Exasperation.

Exasperation. That is the only word I have about the state of political play at the moment. Now, more than ever, it seems impossible for anyone to have a balanced view: whether "Brexiteer" or "Remoaner", alt-right or "Social Justice Warrior"... Every point of view has a box, or a label, that it belongs to: and every point of view has an ulterior motive. "You would think that" being the natural response.

At this point, I believe it only fair to state my own views. I am a passionate believer in the EU. Some of that is because it melds with my values: that we can be greater as a whole than the sum of our parts. And, that with political as well as an economic union, we are much less likely to go to war. That could be labelled as a rather extreme position, but that position extends internationally. I also strongly support our membership of the UN. And the politics of compromise across nations set a gold standard for the rest of the world. I believe leaving the EU will be one of the biggest mistakes of our generation.

Despite having what some would describe as an "extremist remain" point of view, my personality also very strongly veers me to the solution with the most compromise between groups. Was I an MP, I would have voted for Brexit 4 times by now. This has certain caveats: if I were elected in my constituency specifically on a "stop Brexit" message, I would not have done (i.e. as a Lib Dem or Green Party MP). But, were I a Labour or Conservative backbencher, I would have very likely voted for each of these "deals" (which, let's face it, are nothing of the sort: they are merely the withdrawal agreement... Or rather, the agreement about how we will start to negotiate a deal).

I would do this because we had an election just a year AFTER the 2016 referendum. More than that, one of the strongest messages of the 2011 Alternative Vote referendum was how important the link between a constituent and their MP is. The excuse that the MPs party campaigned on a "leave" manifesto isn't good enough for me. Under our current voting system, the burden is on the voter to find out where their MP lies. Put simply: in 2017, the people had ample opportunity to vote in a Brexit MP if they so desired. (Ironically, I would have far more sympathy if an MEP didn't vote along with their party in the EU Parliament!! As you vote for a party, rather than an individual).

Meanwhile, we have a newly formed Liberal Party... Which basically are the eurosceptic Lib Dems who were kicked out or left their old party. To me, before the EU referendum, the whole selling point of the Lib Dems were that they were a democratic party... That individual opinons are taken into account and voted on... "Democratic" is literally in its name! The stereotypical Lib Dem was portrayed as wearing shorts and sandals at conferences; something I have heard some Lib Dems are "thankful" is dying out. Personally, this makes me sad! To me this suggested, when it came to policy-making, you didn't have to be a stereotypical suit. It spoke of a party that contained a wide range of views. The Lib Dems were a party that were able to go into coalition even with the "evil Tories"... something that, to me, is a very open-minded thing to do. I will always think the Lib Dems were sincere in that coalition; whether the Tories were is debateable. The betrayal for me was the University Fee fiasco; simply because that was a pledge individual MPs made, rather than purely being a party policy... It comes back to the MP-Constituency link. Personally, I believe the Lib Dems acted as a buffer in that coalition... Just think, if the coalition still existed, there probably wouldn't even have been an EU Referendum in the firstplace!!

The final part of this essay/long-form ramble was about "truth". This was the thing that started me off writing in the first place: how will Brexit directly benefit or harm me as an individual? Versus: How will remaining in the EU benefit or harm me as an individual?... However I might do this tomorrow. I might never do it.

Energy Drinks, Cigarettes and Health and Safety

There appears to be a bizarre trend with the British, of which I’m a member of. It seems to be the flow of logic that is best summarised as “actively pointing out the splinter in other people’s eyes, whilst having a log in their own”.

And what better example to think of than energy drinks. Personally, I drink energy drinks as an alternative to coffee. I don’t generally like hot drinks, as I don’t deal well with heat or warm weather full stop. As an energy drink is the equivalent of a few cups of coffee, it seems a sensible drink to have in moderation.

And yet, people go to great lengths to tell you they are bad for you, that they can kill you, that they can cause all manner of side effects. I kid you not, I have even had smokers tell me these drinks are bad for me. To which I feel like saying, statistically, they are far more likely to die of a whole range of illnesses than I am. Even with non-smokers, people are quite happy to get paralytic every weekend without people raising as much as an eyelid. Indeed, alcohol intake is generally seen as probably not good for you, but a social norm, so worth it.

