It's been a fascinating experience witnessing the recent UK general election unfold here in Truro. I arrived a day early and set about talking to some friends and neighbours about the policies of the local party Mebyon Kernow. Unfortunately, I met with quite a bit of ridicule and at times open hostility. Fortunately my Nan offered a more eloquent and publishable response:
"Their local councilor is a lovely man, a really lovely man he is, yeah, he's lovely. He's far too nice to send up to they buggers in Westminster though, they'd eat the poor bugger alive!"
But despite Cornwall being traditionally a liberal heartland there has been a massive swing to the right and this has started me thinking:
WHY DO PEOPLE IN THE UK STILL BOTHER SENDING ANYONE TO WESTMINSTER?
Recently, over drinks in The Retro Bar, a man looked me up and down and said, "Oh, *dramatic pause to illustrate his clear disapproval* you're not political are you?" Which kind of took me by surprise because like most Cornish men I know, after a few cheeky ales, I'm more than happy to give you my opinion on life the universe and everything - even if I'm being thrown into the back of a police van. It appears an adherence to the principles of old school liberalism has been dismissed as a weakness from the 'traditional' right while also having been usurped by the insincere 'feel your pain' rhetoric of 'new' left identity politics.
Yes, thanks in part to Nick Clegg's woefully shambolic coalition, being a progressive liberal is no longer seen as an authentic life choice. In fact, I can tell you, it has been easier telling everyone I'm gay than it has been admitting I'm a closet liberal. Seriously, the look on my poor Mother's face would break your heart(he's always been a lovely man it's such a waste)...
So, I'm not doing too bad for a 40 something year old queen. I get to work in the arts and travel the world, apart from a few debilitative health conditions, I'm doing okay.
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| Street food in Kuala Lumpur |
I don't have anything much to complain about. I don't have a mortgage or any debts (because I never buy anything that I don't need - which is the key to my happiness). I get to spend half of the year in the sunshine eating delicious foods and I generally avoid hanging out with people who aspire to hold any kind of political power. From past experience, I've learned they tend to be at best venal and at worst manipulative sociopaths. However, the past year I have had to return to London to carry out postgraduate research which has put me in the middle of the mental maelstrom and made it inevitable that I bump into a plethora of - well, what do I call them?
I put the question mark there for good reason, because I'm genuinely perplexed. As London continues to distance itself financially and culturally from the rest of the UK by becoming an exclusive enclave for international billionaires, traditional ideological definitions have become meaningless. Perhaps I should illustrate what I mean with a random example. Here's a picture of Emily who sat across from me on the train from Paddington to Plymouth:
Emily works for The Sun newspaper. I only know this by accident because she was speaking quite loudly into her phone, I couldn't help overhearing; but then, it is the paper that hacked a dead girl's answering machine, so I don't feel too bad about using her to illustrate my point. Anyway, here's some interesting facts about the life of a female reporter at The Sun.
- She is wearing clothes: I don't know why, but I had just assumed that a reporter for The Sun would be topless while making saucy gags about getting to grips with 'the latest polls'.
- Emily is a well educated, well spoken young lady who doesn't speak in the affected voice of an imaginary, juvenile, racist male builder.
- Emily, like many people, is fed up with hearing about the election and wishes there was a 'none of the above' box on the voting slip for her to choose.
Emily seems like a really lovely person. I've probably met many people similar to Emily at events or dinner parties or bars etc. I'm sure she works hard at her career and at times she has felt exploited by the the sometimes bitter realities of London life. Even though I never spoke to Emily, she didn't come across as a moronic, racist misogynist.
And this is the point.
When we live and work in the capital, we rapidly become acclimatized to existing in a bubble that exposes us to the extremes of privilege and access and gradually these factors come to define the very fabric of our political perspectives. In order to get by, we make compromises and excuses and suddenly, before we know it, we are having dinner with a handsome hedge fund manager who has probably done more to eviscerate the public purse than a boat load of Syrian refugees, but at least he voted Labour and is never racist in public, right?
Ivan Massow recently made the headlines by suggesting that many gay men are Tories at heart, and of course he was rounded upon, but he does have a point. If you are a self-serving careerist who loves the idea of ownership of private property while privileging traditional institutions such as marriage, which so many gay men do; well, you might as well vote Tory - because that's what it means to be a traditional Conservative. I do, however, disagree with Massow on his stance as a Tory. I would argue that the Tory party can no longer be described as a 'traditional conservative' party, in that it clearly works in the service of foreign corporate interest.
I'm not saying I'm perfect, nobody is perfect. I happen to have a penchant for KFC and flying around the world in jetliners(imagine my carbon footprint *GASP*). I like coming back to the UK because I can get my prescription medication for free instead of paying the $1000 a month that I have to pay whenever I'm in Asia. I've begrudgingly paid the extortionate $18,000 (13,000 pounds) tuition fees as a foreign student in the country I have paid taxes for most of my adult life, in order to further my own 'career' (whatever that means). I'm not advocating an unworkable, idealistic 'primary school politics'. Politics isn't about simply doing your recycling, turning up to vote every 5 years and then sitting back and blaming everyone else when things go wrong. I feel it does involve an element of moral engagement.
