A Letter to my Friends

 

To all my friends,

The purpose of this blog post is to highlight those parts of modern left, right and middle political groups that most frustrate me, and to tell you why. However, the style is that of an angry rant (with maybe some hope at the end). So, if you are easily offended, I advise that you stop reading now. 

To my friends on the left,  

You have ignored the anti-Semitism in the Labour party, to say that ‘Corbyn is not an anti-Semite’ is not enough, because he did not use his position of authority and power to fight it. Here I refer you to Martin Niemoller’s poem first they came, which reads

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me[1]

Corbyn was in a position to speak out and bring change, and he did not do enough. Therefore, he is responsible for the anti-Semitism and he should be criticised for this. For he did not speak out.

Secondly, you have become a group of illiberal elites, abandoning the working-class base in favour of a ‘supposedly’ educated middle class vote. Your rejection of the working class is seen in your disdain for their opinions on Brexit and their rejection of you is to be expected. For all the talk of helping the poorest in society what have you really done for the town’s Thatcher destroyed? Even at the height of Blair’s power you did almost nothing. It remains no wonder that they are sceptical of you and have in many places rejected you.

Finally, you believe that ‘Tory’s are evil’ and propagate the idea that to vote for the right is to vote against people, love and common decency. Meanwhile you encourage ‘fuck Boris’ and “if you’re a Tory remove me from your FB”. Is this the true mark of a liberal? Or is this just the echo chamber of leftist politics which refuses to see its own problems and will no longer engage with dialogue? It is this attitude and approach that gives me the most fear about todays politics.

To my friends on the right, 

I believe that many of you are misinformed on economics, education, health and immigration. The attacks on the Lefts ‘money tree’ shows a fundamental misunderstanding of Keynesian economics, that it is just reckless spending designed to increase the national debt. The truth is far more subtle than that and addressing your misunderstanding can’t be confined to one paragraph in a blog post.[2] Thus, I recommend you read beyond your usual sources; I’m told Keynes: the return of the master by Robert Skidelsky is worth a read.

You believe health and education are best in the hands of the conservatives. This means millions of dyslexics like me will struggle in a system that at best doesn’t showcase their abilities and at worst actively suppresses them. And that’s just one example of the myriad of deficiencies in your education policy. In health, partly because of your economic beliefs you will continue to vote for the systematic underfunding of the health service, the problems of which can be seen by merely turning on the news.

And finally, you are responsible for the idea that immigration, and migration and even to an extent international cooperation are fundamentally negative. And thus, I believe you are to be held partly responsible for rise in hate crime and a multitude of further international problems. Not only does this disregard all that migration does positively for the UK but it also flies in the face of the neo-liberalist policies you hold so dearly. If it is true that small government, high competition, free trade are all positives for the national and international economy then why do you fail to apply this to the labour market? Maybe your inconstancies need to be brough to light in the failure of your economic policies.

To my friends in the centre,

It is no wonder you are losing, because not even you care enough to be the ‘keyboard warriors’ for the liberals. Until you throw your passion behind your politics you will not win and will ever be a party and position that people don’t care enough about to fight for. The rational middle needs to find its passion, without that you are doomed to a life of loss.

However, the inconsistency within your rational middle frustrates me, as you continually reject your own values. Your anti-Brexit stance is a true ‘fuck off’ to liberal democratic values. As well as this, it seems to be ever harder if not impossible to be a person of faith in the centre/ left, as you reject the sentiment in the quote commonly attributed to Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”[3] You have decided that only some people can be liberals and they must agree with you. With all this, I believe you should re-evaluate whether you are in fact the rational, forward-thinking, liberal centre that you seem to believe you are.

To all my friends, 

 

It is probably fair to say, that I offended most people in this political rant of mine. And I must say I am largely unapologetic; all the parties face serious challenges and we as a nation seem to be devoid of good political leadership.

However, this election result once more gives us the chance to take stock and select new leaders with new visions. It gives us all a chance to read, to learn and to once again campaign for what we believe in. so long as we live in a democracy, we have the chance to bring change politically. And before we reach the next election (which I hope will be in a few years’ time) we all as people have the opportunity to bring change in how we live our lives, whether this is about taking active steps to think ethically or just dealing with people in a more loving way where we allow for a person’s right to disagree with us. We have a chance to heal the divides in our nation by moving forward together.  And if you are a praying person, we still can pray for our leaders and our nation, so please do.



Yours in friendship,

Jack Johnson

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[1] Martin Niemoller, Holocaust memorial day trust, https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/first-they-came-by-pastor-martin-niemoller/, accessed Wednesday 18^th December

[2] My good friend Ben Gregg wrote a blog post about austerity more generally, which you can find here, https://speakingasaneconomist.blogspot.com/2019/08/cutting-to-grow.html

[3] As far as I’m aware we can’t find this in his writings, but he remains famous for it.