Been thinking a little bit about the UK, as you might expect, and what now means. One of my first observations is we often fetishise the means of making people's lives good and fulfilling, while ignoring the fundamental entitlement to those good and fulfilling lives
Like, we talk about train fares and renationalisation, not how amazing it would be to travel cheaply and efficiently. We talk about council homes and rental deposits without talking about how everyone deserves a sitting room, a room to have hobbies in, a secure front door
We talk about economy, not the results of the economy. We talk about money in your pocket not wonderful things outside your window or at end of your street. We talk mostly about what people should settle for, not what they have every right to expect. In short we talk of policy
People have a right to: private life and space, funds to do things they find fulfilling, the right to travel, the right to live the best life possible in sickness and health, right to free time, right to make plans for them and their family. Ultimately: the right to wellbeing
The other thing I've been thinking about the UK is we are really bad at recognising collectively the difference between the needs of big companies, small companies and independent crafts people. We've also not updated our idea of what a craft *is*
One of things I was thinking about was underlying 'buy British!' elements of brexit talk, the idea that we could save the British 'way of life' by limitinh imports of both goods and craft or trades people. The election campaign didn't really present any arguments to counter this
Skilled craft or tradespeople got erased from the discussion in 2019. Sole traders, little businesses, the stuff people think of around local economy. The opportunities for a second income that turns into a primary one. Getting good at something then selling it takes time, money
It's instructive to me we are still taking about 'Polish builders' as a shorthand for the evils of EU membership, as if if access to skilled tradespeople was a) bad and b) somehow nothing to do with the decisions we've made about opportunity. Big business isn't small business
The relationship of the existing political parties on England at least to working class people's lives is either fantastical or cynical, both based on fantasies of what 'working class people' are. Everything about improving people's lives by proxy
I think we get confused in the UK between the foundations of a good life and the individual building blocks of the good life in a place or a person's experience. Meet fundamental needs as platform for people to take their choices about what happens beyond it.
One reason UK has drifted heavily into inequality is we accepted idea having a decent life is provisional. Inequality always guides policy, but in my lifetime we've let it guide us in wrong way. Policy didn't work, so it must being something fundamental about people that doesn't
A decent home, free time, opportunities to do things you enjoy or find value in. They aren't 'nice to have' add-ons to a person's life. They the fundamental shared basis for a society. In this election we argued about policy as proxy for that but it turns into air in practice
One of the reasons so many people I care about feeling crushed after Friday's result is that it felt like only a fundamental shift might deliver them a comfortable home, a full cupboard, a chance for leisure and self-development because as it stands, those things are out of reach
Those people who feel crushed aren't an amorphous 'working class' with 'instincts'. A whole spectrum of British people (and EU nationals from other countries) haven't as it stands any recourse to getting to a point where life is comfortable. But this election didn't express that
Of two major parties, one side was 'keep calm and carry on', clarion call of people who feel they have just enough, and the other a call for policies rather than the result of policies. I like to believe people go into politics because they want people to have decent lives
I think part of the job now, and it may fall not to those in full time politics, is to lead the discussion about what it means to have a good life that fits you and gives you fulfillment and identify the structural issues that deliver this life to some and not others
More than identifying problems, being together needs to happen to set out together steps for things that need to change; not rush to dust off pre-existing policy answers then get people wound up to argue with each other which is best. Policy is means of change, not change itself
It's not unreasonable to want a front door, some nice things, a chance to have some fun, a chance to do things because you fancy doing them, not because you need to. We spend an awful lot of time, left and right, telling people that stating their fundamental needs is unreasonable
We tell people it's unreasonable to state their fundamental needs and to dream of more, but we absolutely love it when they decide racist and regressive ideas are the answer to their predicament then. Only then do they have 'legitimate concerns'. We should stop doing that
