A colleague at work asked an interesting question the other day. He was quite sensitive of the fact that politics is personal and potentially quite divisive subject, so he didn’t expect us to have to answer, but he asked anyway;
“Do you consider yourself left wing or right wing?”
My immediate reaction was:
“Well I certainly don’t consider myself right wing!”
That is very clear in my mind and my actions. However, the subject of being “left wing” is a broader issue.
He then went on to say what about “extreme right” or “extreme left”?
I’m definitely neither.
I’ve always seen myself as a centrist, trying to balance different views and make the best of it. My voting record has typically been for LibDems, Greens, or independents. Although at times I’ve voted tactically and gone Labour. Even when Tony Blair’s government decided to attack Iraq because of its dubious stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction and I marched in London with 120,000 other people, I voted for him rather than the alternative. I couldn’t allow the other big party in, so with heavy heart and a stain on my conscience, I voted Blair (Was that 2001?)
The Myth of Left v Right
I’ve probably mentioned here on this blog before, but left v right is a bit of a myth. I said this to my colleague too, but not in so much detail because we were at work and this is a pub or social discussion.
In England, the right is generally supposed to be about small government but is more about the self. It’s also become about corruption and greed.
The left is supposed to be for the workers, the poor, the average man and woman, the NHS, education, and wider societal benefit. Yet it has to cater now to some of those on “the right”.
Personally, I do believe that we have to look after ourselves first and foremost. However, that is nuanced by the fact that if we all do that we become selfish and isolated. So I temper that belief with the fact that if you look after yourself, your family, your neighbours, greater society, and these less fortunate than yourself, then you end up with a better world.
So the whole concept of left v right is complex. I believe in business, I believe in individual freedom, but it has to be within the framework of the betterment of the country and all within it. I believe in fairness. If you work hard, learn, have experience, and build up your expertise, you should be rewarded. However, that doesn’t mean that we should keep those without those abilities or opportunities to stay poor.
In his book “The Psychology of Money” Morgan Housel said of post-World War II USA, that:
“The country was richer when the poor were less poor.”
THAT is the most profound and simple explanation of how I see society.
So, by my concern that we should ALL be better off, I guess I’m a socialist. That makes me “left”.
But then isn’t that just what a good human being is? Kind, considerate, thoughtful, kind, caring? Oh god, I sound like I’m “woke” now. That’s a term that those on the right, and their foot soldiers, throw about as accusations against those who dare to be truly good people.
No Such Thing as Society
Margaret Thatcher was my parents’ choice when I was growing up. After strikes that allowed litter to be uncollected on the streets, BIG strikes, four-day working weeks, the lights going off, and a stash of candles and torches in the house, I was brought up in a Conservative household.
Many years later, one of my Grandmothers was telling me about her days on the back of a lorry at a political rally, shouting out for the Tories and against the left. It reminded me of the Harry Enfield sketch L is for Labour, L is for Lice.
I saw the Falklands War in the papers and on the TV, the miners’ strikes. The police were friendly to kids.
And I heard recently that your political views come from your parents. Well sod that.
As I grew up I realised that whilst Thatcher did open up a period of prosperity in the UK, it wasn’t for everybody. And her notion that “there’s no such thing as society” is both stark and apparently misunderstood and taken at face value.
However, whilst she bemoaned the sense of entitlement that some Brits have, the irony is in the fact that today politicians in positions of power have a full-blown sense of entitlement of their own – big wage, multiple jobs, consultancy gigs, second homes, huge expenses accounts, and gifts & donations from rich lobbyists.
And I blame her for the lack of societal cohesion these days.
Major Problem
Then John Major took over from Thatcher. He was a dull, grey man through the eyes of someone about to emerge from their teen years.
What he did, that affected me on a personal level, was take the outrage of middle England and direct it through law to penalise new age travellers and the rave culture by bringing in the Criminal Justice Bill. Two cars couldn’t drive to a free festival or a free party because that was classed as “a convoy” and so the freedom and liberty wasn’t the sort that Conservatism supported.
I disliked John Major for that. A lot.
And so my lack of politics became political.
Left or Centre? Or Green? Or just Good?
Ever since then I have had a moral conscience, a belief in wider society, and a deep-rooted sense of justice, and equality. I don’t see myself as “left” but if that’s where I sit in a simplistic Venn diagram, then so be it.
So am I left or right?
I’m left of the right.