And just like that, the very wealthiest party in the U.K. backed by foreign billionaires is supported by the very poorest members of society who dislike foreigners. You couldn’t make this shit up.
No one knows you. No one has a story about who you are. No one is waiting for you to be the person you were yesterday. You're just a stranger in a chair by the window, watching a city that doesn't need anything from you.
It's the feeling that anything could happen. That the world is bigger than the walls you built around yourself back home. That the life you've been living is just one version of a life, and there are others, and they're not as far away as you thought.
At home, you're fixed. Known. You fit into a shape that other people recognize, and after a while, you forget you're even in a shape at all. But here, alone, somewhere new, the shape dissolves. You could be anyone. You could be more of yourself than you've ever been. No one is watching to see if you stay consistent.
In Britain, we believe in freedom of religion, and freedom of worship. The Carnegie Library in Abergavenny is grade ii listed and has been empty for a decade. Muslims are currently meeting in the parish hall of the local Roman Catholic church, and would like their own place. The council has democratically agreed a 30-year lease, with building repairs to be carried out by the local Muslim community. If you don't want your library turned into a mosque, go there and read. If you don't want your church turned into a mosque, go there and worship. But to do neither, and then complain about a perfectly reasonable, democratic and provisional change of use for a listed building which satisfies a community need, bringing life where there is currently a void, is rather small-minded.