Anger Into Action - The Election Autopsy

Parliamentary politics has failed us. Dishonest, deceiving, morally bankrupt political leaders have failed us. A billionaire-backed, biased media has failed us. With the election of Boris Johnson, the furthest right wing of the establishment has been empowered. The country has become more divided. The country has become less kind.

I have always taken pride in calling myself British. I thought that it was positive that whereas previous generations of my family were quick to refer to themselves as English, I myself felt part of a larger, more inclusive community. I, perhaps naively, dreamed that one day my kids, or my kids’ kids, would call themselves European before British. The last three years of discourse in this country have made it abundantly clear that that will not be the case. A view of the voting maps from this election shows that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are tearing away from the majority of English voters.

Perhaps another Scottish independence referendum is now on the horizon. A hard Brexit in January now looks more likely than ever and should that happen the economic and political turmoil that will be felt in Northern Ireland is yet to be fully understood. A dormant political rupture is likely to spark back to life as those in Northern Ireland are torn between their British nationality and their European identity.

Maybe after the next five years the British identity will not be what I think it is today. In a union that is currently anything but united, I may not be able to call myself British in a meaningful way. The fractured politics of this island have not gone away with Johnson’s victory.

This is not about left or right. This is not about leave or remain, or old and young, or urban and rural. There were Tory members that stood against the lies and deceit that Johnson has peddled. There were Labour members that voiced a preference for Johnson over their own party leader. There were voters who saw Johnson as the lesser of two evils, there were those who saw no good choice for any of us, and there were those who fell for the lies. There were others who saw the lies and voted anyway. There were those that wanted this. This about standing up to them. This is about right and wrong.

In my lifetime, parliamentary politics has never represented me. I was too young to remember the meteoric rise of Tony Blair’s New Labour, and their betrayal of the platform they ran on. But I grew up in a world overshadowed by an illegal war that killed 500,000 Iraqi civilians, 179 British soldiers, and that continues to have far-reaching consequences in the collapse of Iraq and ISIS-inspired attacks across Europe. In 2010, I was too young to vote. I did, however, listen closely to the Liberal Democrats’ promises of scrapped tuition fees and a strong commitment to Europe. In 2012, at 18 years old, I joined the first cohort of university students hit with a £9,000 fee and watched the Lib Dems back a Tory government intent on scapegoating the EU as a cause of their own failings. I voted Remain in the referendum, and I lost. I voted Labour in 2017, and again yesterday. Again, I lost. The figures would suggest that my entire generation lost.

But we were not voting for a party yesterday. We were voting for an opportunity. An opportunity to show that alternatives to the current state of affairs were possible. I don’t, and never did, believe that Jeremy Corbyn had all the answers. In fact, there was much about the current Labour movement that felt very problematic. But I do firmly believe that it would have been a better option than putting the racist, classist, Islamophobic, misogynistic, homophobic, climate-denying, self-interested, deadbeat father with very suspect links to foreign actors in charge.

Boris Johnson stands against everything I believe in. I do not extend that feeling to his party; I believe that many Conservative voters and members want the same things I do, even if their approach to achieving them is different. That is fine. The capacity to debate the solutions to problems is key in any democracy. But with the cynical, deliberately fraudulent campaign run by Johnson and his media team, seemingly lifted unedited from the Donald Trump playbook, the current Tory leadership has demonstrated its contempt for the public on all sides of the political spectrum.

Like the Liberal Democrat betrayal in 2010, like the New Labour betrayal in 2003, like every political administration that I have lived through, the establishment of 2019 has demonstrated it will do what needs to be done to keep its stranglehold on the power of this country just firm enough to keep us quiet. It has no place for us in its plan.

Voting is one opportunity for the public to exercise their rights. It is a fundamental right and one that we must use whenever we are given the chance. But it is only one opportunity.

To those who voted yesterday in the hopes of making a difference to the lives of the most vulnerable, to those who feel that that possibility is now gone, now is the time to prove that the personal is political. Now is the time to show what kindness, togetherness, solidarity really is. Now is the time to live in a way that makes the world a better place.

Continue to expose the lies of the elite. Protest every policy that will make our lives harder. Fight for every inch of ground for those who do not have a voice. Fight for the homeless, fight for the families on food stamps, fight for the immigrants who remain in limbo, fight for those poorer, more vulnerable, and more in-need than yourselves. Fight for what is right.

Volunteer for local organisations that make a difference in your community. Reach out to friends, neighbours, community members. Show solidarity with disadvantaged groups. Join the chorus of voices calling for real change to tackle climate catastrophe. Stand up and be counted when others’ rights are threatened, because we are all that we have. Challenge those that want to divide us. Show what it means to be open-minded, be welcoming, be kind.

I want to live in a society where people of different religions, ethnicities, sexualities, classes, and genders can all feel welcome. I want to live in a society that does not define itself by what it is in opposition to, but by what it believes in. I want to live in a society that values its local communities, and still faces outwards to embrace the big wide world. I want to live in a society I can feel proud of. No political party can do that for me.

When the outside seems to get uglier every day, make your inside beautiful.

It’s the only thing we can do.

