Thread by @tregenza

Europe's Second Biggest Sundial

(A Story of Anger, Brexit and Forgotten Britain, or Why We Need MPs Like @GloriaDePiero To Rise To The Challenge)

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Why would a small town in rural Nottinghamshire build, what was then, Europe's largest sundial?

Why would a small town in rural Nottinghamshire vote 70%/30% to leave the EU?

Why are these two questions connected?

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It starts with dinosaurs.

They ruled the earth but then things changed.

Some dinosaurs evolved into birds and learnt to fly but most died.

Dead dinosaurs became coal and coal is why Sutton exists.

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Mining made the town.

Absolutely everything about Sutton and scores of other towns in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire revolved around coal.

Coal was dirty, mining was dangerous, and there was plenty of suffering to go round.

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But coal also gave the town purpose, a place in the world and a future.

At its peak, Sutton had three railway stations including a direct line to London.

Then things changed and no-one wanted coal anymore.

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Unemployment skyrocketed. Train lines were ripped up and London forgot that places like Sutton existed.

The people were left poor, purposeless and surrounded by an industrial wasteland.

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Forgotten by central government, the people of Sutton had no money and no prospects.

Is it any wonder they were angry?

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There were many politicians who took advantage of the people's anger for their own ends.

But not all politicians.

The brave ones recognised things had changed and worked to give the town a new future.

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Cleaning up the toxic mess and industrial wasteland left behind by coal mining takes decades.

But the politicians of Ashfield looked beyond electoral cycles and thought about the next generation and the generation after that.

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And it started with a statement.

The largest sundial in Europe.

A clear, unambiguous statement that Ashfield was looking ahead to sunnier days, and a future beyond dinosaurs.

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Sutton's recovery from the economic hell of the 80s has been slow. The wounds have not healed, merely scabbed over.

Government after Government invested in big cities and never once got serious about regional towns like Sutton.

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Living in Sutton is a world away from London, or even Nottingham just 25 miles down the road.

Public transport is slow, infrequent and expensive. Schools and colleges are underfunded. Leisure and cultural facilities are few and far between.

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And then a handful of millionaires, ideological dinosaurs and press barons picked at Sutton's wounds, stoking people's anger and pointing it at the EU.

Is it a surprise that the people of Sutton voted so overwhelmingly to leave the EU?

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The anger may be misdirected but the anger is real.

Sutton has been forgotten, left behind with no vision for its future.

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So where does that leave the honest, hard-working MPs of these towns?

After the referendum, respecting the outcome made sense. It seemed that whatever the deal would be, it would have little direct effect on towns like Sutton.

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But things have changed.

No one predicted how the strange brew of money, political dinosaurs, petty politics and pure incompetence would push this nation to the cliff's edge.

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It's now clear that Brexit, any Brexit, will not hurt the millionaires and ideologues. It won't even hurt the big cities that much.

The people who will suffer are the ones in small towns whose pain is already ignored. Brexit will only make this worse.

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What should should good MPs like @GloriaDePiero do?

Is an MP's role to follow the democratically expressed desires of their constituents or should an MP act in whatever way they feel is best for future generations?

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Brexit is a political nightmare, especially for MPs like @GloreDePiero on small majorities.

A reluctance to raise one's head above the parapet in this debate is understandable.

But there comes a point when reluctance becomes cowardice.

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In the early 90s, someone in Sutton stood up and said "Let's build Europe's largest sundial".

Many voters didn't understand why and fought against it but the weird thing is, twenty years on, Sutton loves the sundial and the town is a better place for it.

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The anger of @GloriaDePiero constituents is real and justified but should an MP hide behind the apron of party-loyalty while their voters self-harm?

Isn't the very least an MP should do is to ask "Are you sure?"

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Inscribed around Europe’s Second Largest Sundial is “Time an ever changing scene cast forth thy shadow on our green”.

Things have changed.

It’s time to evolve or go the way of the dinosaurs.

#PeoplesVote

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Epilogue

All photos by me, taken in and around Sutton-in-Ashfield.

Do go see the sundial and the nearby parklands reclaimed from wasteland. They are wonderful.