Monthly Archives: February 2016

Reimagining Politics

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We so desperately need to reimagine politics. We need a new politics. We need a politics based and founded on love, respect, hope and peace. The utterly appalling behaviour in the house of commons this week demonstrates just how out of touch this system is with every day life.

If I had been Jeremy Corbyn on Monday at the dispatch box, I would have waited for the jeering to die down, and I would have said the following:

“Mr Speaker, what has just occurred in this house is nothing short of a disgrace. I don’t mind a joke or a bit of banter but I draw a line here today. In this house, we call each other “honourable friends”. The heckling that just occurred was dishonourable, it was rude, it was unkind, it was disrespectful, it was unfriendly and it was unnecessary. It is demonstrative of the reason why so many people are disengaged with our current political system. To stand here and be jeered at, by esteemed colleagues, including the Home Secretary herself is at best unacceptable. It is a pox on this house.

Here we are, trusted, elected members of this house, given the honour of debating matters of utmost importance to this nation, and we reduce it to this. I hope, Mr Speaker, that I will have an apology on my desk from my honourable friend in the morning. He asked me who I am. I ask him, who he is to treat me in that way? I hope, Mr Speaker, that we might find a better way of having these debates and I hope that the Prime Minister might get his own house in order, so that we continue in this very important discussion about our future relationship with Europe. Today, I am ashamed of this house. I have no more questions.”

And then, I would have walked out.

This has to stop. A line must be drawn in the sand. A new politics is needed.

A Letter From My 5 Year Old to David Cameron

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So, my 5 year old, Sam just asked me for a piece of paper.

 

“What for, mate?” I asked him.

 

“I want to write a letter to David Cameron!”

 

So, here is his letter. (I’m pretty impressed with his handwriting!). In case you can’t read it, it’s a picture of a refugee on a long journey. He could come to our home, but David Cameron is stopping him……I asked him about DC’s big middle finger…..he told me he didn’t mean to draw it big……but I feel it kind of captures the sentiment of what is happening pretty well……

 

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Telethon for Trident

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pudsey tridentI love it when comedy makes you see something so much more clearly than you have ever seen it before. The NHS in this country is on it’s knees and will require a £22 billion fund over the next 5 years on top of the £8 billion promised by the government. Trident will cost £23.4 billion to renew. Our education system and social services are also facing terrible cuts.

 

What is it that we love about trident? The fact that we would never actually use it? The fact that it is a weapon of a bygone era that would be utterly useless in our current world situation? The fact that it has deterred none of the terrorist attacks across the world in the last 15 years?

 

We have to break the power of the metanarrative that believes that this kind of bomb is what ultimately protects us. It does not. We also have to break the lie that there would be no hope or jobs for the people of Barrow-In-Furness (part of the Bay in which I live) if we stopped commissioning it. There is actually other far more needed work for skilled engineers to be doing. The risk of something going wrong in the process of building this bomb is far more deadly to the people of Barrow than the thought of reimaging the future of the town without it.

 

This bomb does not bring us peace. It is a colossal waste of money and renewing it at a time when we are making such terrible cuts to education, health, social services and other vital infrastructure is utterly absurd. If we do feel so passionately about keeping it, then I do believe a telethon is the way to go!