Silent No More…Dear Britain, you have spoken apparently?

I love Britain AND the British people. I have travelled the world and never found anywhere I would rather live. On the 24th June last year that changed for the first time. I was told then maybe I should leave. I am not leaving. I am staying put and I am speaking out.

Because? Because then my work can make sense and my grandchildren will be clear that I did not want what I am being told Britain has asked for.

I have this theory that because we are now a full generation away from the last world war we are at a crucial tipping point, The end of WWII allowed us, as a nation to discuss and debate what our society should look like. After such devastation and loss our values and priorities were sharpened and clear. The Welfare State was born. Central to that was our NHS which remains a beacon of light within Britain and indeed the world. So much so we did indeed put it in lights as we opened our London Olympics and shared with the world our pride and joy in our state healthcare system, our state education system, our culture and our multi-cultural heritage. That opening ceremony was a perfect platform to discuss, as a nation, our successes and our future.

We missed that opportunity.

We missed another when Scotland voted on Independence.

Finally Scotland got everyone’s attention just before the vote and I so wanted them to seize the day. To have the courage to pause, to wait, to turn and say ‘right now we have your attention let’s really discuss the state of the UK. We will postpone the referendum so that as a nation we can discuss what Britain has been, what it is now and what it can be. Let’s imagine it together. Let’s have conversations up and down the land.’

That would have been something wouldn’t it? But the conversations had just got started and were then closed back down. It takes real leadership to do something like that. To stop, hold the moment. Allow an entire nation to reflect. There is a shocking absence of that . Reflection. AND great leadership.

Great leadership ensures a nation feels respected, listened to and understood even if they disagree. People will tolerate most things if they feel respected. If their fears, worries and concerns are given due weight and consideration. If they are allowed to maintain their dignity. Did we feel those things? Or was a scream building, slowly and steadily?

It is not a complete list but it is a start what people were screaming about….inequality of money, jobs, lack of access, ever widening gap between the rich and the poor, food banks an accepted norm in every town, welfare cuts, sanctions, bedroom tax, MPs expenses scandal (don’t be fooled if you think people don’t still care), immigration, jobs, security, austerity measures, fear of change (& things are changing fast) terrorist activity &  threats, working harder than ever before and for less and, fear of the future, fear for our  own, fear that you won’t make it round the supermarket and get enough food for the week for all the family with the £40 left in your wallet and then how do afford the kids school trip, trainers, uniform, books…or just the essentials, gas, electricity and water. Parents dreading the summer holidays because that means no free school meals which means something else has to go. This is Britain.

 

Today our parliament votes whether or not to trigger Article 50. I am interested in how we got here. To this place where I am a Remoaner. Where families and friends are divided. Where it is apparently now a ‘done deal’ and I am a sore loser if I still want to discuss it. You know just that tiny thing of leaving the European Union.

I am a storyteller by trade. Peddling my stories through the medium of theatre. My work is political because I fundamentally believe the personal is the political. I create work which I hope allows the audience to think about the world around them and their place and actions in it. Narrative is a powerful force and the EU referendum, the lead up, the result and the aftermath is compelling stuff. Narrative is constantly rewritten.The story of how we decided to leave the EU is now owned and shaped in a way I believe to be distorted and untrue and so on the historic day I write my narrative.

Democracy is something I hold dear. I do not believe last year’s referendum was democratically organised, campaigned for, called for or responded to. We get to vote on who leads the country every four years. There is a tried and tested system. Political parties must put forward manifestos for scrutiny. They can be held to account on these promises if they gain power. Clarity on what we are being asked to vote on is key.

Where was the clarity for the referendum? Where were the manifestos? How do we hold people to account? Why are broken promises not being discussed and accepted? Perhaps because it was not a General or Local Government Election? These are legally binding. Referendums are not. However 4 years after a General Election we get to vote again. We get to change our minds. We do not get to vote again in four years time to rejoin the EU.

Another thing created out of the destruction of WWII – the European Union. Created to ensure that such horrors of war never again swept across Europe. I didn’t hear that explained and discussed much in the run up to the Referendum. Did you?.

Referendums are advisory not legally binding. They are a sounding out. A temperature gauge. They are a process for government to assess the popular mood and appetite.

