During the General Election 2019, I batted and pawed at the political state of the country like a cat with a new toy. More curious than ever before, as I attempted to fathom buzz words and phrases like ‘Brexit’ ‘Not my Prime Minister’ and ‘Vote JC to save our NHS,’ I found myself feeling daunted.
Back in 2010 when David Cameron was voted in with the new Conservative Government, I couldn’t help but notice on social media that many people were outraged by this and seemed even frightened by the prospect.
At that time, I’m not particularly proud to say but will express with honesty, I was living in a little me-shaped bubble. I had no clue what politics was about and all I cared about was music, fashion, make-up and writing really. I was young, naive and probably a little accidentally self-involved; still figuring myself out.
However, I had still managed to consume a fair bit of news over the years prior to this, I mean it is hard not to, especially with social media ; 9/11, 7/7, the Iraq War, Swine Flu and the 2008 recession.
I felt fear during all of these. But, not being at all interested in actively seeking out the news and being just happy to go back into my bubble when the fear and hype had died down, meant that I never really learned anything about current issues or politics. I preferred my bubble. I was trying to grow up and I guess not quite understanding why all these bad things were happening. I sought escape in music and my other hobbies.
But I was quite uncertain about what this new 2010 Conservative government meant.
Over the next 9 years, after being more educated on the matter by the people around me and doing research for myself with my new-found curiosity, I finally discovered Politics and I pretty much gained the blanket impression that the politics in this country was bad. I mean, we are extremely fortunate in so many ways here in the UK. But I was concerned over where we were going wrong.
There was inequality, public service cuts, tripled University fees, lack of funding for what seemed like everything and a growing crime and homelesness rate. I was dismayed. How could this be when we are one of the richest countries? Surely this was a mistake? There was a fly in the trifle somewhere.
“Polling Station” by twoshortplanks is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Then came the General Election, 2015. I was dead set on voting for The Green Party as they had the best and most fair policies in my opinion. Most left wing people were adamantly promoting Ed Milliband’s Labour because, despite the unfortunate bacon sandwich incident, they believed Labour was the best way to ‘get the Tories out.’ It was tactical voting but I was personally so proud of my new found interest in a party that actually seemed fresh and good, I stuck to my guns and voted Green.
Despite a strong sense that Labour would prevail, partly due to practically everyone I know campaining for them and the new political voice, Russell Brand, urging people to vote for the left, they didn’t. Everyone around me seemed gutted, even scared of what more of an austerity-driven government would do to the country and regular working people. I felt scared too. I was new to all this and I had been convinced Labour would get in and that things might at least be a little better. Perhaps I was naive there as it became apparent that this particular labour government were not as left wing as they perhaps implied.
Then came talk of the referendum. More political unrest was upon us, it certainly seemed, when there were still so much attention needed on the age old issues of environment and inequality. Now there were louder rumours that the NHS was under threat which really started to twist the dagger. What was happening to the country?
“Protesting Brexit” by afagen is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
The rise of UKIP had won many people over with its clamp down on immigration that came across to many as extreme and even racist. There was much discussion over the Muslim and European minorities, prompted by the increasing terror attacks around the world. There seemed a total divide in the country in terms of that acceptance.
Jeremy Corbyn, the new Labour leader was now winning over the left with his tempting socialist policies. The build up to the referendum was tense but it didn’t seem like it was going to be an issue. Again, people that I encountered seemed sure that we would remain in the EU and I hoped we did. I felt that there were more important issues going ignored and I personally could not see the great benefits of this move.
Alas, the result rang in all of our ears clear as day the morning after the vote and it was decided – we would be leaving the EU. People, again I mean everyone that I came into contact with, were aghast – as was I – worried about what this might mean for the country after all these years part of such a union. We would be alone, separate from the other countries in many ways – a lonely island in Europe?
Three and a half years later, we still hadn’t left. And the media was rife with news about the latest scandal, causing a major sense of despair within the country. Our cherished National Health Service was being pulled out from under us yet we were all too bothered with Brexit to see it.
