By Lindsay Ash
A COUPLE of weeks back, just after the UK election, I was perusing the Sunday papers in the local hostelry with a glass of red and, as I did so, certain things struck me. No, not objects from other regulars, although I wouldn’t put it past them… but thoughts. These were sparked by one or two articles in the paper.
The first part was where Sir Keir Starmer was assuring everyone that he was there to bring the country together regardless of whether you had voted Labour or not. Now this as a sentiment was excellent, I thought. We should all be one… not judged on any other criteria other than what we are like as human beings, regardless of race, background or gender. Good start, Keir.
Unfortunately, on the next page it was reported that he congratulated Rishi Sunak on having been Prime Minister, especially as he was of Asian descent, which made it even more of an achievement “the extra effort that that required should not be underestimated by anyone”. Which seems slightly at odds with us all being as one, especially as Rishi becoming PM was probably an easier path for him than many others, regardless of his ethnic background, as he was educated at Winchester, Oxford and then undertook an MBA at Stanford – a privileged background that brought considerable verbal odium to Cameron and Bojo.
Never mind, elsewhere in the paper do we hear from Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that she is going to treat us all as one? Perhaps by detailing her plans of paying for the public sector pay rises by having OAPs sponsored by Bejam’s (one for older readers there… oh, OK, it’s called Iceland now) or how we are all going to donate our taxes to pay for UK carbon neutrality by 2030. All for one and one for all, eh?
Sadly not. She starts off by saying how delighted she is to be the first female Chancellor, as though that has any relevance on her ability to do the job. Also, women holding top political roles is not entirely a novelty any more.
Having read these snippets I then reflected on how society has often been divided and whether things have improved and whether Keir’s words could become reality. In the past century we had two major examples of people being segregated. One was, of course, Hitler’s Germany, which started with segregation and ended with an attempt at wiping out an entire race. The other was South Africa, where people were segregated on the basis of their colour. It is perhaps South Africa that provides us with our best “Keir’s dream” moment, which was provided by Nelson Mandela upon his release from prison.
It would have been very easy for President Mandela to be embittered by his experience and turn on the Afrikaans who had overseen this system. He, however, saw that the country would be a better place if the different factions came together as one in a “rainbow” nation and would be stronger for it, even though he knew it might be politically difficult… “If I preached unity, I must act like a unifier even at the risk of perhaps alienating some of my own colleagues”. To an extent this worked, as can be viewed with the wholesale support in South Africa for a rugby team that is now multicultural but was once despised by many as being the embodiment of apartheid.
However, it would not be unfair to say that since the death of President Mandela things have slipped, with quota systems being implemented in certain sectors of society.
Two extreme examples possibly, but where do we sit on this because we are, after all, the bastion of fairness, free speech and all round jolly good chaps. We would not tolerate segregation of people, would we?
Well, while we are mostly jolly good chaps/chapesses (nearly forgot there… Soooo close to being cancelled) it’s important to remember that we have strayed in the past. After all, women were not allowed to vote on the same terms as men until less than a century ago, in 1928.
But Lash, I hear you say, that’s history now. We have moved on. Look at the progress we have made. At first glance, yes we have; one only has to look at things such as the Marylebone Cricket Club (once the bastion of male privilege, now admitting women) while here in Jersey La Moye Golf Club abandoned its men-only bar, as did the United Club it’s male-only membership. We now have laws that prevent hate speech and promote equality, so all is fine and we all live happily ever after… well, actually, no we don’t.
In many ways we now live in a more segregated society than we ever did, as people divide themselves up into sections to promote their own interests and celebrate their achievements over other sections of society. You want examples? There are many, but here are two that spring to mind: the Music of Black Origin Awards and the Women in Business Awards. Not only are they segregated, they are celebrated for being so by the media. In some ways there is no harm in this, as it has happened for years – the Women’s Institute being a good example and the previously mentioned MCC being another. But, when you are telling everyone it’s vital that we are inclusive and all one happy family it seems at odds with the stated aim.
I know this will be greeted with a “no, this is different” from various quarters, but it really isn’t. Ask yourself this: if a White Sportsman of the Year Award was announced do you think it would be greeted with widespread applause and described as a splendid idea, or rightly condemned as divisive and unpleasant? I think we all know the answer.
The tragedy is that even when we are all pulling together as one, such as in the European Football Championships, someone will try to divide us. In this case people pointing out how many of the England team were descended from immigrants… “England doesn’t win without immigration.”
Why should this be necessary? It isn’t. The England team represents (or should represent) everyone in the country, as does Team GB in the Olympics. After all, we don’t have pictures of the rowing eight saying “Team GB can’t row without elite public schools”. Why would we? They are there merely to represent themselves and the nation and, like the footballers, they did it brilliantly.
I know this will be a controversial article, but I hope it will make people think about what real inclusion and unity means and looks like. In my opinion it isn’t just when it suits. Such a sense of unity cannot be created – it has to be truly felt and, in the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Unity to be real must stand the severest strain without breaking”.
At the moment I think we are some way from that vision.
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Lindsay Ash was Deputy for St Clement between 2018 and 2022, serving as Assistant Treasury and Home Affairs Minister under Chief Minister John Le Fondré. He worked in the City of London for 15 years as a futures broker before moving to Jersey and working in the Island’s finance industry from 2000. Feedback welcome on Twitter @Getonthelash2.