David Cameron promised in his party’s manifesto that if elected he would hold a referendum on our country’s membership of the EU. Because he didn’t for one second believe the country would vote to leave he pushed it further by promising he would honour whatever the majority of the public decided. Was that for him to decide?  As a supreme court has ruled a decision of such magnitude can only ever be decided by our elected parliament. False & Empty promise number one. And non–democratic.

And so the Remain & Leave Campaigns began. The Leave Campaign mainly promised that all the money currently spent on the EU would be given to our NHS instead. False & Empty promise number two. And non-democratic.

No other clarity, plan or thought was given to what leaving the EU would actually look like, how it would be done, how much it would cost. No impact analysis was done. No debate around single markets, customs, trade, borders, current EU citizenship, the list is endless and simply non-democratic.

Rather we were simply asked to vote on whether we liked what we already had or whether we wanted to leave what we had with absolutely no idea whatsoever what that would entail. Jump ship into the unknown.. What an exciting adventure! And how non democratic

And so Britain spoke. Or rather Britain screamed from the top of its lungs. On a binary choice it screamed on a multitude of issues. Rage was unleashed. Fear was given a pen. Uncertainty, disgruntled, frustrated irritation was given voice. And good. In many ways I loved it. Because the scream has been coming now for a while.

And then the man who had promised the country a referendum jumped ship too and left us all afloat and wondering what to do. A big aching chasm was left where an opposition should have been because the newly appointed leader is a long-term Euro sceptic and had created a radio silence and confusion where a Remain Campaign should have been.

So then his party self-imploded which allowed the Right to re-write the narrative once again. No analysis please of what our party has done to this country. No debate. Close the conversation down. Adopt a stance. Look like the grown-ups whilst the children on the left argue amongst themselves. Let nanny sort it out. The people of Britain have spoken and they want Brexit. What is that? No discussion around the fact that absolutely no one knows what this invented term Brexit actually means so therefore how could we know we want it. It is clear we all want something. So we will be told what we want. It is to become known as a ‘hard Brexit’. I don’t remember that being on the voting slip? The choice between soft and hard? That is what we want though. We have spoken. Haven’t we?

52% shouted Leave because …because…we don’t trust any politicians, they don’t represent us, it is meaningless, because I am angry, because I have never worked outside of the UK, because I don’t really get it, because I think we should have sovereignty, because I fear change and want Britain to look like Britain that I remember, imagine, crave, understand. Because I feel frightened, patronised, not listened to, forgotten, misunderstood, silenced, frustrated and bored…because money is wasted on bureaucracy, because I hate bureaucracy because because because….because……

We were given a binary choice, very little guidance and absolutely no actual information on what one of the choices actually entailed and very little explanation that this would be an irreversible decision and how much it would cost in any sense of the word. And we definitely weren’t told how much bureaucracy it would entail.

And now…. Well now we have a PM running around the world desperately trying to broker trade deals with any Tom, Dick or Harry, whatever their values, to make up for the ones we are disconnecting from and to make ‘Hard Brexit’ look a bit shinier and exciting and like the adventure we were promised and then we won’t need to put all that money we have saved into the NHS because chunks of that will have been sold off as part of the deal.

Ok got a bit carried away there but can we please just stop and discuss the fact that we have some very good free open markets already and maybe this all needs to be in that manifesto we never got before we voted?

We elect our MPs to act on our behalf. In our best interests and the best interests of the whole of Britain. That is key. Is it actually in our best interests to leave the EU? Not because we screamed about a multitude of things which all need listening to. Will leaving the EU fix them? If it will and if it really honestly is in our best interests then ok. But not because we told you to. Because we had no idea what it meant. And if that means you don’t get re-elected then that is what you are paid to do. Put us first. Not yourselves. Which is why Mr Corbyn this should be an individual’s conscience vote. Sometimes as you have to force people to be free. Sometimes you have to go against the popular vote because you know it to be right.

Great Leaders know that. They know they have to stand against a tide sometimes and hold, say pause, wait, let’s reflect. It may not make them popular but I would vote for authenticity, values, integrity and truth every time. That is true democracy.

Dedicated to Jo Cox & Jo Stevens.