For example, One of the reasons I chose not to pursue a career in the BBC is because I saw it as an archaic institution just like Westminster. It's just another state funded care home for middle, middle class men who didn't do too well at Oxford. The BBC is the kind of place where people actually aspire to be Alan Yentob. Of course there are loads of great people who work at the Beeb, many I still call my friends, but if you want a successful career there, well, you have to shut up and play the game. And unless you happen to be a middle, middle class man who didn't do too well at Oxford, then your chances of promotion are pretty much nil. So, I chose to play music and run a bar instead. If only I had kept my mouth shut then I could have had a mortgage and a pension and a car and a...
In the aftermath of the election, the one thing I've noticed is that most of the London-centric media have been really quick to point the finger at everyone else in the UK. They blame the people who voted for UKIP rather than the people in the city who funded UKIP. They blame the 'apathetic' millions who didn't vote, rather than looking at the corrupted media institutions which have marketed the illusion of freedom. But to be fair, if you are a careerist living in London, chances are you'll end up doing business with someone who represents the very principles you abhor. Maybe you find Katie Hopkins views absolutely disgusting, but you probably wouldn't turn down doing work with anyone else from STH management, would you? Maybe you voted Labour but your friend works for HSBC, what do you do, childishly ignore that person?
Voting for Westminster no longer has any agency. As Guy Debord wrote in The Society of the Spectacle, "All that was once directly lived has become mere representation..." Who cares if the lovely Emily voted Labour or Tory, or even Green? She's working for a man who has quite literally turned the entire UK judicial system into a money grabbing, pie-throwing pantomime. How many other people who brag about voting Labour would ever dream of turning down work with Murdoch? Everyone has to pay their extortionate rent, right? Evan people I admire like Frankie Boyle have taken his money, so... It could be said that by paying lip-service to pseudo liberal attitudes and voting for someone you think sounds good, you're undermining the political system far more than anyone who is abstaining from partaking in this charade altogether.
The cultural, financial and political institutions centered in London no longer serve the interests of the majority of the people living in the UK and so it is pointless ever expecting them to care about any of your concerns. As the US and most other European countries can testify, significant institutional change is rarely ever voted upon. It is enforced by mass movements, or violent insurrection. Nobody voted for Dr Martin Luther King Jr, but it is fair to say that he furthered the political cause of black people in America more than any other elected official including president Obama.
The people of Scotland instinctively understand this, which is why the SNP is currently the only truly representative political party sitting in Westminster, but how much longer will they be tempted to remain there?
For example, One of the reasons I chose not to pursue a career in the BBC is because I saw it as an archaic institution just like Westminster. It's just another state funded care home for middle, middle class men who didn't do too well at Oxford. The BBC is the kind of place where people actually aspire to be Alan Yentob. Of course there are loads of great people who work at the Beeb, many I still call my friends, but if you want a successful career there, well, you have to shut up and play the game. And unless you happen to be a middle, middle class man who didn't do too well at Oxford, then your chances of promotion are pretty much nil. So, I chose to play music and run a bar instead. If only I had kept my mouth shut then I could have had a mortgage and a pension and a car and a...
In the aftermath of the election, the one thing I've noticed is that most of the London-centric media have been really quick to point the finger at everyone else in the UK. They blame the people who voted for UKIP rather than the people in the city who funded UKIP. They blame the 'apathetic' millions who didn't vote, rather than looking at the corrupted media institutions which have marketed the illusion of freedom. But to be fair, if you are a careerist living in London, chances are you'll end up doing business with someone who represents the very principles you abhor. Maybe you find Katie Hopkins views absolutely disgusting, but you probably wouldn't turn down doing work with anyone else from STH management, would you? Maybe you voted Labour but your friend works for HSBC, what do you do, childishly ignore that person?
Voting for Westminster no longer has any agency. As Guy Debord wrote in The Society of the Spectacle, "All that was once directly lived has become mere representation..." Who cares if the lovely Emily voted Labour or Tory, or even Green? She's working for a man who has quite literally turned the entire UK judicial system into a money grabbing, pie-throwing pantomime. How many other people who brag about voting Labour would ever dream of turning down work with Murdoch? Everyone has to pay their extortionate rent, right? Evan people I admire like Frankie Boyle have taken his money, so... It could be said that by paying lip-service to pseudo liberal attitudes and voting for someone you think sounds good, you're undermining the political system far more than anyone who is abstaining from partaking in this charade altogether.
The cultural, financial and political institutions centered in London no longer serve the interests of the majority of the people living in the UK and so it is pointless ever expecting them to care about any of your concerns. As the US and most other European countries can testify, significant institutional change is rarely ever voted upon. It is enforced by mass movements, or violent insurrection. Nobody voted for Dr Martin Luther King Jr, but it is fair to say that he furthered the political cause of black people in America more than any other elected official including president Obama.
The people of Scotland instinctively understand this, which is why the SNP is currently the only truly representative political party sitting in Westminster, but how much longer will they be tempted to remain there?
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