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| Lib Dem Norman Baker. Sad to see him go. |
The result of the election in Britain which took place May 7th 2015 has been the most divisive of any election I’ve participated in.
In the town of Lewes, the collective reaction to the Conservative victory has been amplified by the local results. For the past 18 years we’ve had the pleasure of a dogged and dynamic local MP in the shape of Liberal Democrat, Norman Baker. But on Friday we woke up to find we had lost him for good. For the first time since I moved to this town in 2001, we have a Conservative (Tory) MP, Maria Caulfield.
Politics is one of those subjects which, like religion, is looked upon as something to avoid if you don’t wish to offend. But all such caution has been thrown to the wind around here. Everyone’s talking about politics, and every left-leaning citizen feels as if they are part of a Tudor court conspiracy, where every neighbour they once trusted, every friend they’ve taken for granted, could be one of the secret Tory voters who have betrayed them.
The truth as I understand it, from the remarks I’ve read and a perusal of Caulfield’s plan, is that it’s not the town voters who have suddenly turned blue (in fact there has been a swing to Green). It’s in the outlying areas such as Newhaven and Seaford where people perceive nurse and farmer’s daughter, Caulfield, as someone who is working in their interests for local hospitals and causes, as opposed to republican rebel Baker who they see as preoccupied with Lewes Town issues.
The most notorious Lewesian backlash, so far, has been from a local plant-shop owner, Matt Woodruff, whose polite notice informing Tory-voting customers they will be charged a 10% tax on their purchases prompted photos of his message to go viral, and he was even featured in The Guardian.
For my own part, I was startled on Sunday morning when I saw the responses to my Saturday evening status update: “Heartened by the news of protests in London #Toriesoutnow”. Two friends had responded - both with the same argument - though one was clearly angrier than the other. That was the idea that by supporting the protesters in London, I might also condone the vandalism of the war memorial which took place during the demonstration.
I do not condone vandalism. It’s ugly, it can be inconvenient and even dangerous. But as another friend of mine put it, “... people are very,very angry ...” about what a Conservative victory means to them - loss of benefits, loss of public services such as buses and hospitals, loss of facilities to care for disabled children and adults.
It was vandalism of the memorial that gave the victors a stick to beat the protestors. Yet, I find it extraordinary that some people can take such high umbrage at graffiti on a piece of stone (which was cleaned up the next day) and yet care so little about the vandalism of our society at the hands of a self-serving government.
Another point is, if defacing a memorial to the war-dead is so offensive, we have to remember for what reason these people died. Surely not to see their grandchildren queuing up at food banks? For their descendants to think twice about a visit to the dentist because of the expense, or to have to lie for hours on a trolley in a corridor because a hospital is overrun and understaffed?
I thanked my friends for their comments and my ensuing discussion with one of them. It’s instinctive to turn away from opposing opinions and judge our political opponents as much as we feel judged. It’s far more challenging to seek a common ground rather than draw conclusions about people’s values and insult and objectify them.
I love and appreciate biting satire and heartfelt, articulate diatribes. I find some views of humanity distasteful and bizarre. Yet, if we insist on only being friends with likeminded people we only perpetrate the animosity of an ‘us and them’ mentality. How are we ever to celebrate diversity if we continue to draw these lines? How are we to be prompted into examining our opinions and see if they are worth defending (and vice versa)?
And, even if our political opponents are so dyed in the wool that they believe they are absolutely in the right, perhaps for one tiny moment, because you are friends and you like - or even love each other - they can see that even a leftist, would-be protester is a human being. Just like them.
