The comment I hear time and again from activists right now is that we face five (and maybe ten) years of Tory government, so what might be done to address their issues of concern? It's a question that permeates much of what I do and so it is worth addressing.
The answer is, of course, quite a lot. What we have to recall is that for the last three years parliament has played an exceptional role in politics. Many of us have enjoyed watching that. Those in Westminster enjoyed (and are missing) the adrenaline highs. But the reality is that this is not normal. Excepting the Major years, the last three years and the occasional stress towards the end of the 2010 - 15 coalition (maybe), it has been the norm since 1979 that the government of the day has been able to control parliament without having any concern about getting its way. And politics did not end as a result. Nor did campaigning. And nor did change.
It overstates the importance of politicians to think that what happens in London SW1 is the focus for reform in our society. That understates the importance of other forms of government. And it certainly ignores what happens in broader society. The reality is that by and large politics follows those patterns of behaviour, thought and priority established elsewhere. It does not create those patterns. Even events such as Brexit, which took 25 or more years to be achieved from an initial tiny support base in society at large, are evidence of that. So the question is what else can be done now that Westminster is not the focus?
The answer is simple. It is real things. For example, I am heading for Manchester as I write for a day with the Fair Tax Mark team. The Fair Tax Mark is about changing behaviour, of course. But it does that by doing. It engages with companies to achieve change. It does not just talk about what it wants. It goes out and works with others to achieve it. And some of that is quite hard, technical, fun and occasionally quite challenging, at least technically. Most of the work I expect to do over the next few years is of this sort.
The message is simple. Talking about change is the easy bit. It's fun. I enjoy it. But showing it is possible is necessary. An sometimes that means actually delivering the mechanisms for change to happen.
I do not decry protest.
Nor do I want to do down debate, discussion or comment.
But for those who want a different world the challenge of the years to come is creating change despite an apparently unfriendly political environment. And that means working around, over and under the prevailing political environment to work with the people who matter more than those who spend their lives in SW1 talking about their aspirations but who actually rarely achieve very much.
In short, the way to achieve change over the next few years is to design deliverable change. That is the goal that we need. And since there are many in the world beyond politics, from across the spectrum of opinion, who believe that change is necessary, the possibilities are big. It just requires a little difference in the way we think. And some practical application.
And if evidence is needed, the Fair Tax Mark now has eight FTSE companies signed up, with more on the way. It's been derided by those who would not wish for change. And yet change is happening. That's real. And it will flow through into politics and beyond in due course. This is what campaigning is all about now.
But, importantly, it's about bringing people with you in the process. And that is what those who despair as to the prospects for campaigning forget. Real change is bottom up and not top down, and there are a lot more bottoms out there than there are tops.
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And Richard, for those of us who feel disempowered by the political process, or at least, have lost the heart for the moment to keep plugging away in those Labour Party local meetings, or have no real prospect of effecting the kind of political and social changes you mention, there is the option of getting involved with real people with real problems.
We have a refugee family arriving in our town next week, coming under the UN resettlement programme.
https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/our-work/refugee-resettlement/
Our local charity helps out
https://www.hwsf.org.uk/
Our town has taken seven of these extended families over the past three years, the council has provided accommodation, and English lessons, help with the benefits system and getting jobs, the children have gone to school, parents and grandparents have received excellent care in the NHS after two or three years in refugee camps, and babies have been born.
Sometimes it helps to remember that the UN, national and local government, can do good things, while we despair at our inability to prevent or even affect the dreadful causes behind these issues. Those of us helping out as volunteers have made new friends, gained understanding of what is really happening in Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Kurdestan, and in our own way, spread the knowledge of the social and political problems behind the refugees circumstances. It’s surprising how little even reasonably well informed people know about the refugees who live in our communities.
We can still be political activists. We go to protests with our friends, and discuss the political situation at our meetings, so we are not completely disengaged from the attempts to make change. For me it’s a change of emphasis, and a need to try and effect change through other means.
Agreed, entirely
That is a variation on my theme
That ‘bottom’ activism is replicated throughout the country, indeed.
We also have a dozen refugee families in our little town, I help a little with paperwork & English ‘lessons’. They become part of the community very quickly, bringing their own knowledge and skills to it. The town is all the richer for it, and they feel safe here.
In turn, the local schools become less culturally introverted. They even stage their own “International Day” where every cuisine is represented…It’s all good. It needs to be done well, so takes a fair amount of pedagogy…and time, but it’s so positive, worth every effort.
We have so many campaign groups, all active in improving people’s lives, in our little corner of Wales, that when I despair, I look at what we’ve achieved here, and what still needs to be done, from the bottom, and things look better.
I’m also confident that by sharing and informing others of what is done and planned, it gives them ideas for their own communities.
Informing your MPs and others in Westminster and, for us, the Senedd, is also crucial.
They are bombarded on all sides, they cannot be aware of every initiative in need of support, but if you present your campaign in a clear way, with clear objectives, most will take on the challenge, some only to be re-elected (that’s ok too) others out of conviction.
Bottom up, I’m all for it.
Next, I’ll be representing WASPI in Westminster for our County in early March, (yes, we’re hanging on…) we’ll be holding information sessions for the newly elected MPs of all parties. It’ll be fun…and challenging. Bottom up!
🙂
“BBC Radio 4 Thought for the Day was brought to you by Richard Murphy”
Thanks for that. You should get it on steam radio to the nation.
Your last sentence is perhaps an unfortunate way of phrasing what is undoubtedly true. 🙂
Oh come on. There has to be room for a little humour. 🙂
Ma’s out, Pa’s out, let’s talk rude. Pee, Po, Belly, Bum, drawers.
If we can’t laugh in the face of adversity, and when we feel outnumbered and out-gunned we might just have to lie down and die.
I’m not ready for that, either.
Nice reminder of perspective. Scots are familiar with having a Tory government they haven’t voted for since 1950, or somesuch aons ago. But life goes on and changes are made and good things still happen if we do them ourselves.
I wonder if any suicide note in history ever gave as the reason for the decision as being the person couldn’t bear to put up with the current Prime Minister being in office for another day. Reasons for despair are usually much closer to home and much more ‘mundane’. And some of them can we can help to ameliorate whatever sort of self-serving individuals sit in our government.
We can’t all be expected to drive tax reforms, or save a species from extinction, but we can all do something, ‘In a small way’ (as my former not-quite mother-in-law would put it, when she offered to help in the kitchen. Is there anything I can do….in a SMALL way. :-))