Deal or no deal? Money or no money for the people? Are you sure you are not mentally ill? Oh!? Are you really sane? Did you hear about the latest stabbing in East London?

These are the type of questions that are being put forward -on a daily basis- to people living in the United Kingdom.

Are you an EU national who does not know what will happen to your residential status after a Hard Brexit or a bad deal with Brussels? You most probably are. Do you know whether you will be able to keep your current job if you are earning under 30 K/year? No one knows. Uncertainty is today’s and tomorrow’s agenda. Uncertainty until when? Ad infinitum?

Are you unemployed and claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance? Or an elderly person with poor health receiving Disability Living Allowance (DLA)? If you are, do you know what what will happen to your money in 1, 2 , or 3 years time? You don’t, but I am sure it is going to be less than you are getting now. Why? Ask the government. I am certain they have a good moral reason to do so. Or do they? They don’t.It is rigid Orwellian neoliberal economics: numbers, money and more numbers. Soon they will get rid of our surnames and start using algorithms, if they are not doing that already.

If you frequently visit your G.P. or a hospital under the NHS you will notice that they will soon -if not already- be handling out forms to assess whether you are sane or not. Unemployed? “He must be insane”, Dying from acute pain due to chronic rheumatoid arthritis? ” Oh, she most probably has dementia”, Working in McDonadls , unpacking, loading, frying French fries and mopping the floor? “She must be mentally ill!” “Here, Madam, fill in this form and sign down the bottom.”  If you do sign it, they got you!!

“Have you heard about the latest knife victim in Portobello Road?”,  “No, why?” “Poor tourist! They stabbed him to death for no reason at all!”   Is all this fiction?  No, it is not.  Only a few days ago a 52 year old man was murdered on a train -from Surrey to London- in front of his son because of an argument. It seems that now commuters, travellers, or tourists cannot even open they mouths in public or they might get ‘knived’.  Stabbings are now a daily occurrence anywhere in the UK , as common as a cricket match in the country.  What is the government or the police going to do about it?  The answer is NOTHING.

Welcome to the UK and Happy New Year.