I had a dream, Maybe I was wrong about the survival of the High St, The Brexit Mess continues

I had a Dream 

Apparently we all dream most nights but often we don’t remember them when we wake up. I had a dream recently which was an event for me as I rarely recall having dreamed at all. 

The previous evening we had been out with friends, and ate a copious meal which was hard to digest. Poor or difficult digestion may influence dreams or make them more likely as the body struggles and the mind responds. The other thing that may have triggered it was that one of our friends had talked about the fact that she dreams regularly. Her recurring dream is that her alarm goes off and she has to jump out of bed; but it’s just a dream and starts again, leading to some dis-orientation about time and whether she really has got up or not! She also dreams of responding to text messages and then can’t understand why they were never received in reality.

My dream was unpleasant. I was on a plane flying to unknown destination and for some reason the aircraft made an unscheduled landing at an unknown place. The pilot re-assured us and then advised us as the plane was coming to halt that we had been cleared for take-off. The runway was a long pier type structure with sea at the end of it. As we came to the end of the runway at great speed, instead of taking off into the air, the craft dipped down towards the sea. I remember thinking it was fine as the plane would start to climb before we reached the surface of the sea. But we didn’t. The plane plunged into the sea in a silent slow-motion, it went dark and as I spoke to my wife it became hard to breathe and I died. 

And where did I wake up? Heaven or hell? 

I woke up in my bed in a sweat but perfectly well. Maybe the moral to this story is that I am living in Heaven! Perhaps we all are.

I couldn't find any pictures of heaven

I said parts of the High Street would survive; maybe I was wrong

In the past I have written about the demise / change in the High Street, driven by digital technologies, high rates and rents and cultural change. I have always thought that independents, eateries and above all hairdressers and barbers would be the least prone to disruption.

Better than a barber shop?

But it seems I may have been wrong. A young Londoner has recently launched a mobile barber service. Okay you say that's not new; hairdressers have been coming to people's homes for years. Particularly the elderly or people who are unwell. But this new service really does sound like a digital disrupter; you book your haircut on an app; a specially decked out van turns up at the appointed time and the driver opens the side door where you see a barber's chair and all the scissors, razors and usual equipment. And what's the first thing you do? You pair your phone with the van's speaker system so you get your own music playing during your haircut. 

Quite a different demographic to the traditional mobile hairdresser who cuts old ladies hair in their homes!

Darren currently has 3 vans driving around London and he caters to the Afro-Carribean community who demand a particular type of haircut often hard to get a traditional barbers shop. "My service is like Deliveroo, or Uber Eats, but instead of delivering food, we deliver haircuts," explains Darren Tenkorang, 24, co-founder of Trim-It.

The High Street?

I see no reason why this won't become mainstream. It ticks all the boxes for the new economy: more personal, independent, controlled by app, more convenient, you don't have traffic, parking, transport issues to content with; and it is probably lower cost to operate than a shop. Congratulations to Darren!

The Brexit Mess continues

Our politicians have undoubtedly handled Brexit very badly. From agreeing to have a referendum in the first place (this is all Cameron's mess) to the ridiculous promises made about how easy it would be and how much better off we were going to be, our politicians have served us badly. 

It is now nearly three years since the referendum and our MPs have only just started to consider other solutions. But in a democracy you get what you vote for and it is clear to me that the British public were confused about what they were voting for. And confusion, mess and nonsense is what they have got. 

Lets look at a few facts. The result of the June 2016 referendum was:

Voting Leave 17.4 million

Voting Remain 16.1 million

Choosing not to vote 13 million

Now I don't call that clear cut although the rules mean that Leave won of course.

Then a year later in the 2017 General Election with both Labour and Conservative pledging to honour the referendum result in their manifesto, on a 69% turnout this is how the public voted:

Conservative (Leave) 42%

Labour (Leave) 40%

Other (Mostly Remain) 18%

With polls still showing the public spilt roughly 50-50 Leave-Remain, how can 82% have supported parties promising to implement Leave in their manifestos?

Is the public confused, stupid, fickle or what???

Here are some of the politicians quotes, some of which I have posted previously:

"There will be no downside to Brexit, only a considerable upside"

David Davis, Brexit Secretary, October 10th 2016

"To me Brexit is easy"

Nigel Farage, former leader of UKIP, September 20th 2016

"The day after we vote to leave, we hold all the cards and we can choose the path we want"

Michael Gove, Minister, April 19th 2016

"The free trade agreement that we will have to do with the EU should be one of the easiest in human history"

Liam Fox, Minister, July 20th 2017

"I believe it is clearly in our national interest to remain a member of the EU"

Theresa May, soon to become Prime Minister, April 25th 2016

Should there be a penalty for elected members who clearly and unambiguously mis-lead the public they are supposed to be serving? I believe so, as the public is incapable of identifying truth from fiction all by itself. Legislation is going to prevent social media companies from 'publishing' fake news, so why should our paid politicians be allowed to do it?

They shouldn't.

"If Brexit is passed by Parliament and we leave the EU in the coming weeks, this is just the start of years of negotiations, quarrels and arguments. We ain't see nothing yet."