The clarion call has gone up for “prosperity and the nation” in order to inspire us all with confidence in this government’s aims and objectives … we’re back to cake and eating it, again, eh? … last-century philosophies, ill-suited to our future, with a sprinkle of nationalism, a thirst for economic leadership for a selected few, a desire to be first among equals (Boris, that translates as primus inter pares) and the natural position of an Englishman.
What utter tosh!
What do you suppose is the response of our neighbours, allies and friends across the world, other than, “There they go again. Who do they think they are? Best ignore them.”?
The only halfway-benign future for this planet, including the flora and fauna on which we all depend, lies in consensus, in co-operation, in integrative action. Straightforward, undeniable, gold-plated, copper-bottomed fact: the environment – qua global warming and genetic diversity – requires a global approach. Migration requires global interventions, not temporary barriers. Energy and supply-chain interdependencies show there are no national-only economic solutions.
There are only co-operative solutions. Of course, we could sort it all out with a war or two. That has been the typical response to such challenges from time immemorial. Couldn’t happen, today, you say?
It is happening. Right now.
We need to smell the coffee or, better, sniff the cordite carried on a cruel, cold east wind.
The solutions lie in finding ever better ways of working together: locally, regionally, devolutionarily (I may have just made that word up), nationally and internationally. There is no way back to the neo-imperialist, elitist world sought by the right wing of certain real and other not so real, parties. The Lib Dem line says we need to recognise and understand the social and geo-physical constraints on human activity, find sustainable ways of working within those constraints and then use all our talents, technologies and resources available to do just that and do it fairly.
This isn’t soggy or woke. It is very, very challenging and hugely demanding of the professionalism, integrity and accountability (sic) of all of us.
It is not just the outfall of Brexit or the first-past-the-post electoral system that needs challenging, it is the mindset of “apart is better, separate is better, different is better, better-than is better … yesterday was better” that needs to be confronted.
It isn’t easy, though. There is a seductiveness about that old Lifemanship line, “if you are not one-up, you’re one-down”.
It plays out in so many of our own local, parochial, personal and familial interactions. We all rue our many petty actions on a daily basis, and it is the same at governmental level. We need to look at our behaviours and ask the question; do we need to win and come out on top?
Or do we simply need to do better together?
Mike Chapman
North Dorset Lib Dems
