What a desperately sad way to be and to feel, that others with nothing are responsible for the way society is. This is what happens when divisive voices are not challenged on their false narratives and fictitious stats. Unfortunately, a media owned by non-doms through complex trust arrangements has no desire to tell the truth about the average tax rate of billionaires, and a TV news channel owned by a Dubai-based investment group will not be telling you about Nigel Farage's funding arrangements with Lord Bamford, who owes HMRC £500m, nor will they be informing you of the failure of Brexit, and the collapse of the promises made by Farage.
When the narrative is set that 'the others' are to blame, people who have struggled with the economic impact of Brexit and austerity, of the failure to build social housing, or build industries in the former textile, mining, steel, and engineering towns, will look for someone to believe in. When I worked in Burnley, one of the most deprived towns in the North of England, it was no surprise when the BNP made its head office there, against a backdrop of unemployment, poor housing stock, substance abuse, poverty, and racial divide.
Our national broadcaster has continually platformed Reform but failed to challenge their narrative, and we are a nation divided. The Israel/Palestine issue is often misreported, with the Palestinian death toll largely ignored, and October 7th 2023 continually paraded as a commencement of hostilities in a near 80-year 'conflict'. Young people who seek out different media sources are now constantly questioning the 'truths' of the past, of Churchill as an all-conquering-hero, or learning that great centres of learning were founded and funded by plantation owners with their free, imprisoned labour force, and the right fight against it, parading dissenting voices as England-hating, unpatriotic antisemites, or the great unwashed. We are, undoubtedly, at a tipping-point, but I have faith that things will get better because the truth cannot hide forever.
I am blessed to live in the multi-cultural thriving heart of my city, surrounded by all faiths, colours, and creeds, and I welcome the opportunity to immerse myself in humanity. I feel enriched by it. I hope that over the next four years more and more progressive voices are heard and politicians and media organisations begin to forensically challenge the narrative. I have seen one interview with Donald Trump, another hateful, divisive stain on society, where he was properly challenged and utterly fell apart, looking like a junior school debater confronted by Christopher Hitchens. I hope that the Epstein files crash his world and cause global tremors through which a rejection of his politics becomes the new fruit on the olive branch of humanity.
In the meantime, we must address societal inequality for it is the foundation that hate is built upon. We must find ways to grow the economy, to invest in housing and services, and to provide hope as an antidote to hate. We have a problem because we are living much longer, we are reproducing fewer, and we are working less. There is no way to hide from the fact that, for society, that is damaging...very...and immigration is an absolutely essential tool to help navigate the shortfall, assuming AI hasn't taken human-beings from the 'needed box' by then.
