To Lockdown Sceptics, dissenters and everyone with misgivings about what this Government and the establishment is doing and has done:
It doesn’t matter how right you feel or how right you might be. The Government is not listening to you and will not listen to you.
To do so would be to allow a light to shine upon the misjudgement and ineptitude of an entire political class. To respond and act differently would be to openly admit to the World that they are neither fit for the office they have and are incapable of fulfilling the roles in which they serve.
You may have watched the film The Big Short and seen the portrayal of Mark Baum in the run up to the Global Financial Crisis. Baum couldn’t understand why nobody was listening or acting to prevent what he and his colleagues could see happening. They saw business carry on as usual as increasing numbers of people lost homes and the finance system was about to go over the edge. They faced the massively unsettling reality that everyone who could do something had their heads buried in the sand. People with the power to act either kept the narrative going to help cover up their own actions or to keep receiving the benefits from the position of power or influence they had.
The similarities between what happened leading up to the 2007/08 Global Financial Crisis in the United States and what is happening now in the UK as a result of the way this Government has handled COVID and built its response around Lockdowns is startling indeed.
Similar because there is an establishment narrative at work in the UK today that was set in motion the very moment that Boris Johnson closed down the Country telling us that it was to ‘protect the NHS’.
That narrative has continued ever since. It has led to bad decision after bad decision as the fallout and consequences of each bad decision has in turn had to be explained or countered in some way.
One lie leads to a thousand more. For the Government to admit the truth by dealing with events any differently to how they have been doing so or by changing direction to where things should really be, would be the same as admitting that Lockdowns, the use of behavioural manipulation, social distancing, the money they have spent and many other things they have done were wrong.
You can be reasonably certain that most MPs by now understand that the decisions they have made or have facilitated through their own inaction have bolted the accelerator of the train to the floor, whilst the Government’s inordinate spending has broken the brake lever clean off. The only question remaining is whether the wheels will still be attached as the UK flies off the end of the line and goes over the cliff with all of us still aboard.
Like some demented Mr Micawber having a moment, the Government and the members of the political class that underpins it are falling over themselves to keep this destructive narrative going in the forlorn hope that ‘something will turn up’. They are literally betting the house that events will somehow play out to the end in their favour, allowing them to leave a legacy in the history books telling future generations that they were always in control.
To say that what they are doing and what they have done is the height of irresponsibility wouldn’t even begin to cover it. But this Government and this insidious culture of politicians that are just like them will continue to ride roughshod over our future, right up to the moment that we give an alternative government and form of leadership the majority of our votes.
Yes, there really is nothing you can do to change what is happening right now. That’s not the way that the British Political System works.
Yes, you could create and engage in mass civil unrest. But its success would destroy the existing system, when it’s not the system itself that is the problem. The problem within the system is the quality and motivation of the politicians that we choose.
Yes, the destruction of the system may sound very appealing if you recognise the damage this Government has already caused. But the risk to us all is what could emerge from the inevitable mess and chaos that comes from bringing down Government in this way. The resulting form of Government is even less likely to be one that would work in our best interests. It is very unlikely to be one we have the opportunity to choose.
The power we have to change things is in this moment. The power to change everything that government does has to begin with us changing the things that we have control over today.
We may have only two years or 24 months to wait to the next General Election which could come in May 2023. If the wheels of the train fall off sooner, the wait could be even less. We must be ready if it does.
When the next General Election comes, we need a political alternative on the ballot paper in each and every Constituency that is not only credible but understood and supported by the majority of voters who will be looking for change that they can trust on that day.
That alternative will not come by waiting for someone else to do the work for you or by thinking it is enough just to get onto social media, pick up likes and followers and keep telling everyone how it is.
We all need to begin thinking, acting and behaving like we are already the next Government in waiting. We should be taking every opportunity to share our experiences with others, to exchange ideas and above all, listen to the stories and life experiences that others from all backgrounds are ready and willing to share.
The things that we have in common with each other far outweigh the small number of differences that appear to separate us.
By building a network and conversation that engages the public without the need to always be in the public eye, we can quickly become and be the alternative that the UK, our communities and the people that we care about need.
Bad government is not our destiny. It is our choice.
Change begins with a conversation. Have you thought about what you can do to create A New Party for All?
Adam Tugwell 