol, and then half the city would just stay too drunk to do much. (I suspect the proportion of the population with a serious alcohol problem is already close to that at the best of times.)
But back to the question - What do we do/where do we go if things get "bad" here? Would moving to Edinburgh, a more "genteel" city, make a difference? To the country (where services are probably strained already and there would be almost no work for the Daughter)? Do we jump to Ireland (which is going to take a nasty hit from Brexit and has much higher taxes and a serious housing shortage)? Or France (where we don't speak the language and where the Daughter would be back to the restrictive "five years as a dependent of EU citizen and can't really work more than a few hours a week until that period is over" clock again)? Or back to the States (which is probably headed for a serious recession as it is), so that the Daughter has a better chance of getting a good professional job and not face being "the foreigner" who has applied for a given job? Assuming there are still appropriate jobs available in the States at that point? Or do we just hunker down and wait, hoping that the government doesn't do anything that would make it untenable for us to remain (raise taxes, restrict the Daughter's working again, etc.)?
What do we do, indeed....
I probably should dust off the "plan B" list again, update it, and see what is still viable. I have to say, when we were planning the move over here, neither of us thought we'd be faced with this decision. I expected there would be some bumps, but not this. But that was probably due to the excessively rosy glasses we had on.
The Daughter really got sold a bill of goods by the Uni... but that's another story. At present, I'd just settle for the Oranges to keep to Orangeland and the Greens to keep to the neighborhood of the Greens, and to not have to look at their blood (which is red regardless of whose it is) on the sidewalk on the way to lunch. Blood makes me decidedly queasy.