I want to be proud to be British again. Together, we can make that possible.

The London Bridge Attack - Everyday Heroes in Times of Crisis

The 29^th November 2019 marked another tragedy for the city of London, as terrorist Usman Khan stabbed five people and killed Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones, before being killed himself by police. By all accounts, both Jack and Saskia were kind and vibrant young people, dedicated to supporting rehabilitation of violent offenders and fiercely defiant in their beliefs of the inherent virtue of humanity.

What happened to them has led some to question that virtue, and it is certainly a horrific and unspeakable crime that was committed against them. But to write this off as another terrible day in a world that seems to be getting worse by the hour (if you were to believe your Twitter feed), ignores a significant part of the story.

To match Jack and Saskia’s generosity of spirit, when Khan attacked he was disarmed and held down by several brave members of the public, at great risk to their own lives. Some were also staff at the rehabilitation centre, sharing Jack and Saskia’s passion for the betterment of the human condition. Others, such as James Ford, were ex-offenders themselves, who stood up and took action when they knew it was the right thing to do. If they hadn’t acted when they did, who knows how much more damage Khan could have done?

And they are not alone. From spontaneous volunteers who delayed their own escape to support others in the aftermath of the Manchester bombing, to Paul Dadge, who helped to coordinate response efforts in London following the 7/7 bombings, to those who helped their neighbours escape the recent wildfires in California, people have repeatedly put themselves on the line to protect others at great risk to themselves.

Why do we do this?

I was fortunate to hear a presentation from Dr Chris Cocking at the International Disaster Response Expo on the 4^th December, who discussed this phenomenon of spontaneous volunteerism and everyday heroism in crises in detail. He calls those that act to support others in these situations “zero responders”, in reference to the fact that they are active on a scene before the emergency services, or first-responders, arrive.

Dr Cocking, and collaborator Dr John Drury at the University of Sussex, have done significant work in the area of crowd response to disasters, and the psychological evidence for how people act in times of crisis is more positive than you might think. The fallacy of “mass panic” suggests that crowds respond chaotically and in a self-interested way in response to traumatic events. In reality, more often than not, bystanders and victims of terror attacks or disasters respond collectively, often remaining in danger themselves in order to support others.

It is very easy to look at the events of the 29^th November and to fall victim to the divisive politics that such acts are designed to elicit. When all we see are terror attacks, gang violence, and seemingly senseless criminal activity on our TV screens and phones, we can be forgiven for thinking that the default human condition is one of violence and destruction. But what Jack Merritt, Saskia Jones, and Paul Dadge demonstrate to us is that this is not the case. Humans are capable of almost unimaginable acts of horror, but that does not define who we are. As Jack and Saskia so firmly believed, even those that have done bad in the past have the potential to do good in the future. James Ford, the convicted murderer who helped to stop Usman Khan from harming more people on London Bridge, might just be a manifestation of that belief.

Jack Merritt’s father said after his son’s death that Jack believed fundamentally in the goodness of the human spirit. So should we all. Acts of terror are designed to divide us, to scare us, and to make us think that there is nothing we can do to prevent tragedy from befalling us. But for every misguided terror advocate there are many more ordinary people who simply want to help.

I have no doubt that whilst those members of the public were fighting off Usman Khan, there were many more helpers tending to the wounded in the fish market, supporting those who were distressed, calling the emergency services and keeping others informed of the area where the danger was. For every Usman Khan, there is a Lukasz Koczocik, a Stevie Hurst, or a Thomas Gray. For every hate preacher spouting an ideology of division and death there is a Jack Merritt or Saskia Jones. For every unspeakable act of horror, there are a dozen quiet, unspoken and unrecognised acts of kindness.

As more details unfold regarding the events and people involved in this shocking attack, we should consider what this means for all of us. Are we agents of violence and anger, fuelled by hatred rather than by reality, or are we believers in the strength of humans to achieve the greater good?

Like James Ford, do we have the capacity to be both?

Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones believed that he, a violent convicted murderer, could become more than that. For a few short minutes in the context of chaos in the Fishmonger’s Hall at London Bridge, he was. Does that absolve him of his crimes? Absolutely not. Does that mean that he was any less of a hero in that particular instant than the other members of the public who threw themselves into harms way? I don’t know. But I do know that it complicates what we mean when we call someone a hero. It leaves us with uncomfortable questions about the very nature of humankind. It leaves us no closer to an answer as to what we are or why we do what we do, but I believe that Jack and Saskia were carving out an answer in their actions and with their words. It is up to us to follow their path.

In a world that feels increasingly hostile and dangerous, we should take a step back and think about what we really believe in. We must examine why people can be driven to commit such abhorrent acts of violence against those that do not deserve it. But we must also acknowledge that in the worst of times, occasionally we can catch a glimpse of the very best of us.

When there is a tendency to fear and distrust those that we do not know or whose culture we do not understand, we must push back against that with all our might. When it feels as though there is nothing that can be done to help in a scary and desperate situation, we must try to do something anyway. Social psychology tells us that most of us will.

In a world that fixates on anger and violence, we must be kind. And we must aggressively, unapologetically, believe in the kindness of others.