The BV magazine, February ‘23 POLITICS
Please can we just STOP the same-old? The clarion call has gone up requires global interventions, not for “prosperity and the nation” temporary barriers. Energy and in order to inspire us all with supply-chain interdependencies confidence in this government’s show there are no national-only aims and objectives ... we’re back economic solutions. to cake and eating it, again, eh? ... There are only co-operative last-century philosophies, ill-suited solutions. Of course, we could sort to our future, with a sprinkle of it all out with a war or two. That nationalism, a thirst for economic has been the typical response leadership for a selected few, to such challenges from time a desire to be first among immemorial. Couldn’t happen, equals (Boris, that translates today, you say? as primus inter pares) and the It is happening. Right now. natural position of an We need to smell the This isn’t Englishman. coffee or, better, sniff What utter tosh! the cordite carried on soggy or What do you suppose a cruel, cold east wind. woke. It is is the response of The solutions lie very, very our neighbours, allies in finding ever and friends across challenging better ways of the world, other than, working together: and hugely “There they go again. locally, regionally, demanding Who do they think they devolutionarily (I are? Best ignore them.”? may have just made The only halfway-benign future for that word up), nationally and this planet, including the flora and internationally. There is no way fauna on which we all depend, lies back to the neo-imperialist, elitist in consensus, in co-operation, in world sought by the right wing of integrative action. Straightforward, certain real and other not so real, undeniable, gold-plated, copperparties. The Lib Dem line says we bottomed fact: the environment need to recognise and understand – qua global warming and the social and geo-physical genetic diversity – requires a constraints on human activity, global approach. Migration find sustainable ways of working
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within those constraints and then use all our talents, technologies and resources available to do just that and do it fairly. This isn’t soggy or woke. It is very, very challenging and hugely demanding of the professionalism, integrity and accountability (sic) of all of us. It is not just the outfall of Brexit or the first-past-the-post electoral system that needs challenging, it is the mindset of “apart is better, separate is better, different is better, better-than is better … yesterday was better” that needs to be confronted. It isn’t easy, though. There is a seductiveness about that old Lifemanship line, “if you are not one-up, you’re one-down”. It plays out in so many of our own local, parochial, personal and familial interactions. We all rue our many petty actions on a daily basis, and it is the same at governmental level. We need to look at our behaviours and ask the question; do we need to win and come out on top? Or do we simply need to do better together? Mike Chapman North Dorset Lib Dems