Theresa May came and Theresa May left under a cloud of uncertainty regarding…you guessed it…Brexit. And after an unexpected turn of events, former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was in charge. Nobody seemed to really like him, and the media liked to portay him as a bumbling, loveable rogue who was partial to the odd racist and sexist comment. But somehow, after a tumultuous first few months as Prime Minister, an illegal suspension of parliament and another broken Brexit promise to ‘get us out,’ a December general election was called.
“Photo mosaic for the NHS vigil” by tuc.org.uk is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
The lead up to the general election Christmas 2019 – the first Christmas vote since 1923 – was pandemonium. The country was truly divided and people were debating, arguing and disagreeing left, right and centre – pun intended. Among issues of Labour’s apparent Anti-Semitism and fears of lack of strength in his leadership – Jeremy Corbyn was getting utterly slated, his name now tarnished. Boris Johnson’s promises were getting quoted as gospel truths and the outcome seemed cemented.
Despite the division of the left and right, it was clear that many people purely wanted to ‘Get Brexit Done’ and didn’t trust Labour to provide a reliable government. It was seeming from exit survey results too that the Conservatives were in the lead so when the news came on the morning of 13/12/2019, many people were devastated but not surprised. Christmas was forgotten.
So there we were, the results out. ‘The country had made up its mind’ this was ‘Johnson’s Britain now’ as one bolshy headline stated. Another appeared to be positively promoting Thatcher’s former Conservative government and the concept of Individualism, something that is very rarely seen these days.
The right seemed smug while the left lashed out – protesting outside parliament and working hard to get an explicit song to Christmas Number One. This was a mess. The general election was the Grinch, and it had stolen Christmas.
I have learnt a lot more about Politics over the last decade than I ever thought I would know. The bubble I was in had been well and truly burst and now I saw society as the divided and largely discontented system that it was. With my own ideas during all this political unrest, I felt pretty miserable around the general election. I became involved in a number of online debates, something that I rarely do and I became sucked in to the negative virtual vacum.
What I was most disappointed about, aside from the general election result itself, is something that I had witnessed over a period of many months prior, but that was particularly rabid during the election build up – was a number of flippant, uneducated and corrosive attitudes centred around current issues that are being strongly voiced in the press and on social media.
Issues such as veganism, climate change, LGBTQ, the NHS – people were voicing their dislike for these being spoken about so much. Seeing a fairly large volume of posts that were being very abrasive towards these things and all the people that believe in them was becoming difficult, because it can not be effective to blankly reject the opinions of millions of people that you share a country with. These things can not really be ignored ultimately, they don’t just go away. More fruitful surely to take some time and have a think about why these issues are (suddenly) eveywhere and educate yourself on them.
“facebook” by stockcatalog is licensed under CC BY 2.0
So this cruelty online where the intention was purely to sneer in the direction of these important issues was saddening and there was no wonder people were arguing. I saw so much of this that it majorly contributed to my mind bursting with unwanted emotions around this time. It was one of the most corrosive times in our country that I can recall during my life so far.
Despite this, I vowed not to get too haughty and ‘delete’ anybody because, although I was feeling stressed and concerned about what this result could mean and the general unrest of Brexit, I was trying to see things from the other side as much as possible. Were people scared of change? Or, in their unique ways, fatigued by the political state? Maybe they had deep-rooted worries of their own about the world that was easier to cope with by just getting on with things and pretending like things were just peachy.
Or were people just being mean for mean’s sake? Maybe they felt triumphant about their chosen government winning so were happy to taunt the other side.
Either way, I wanted to understand.
Despite my determination to proceed with caution, I myself was ‘deleted’ by a person I have known for 20 years and this was something I was actively trying to avoid. Many would say that it doesn’t really matter because it’s only social media and not the real world but I think that social media has become extremely important in terms of how we connect with other people.
Admittedly, I was far from perfect on social media around the time of the general election. I was actively voicing some of my opinions and speaking out in retaliation. But many people were posting astronomically worse things and I decided not to permanently axe them from my social media. I was trying to be as diplomatic in my own mind as I could but things were so rife on there that it still did not work and never really would have – many people wanted the argument I think and people were extremely defensive.
