BREXIT BLUE'S

How can one describe that which has happened?. The situation whereby the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.

Personally, I may be looking at it from rather a selfish point of view.

Allow me, therefore, to explain the situation that I now find myself.

I mentioned in a previous post that I had retired to live in Portugal. While the United Kingdom was still part of the European Union, my life was quite comfortable.

Initially living in Lisbon, now in the Algarve, my pensions more than covered the expenditures required, namely food, rent and the utilities.

You might ask why I am in Portugal; it is a long story, but it suffices to say there were two main reasons.

The first reason was that my partner of eighteen months(now nearly four years), Maria Fatima, being Portuguese, lives here.

The second reason would be, that I suffer from long term chronic rheumatoid arthritis. The winters in the UK are cold and wet. These conditions when particularly severe, result in painfully affecting my joints, especially my hands.

Now in the warm environment of the Algarve in Portugal, the condition has dramatically improved.

Back now to the main problem, Brexit, how this is now affecting our lives.

Before the Brexit vote, the exchange rate was pretty static with the £-€ rate at £1- €1.25, sometimes higher but never lower.

On the day of the Brexit vote both the Euro and Dollar exchanges were very high, £1= $1.49 and the £1= €1.30.

I sat on the night, watching in horror as the votes came in, with the Brexit vote winning.

The result was swift and dramatic, the Euro now valued at £1=€1.20 the Dollar at £1=$1.30, removing ten and nineteen points respectively.

I sit here today; the £-€ is now at £1=€1,17, my financial ability, sadly compromised.

The good thing is that my situation is still liveable, one can only hope that the promised return to the status quo will return.

Personally, I cannot see this happening.

This situation may bother some, but myself, life has taught me that nothing is perfect.

So do not feel sorry for yourself get on with life.

An afterthought, most of those who voted for out, came from the poorest and deprived areas of the U/K.

Unemployment and reduced wages the principal reason for their votes, so, unfortunately, they voted against the Government and not against the European Union.

They will have now to suffer even more, as jobs are not going to come to their area's, as an immediate result of the Brexit vote, nor in the short, medium or long-term.