After the 2016 Brexit referendum I quickly came to the realisation in 2017 that democracy in the UK was broken. During austerity I witnessed as my community were slowly being strangled of public funding. In my village, Madeley, I had been a strong supporter of the independent councillors because I became frustrated and angry with the two main political parties. I became their friends, helped them out with campaigning to get them elected onto Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council. I even became a member of Madeley Parish Council, to add my voice to the debate and represent the unheard voices of Madeley.
Brexit, austerity and populism divided my community. They turned friends and family against each-other. People, including me, became lost to what mattered. People’s behaviour started to change; hate replaced compassion and it is always someone else’s fault. In Madeley I witnessed as the run-down community centre was replaced with an over 50s retirement complex and village hub. Great, I thought, a village hub – a place for the scouts to return and perhaps some sort of youth club – but no, nothing. Unsurprisingly anti-social behaviour in Madeley became an issue – so-much-so the Parish Council and the two borough Councillors are intent on spending public money to get private CCTV installed, yet have consecutively failed to listen to the teenagers in the village who ask for shelter and a WiFi connection. Austerity has slapped my community hard in its face.
Two of my three children became locked in the zero-hour gig economy as chefs. My attitude and their attitude were work, work, work. A work-life balance was something that did not exist, a myth amongst the working class – to live; to survive you had to work, work, work. My youngest worked through his Chron’s diagnosis, tears flowing down his face because he had no energy, his manager forced him to carry on working; “or get no hours next week.” My eldest climbed to head chef; a great accomplishment at the young age of 24 – or was it? Christmas 2019, he suffered burn-out and had a mental breakdown. His hours working up to and over Christmas day averaged out at 90 a week – being on a salary he got paid for 45 hours, so worked 45 free; “you’re head chef, there is no-one else and you are responsible.’
2018 a young Swedish girl appeared on my twitter feed. A solitary schoolgirl named Greta Thunberg; she began to protest about climate change. “Climate change” – I remember that from school some 20 years earlier and here it is again. I was hooked to what she was saying, “our house is on fire.” Extinction Rebellion started in May 2018 and I felt I had to join, so I did. I read all the literature, watched all the YouTube content – it was extremely depressing; there was no plan, just a message – the world is ending.
What resonated with me the most and the way I visualised the destruction going on around us was when I read about the seabird decline on Shetland. In the late ‘90s I had sailed with the Royal Navy around Shetland and working on helicopters I remember being concerned with the dense flocks of sea birds flying around. In 2000 there were 33,000 puffins happily flying around Shetland. In 2018 there was an apocalyptic plunge in numbers to just 570. According to scientists this catastrophic decline is down to a lack of food source resulting from sea temperatures rising.
Politically homeless, depressed with contemporary working conditions and in a state of panic regarding the climate emergency, I began looking for leadership – searching for a voice to comfort me and a voice that screams “I have plan.” December 2018, I found that voice on the BBC’s Question Time. Caroline Lucas from the Green Party tore into David Davis when he announced the UK will “be perfectly able to do a managed WTO exit.” In her reply Caroline Lucas was, and is, the only politician I heard who understood why people voted leave – “they were absolutely furious with the status quo.” Her plan on Brexit was to address the causes of what made people furious then hold another referendum on the final deal. Caroline Lucas being brave enough to not get drawn into the debate and to say on live TV she knew why people voted leave – made me sit up and listen.
Caroline Lucas ended the show with “please, google the green new deal” – so I did. I was amazed, it was a plan I was looking for – a bright green light that is shining bright from a lighthouse far away. We are bouncing around on the waves of the Brexit and Austerity storm – we are all in the same boat and COVID-19 is forcing us to work together – and we must, we must follow the green light to the lighthouse that gives us all a new deal.
COVID-19 has made us realise what we had before, was not normal. Extortionate rents, fragile wages and working every dread day that is given us – the normal that came before turned the working class into zombies – what comes after MUST ignite and inspire the working class.
The Green New Deal does this. In the UK the Green New Deal rids us of our dependence on dirty fossil fuels. They want to build a new economy, a green economy where the financial system serves the needs of the people and our precious planet. Making our government accountable to the people and not corporations. Within this green economy the Green New Deal plans to create millions of secure, well paid, future proof jobs. COVID-19 has awoken people to the outdoors again – people are appreciating our precious environment around us. The Green New Deal plans to restore and protect habitats and wild areas. The Green New Deal wants the UK to be global pioneers; to show and support the rest of the world how to build fair, clean economies.
Boris Johnson has spaffed billions of pounds of public money on scrupulous PPE contracts. On Tuesday 24th November, Rishi Sunak is to announce tax hikes to claw this money back. The working-class face yet another decade of Austerity where crime, homelessness and poverty will soar – yet the rich will get richer. They are going to attempt to convince us there is no alternative – just like they did in 2010 – but there is, just like there was in 2010. The difference this time there are more of us listening to politician’s like Caroline Lucas – there are more of us aware of the Green New Deal – we must not return to the normal before, the normal that was not normal – we need a fair, green society where everyone prospers not just the privileged few.
www.greennewdealuk.org