And yet, as a country, we regularly like to moan about “health and safety gone mad”, despite this being an accurate description of my fellow Brit. “Those are bad for you, you know”, “your shoelaces are undone, you will trip” (for the record, in my 30-odd years on this earth, I have never once tripped on the incredibly rare occasion my shoelaces have been untied).

This really does become madness when you consider most of the “EU health and safety madness” comes from laws originally drawn up by us Brits; British lawmakers, politicians and civil servants.

Or, in plain English, its OK to point out other people’s flaws, but not our own.

It all seems a little narcissistic, don’t you think?

Thank you Britain… You restored my confidence in my fellow Britons

On 8th April 2017, I was fully expecting the night to go down like my usual election nights. Watching the country slip into ever deeper…

---

Thank you Britain… You restored my confidence in my fellow Britons

On 8th April 2017, I was fully expecting the night to go down like my usual election nights. Watching the country slip into ever deeper Tory rule, and slowly coming to accept the country really is full of people who say “I’m not racist but…”, “It’s because of those damn Poles”… etc. Wine. Whiskey. Crumpled in a heap that, by around 5am, grudgingly accepts it isn’t the end of the world (even if it feels like it).

It all started in 2010; the first General Election I could actually vote in. After journeying from the Lib Dems in my teens (for being against tuition fees and the war in Iraq), The Socialist Party at University (youthful idealism), The Labour Party in my latter years of University (after realising left political parties really are like the joke in The Life of Brian, and that The Labour Party really was the original UK Working Class party with actual links to the working class)… I finally settled on the Lib Dems. This was an entirely independent decision, months before Clegg-mania. I realised Social Liberalism was (seemingly) the link that balanced the equations in my head that represented me political beliefs. I put my full weight behind my local candidate, became hugely encouraged and enthused by the whole rallying… AND got to say “I liked him before he was popular!” when Nick Clegg became, umm, popular.

Then election day came. And what followed was the political awakening I’m sure most people interested and inspired by politics go through… underwhelming exit polls that you refuse to believe… A long, drawn out realisation over 10–12 hours and well into the next day that the country actually could vote Tory (along with the accompanying low mood)… Disbelief…

And then, to cap it all… The dreaded coalition. Which actually I still preferred to this political circus since 2015.

The worst thing?… I was actually fool enough to fall for it all again, this time as a Labour member (albeit not getting involved with any campaigning this time around). I was convinced that Labour would have at the very least a small majority after what I had perceived to be a deeply unpopular coalition, where even with the Lib Dem safety gloves the Tories could still give a thump as the nasty party.

Frankie Boyle best described the way Big Ben was tolling when Dimbleby announced the Conservatives would get the most votes… Like the death bell of the country.

And, after two similarly depressing election nights, I called the EU referendum straight away. We would end up leaving. If you want my unfiltered thoughts at the time, the country had become such a shit-hole of isolationism, racism and lies that it was obvious it would be the only way.

Well, at least I had a night that finally met my depressed expectations.

However, something special happened last night. Which is odd, as Labour only did a little better than their defeat in 2010. But, for the first time, the country demonstrated that maybe I wasn’t on my own in wanting a more socially-aware government. By all means, the Conservatives should have more or less become our overlords for the forseeable, nasty, future.

Yet here we had Labour GAIN on the previous disappointing result; gain a percentage of the vote that won it for Tony Blair in 2005. All of this achieved with an apparently unelectable, so-called socialist manifesto… and an apparently unelectable leader. I’m not going to claim it is a victory for Labour, as pedantics seem to miss the point when people are saying it. It is a victory for left-of-centre politics, of all shades. It is also a result Corbyn should be very proud of… I don’t think anyone dreamt he could have more of an impact of the best spin doctors since the 2010 election.

For the first time in my electoral life, I didn’t feel like a minority in my own country. I felt like part of a significant voice- which amazingly included former UKIP voters as well, highlighting that maybe all shades of the left from hard-left to blairites to Blue-Labour found a voice that resonated with them. Even the Lib Dems increased their number of seats- which made me especially happy, with their pro-EU stance. There was a surge of hope and compassion, which just two elections had already beaten out of me.

Although, as a side-note, I also hope Ed Miliband comes back to the frontbench. I happened to like him.

Tagged in Politics, Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, UK Election, UK Politics

By Glitch Walker on June 9, 2017.
Canonical link
Exported from Medium on August 25, 2017.