There is of course the other end of the spectrum completely to this kind of dismissive and intolerant behaviour and that is the ‘Social Justice Warriors’ or ‘Snowflakes.’ This unusual term is derived from the very extroverted way in that some people choose to speak about about current issues. Calling out people on social media who they deem as being offensive or old TV shows being shunned due to them not being in keeping with our current attitudes.
People more inclined to the right were using it in a less than desirable manner around the time of the general election, and even I was getting called a snowflake – is getting frustrated with people trolling online being a snowflake? I certainly wouldn’t say so. All the people that had voted other than Conservative (which was notably more) and especially the ones that were protesting in London were getting dubbed as ‘leftie loonies’ and ‘whinging snowflakes’ when really, they had every right to be upset with this election outcome.
Whether you vote right or left, it is a fact that many people are being completely left behind and overlooked under this government and nobody can think that to be an ideal system, not if you really stop and think about it and do a good amount of research. We don’t have to know the answer, we just need to be curious about alternative ideas.
“unfriend” by Oliver Dunkley is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
Similarly, ‘virtue signalling’ is a relatively new term that suggests someone is constantly taking a moral high ground in order to get likes and positive recognition. Obviously these things aren’t bad in the same way that bullying and trolling are but they do come with their own set of issues, with a portion of society feeling undermined and bleated at. Is this arrogant or ignorant of them to feel that way? Should they be listening more to the ‘virtue signallers?’
There are many questions.
A portion of society that maybe isn’t quite as educated on an issue may say something a little uninformed but instead of the ‘snowflake’ kindly correcting them, they might call them out in public on social media, making an example of them or accuse them of being offensive. I think this is where the negativity comes from. I have seen it myself where people that are fighting for causes such as the environment and veganism, troll on a person’s post for eating a sandwich with bacon in it, making an omlette or drinking from a plastic water bottle. Yes, this is by no means demonstrative of behaviour that is amazingly good for the planet but old habits can be hard to break and we are all learning how to live better every day. It doesn’t just happen over night.
Plastic and the meat industry are monster issues and the change will be gradual – just because someone has decided to make adjustments, doesn’t mean that we can all do it at the same time and I don’t think it’s helpful to call somebody out in a cruel manner online for drinking from a plastic water bottle – something that we’ve all been doing for years and, only until more recently, is being widely regarded as poor practice.
Many of us are making small changes in our own way. So I think it is that more extroverted moral high ground that birthed the term ‘snowflake.’ It is much more effective to practice what you preach and kindly educate and guide others in the right direction. Just because a person is doing things right by the environment should not give them a ticket to undermine others.
During the few days after the general election results, I got a strong sense of Us vs Them, which I found very unsettling. We are all human beings and should have equal opportunities. That is the end of it. There should be no one above or below anyone else. I don’t personally know the answer to how to achieve this but we should definitely all be working together and not letting politics divide us. We are so far gone that we just can’t imagine another way. If you really stop and rationalise, it is easy to see that the current way society is set up isn’t working. If it isn’t working for everyone then it isn’t working. If we don’t know the resolution for this we can at least start with a little more kindness and connection.
Many of us have been guilty of looking down on a homeless person at one time or another, but it is that frame of mind that needs to be turned around into looking at what the government aren’t doing. Any anger we have should always be aimed at them and not our fellow citizens. Our leaders have rarely lived in the real world, many not even having spent any time in a working class community or attending a public school. Many are clueless of the realities of significant portions of society.
“Equal Love Rally in Brisbane” by Ryan McNeilly-Smith is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
As much of a cliché as it is, love and empathy are what conquers above all else, or at least they should, and that’s what we should be working on more than fighting this left and right war that our leaders and media promote.
This essay is some of my thoughts that I felt I had to get out after the kaleidoscope of emotions during and after the general election 2019 and I think it extremely unlikely I’ll ever write a political post again – I’m no expert, just a person with curiosities and concerns for how unequal and divided our society is. However, It has helped make sense of those thoughts and I hope that anyone reading this can take something away from it too.
Thank you for reading
