Today I heard that my cousin, who is in academia and extremely pro-Labour all her life, has said that she will retire early if taxes go up any more. I'm genuinely surprised by that. But I think that she didn't think too hard about who she was voting for or supporting all these years.
Sorry to say, she's always been in academia, and has zero idea of how the real world works. We don't see each other very much. She has always been horrified by the expectations I have to meet in a workplace, but it's complicated by the fact that she has severe health problems - so things that sound normal to me are inconceivable to her (which is fair enough, but she spent a long time telling me that my workplaces were far too demanding, when actually they were just normal).
I think she'd get early retirement on ill health grounds. It would be totally legit. I'm hugely impressed that she has built a career in her situation. She nearly didn't bother having a pension because she expected to be dead long before. If she'd not been working in academia, with such a generous pension, I suspect she wouldn't have bothered.
But it is a massive U-turn for her. I didn't think anyone would ever hear her say a word against Labour.
We barely talk - it sounds harsh, but I feel like she talks down to me a lot, talks at me a lot and will spend hours on the phone without taking any hints or anything, and never understands anything I say generally 😂 so I suppose it might be a gradual realisation for her as I haven't been chatting to her to know. But my mum also thinks this is a big U-turn. She has apparently annoyed quite a big chunk of the family (not in the UK) by her political views and lack of tolerance for the views of others.
Sorry, I don't know why I'm full of personal stories today 😂