Tony Dyer: ‘I want to take country forwards’

The terrible murder of Labour MP Jo Cox last week has led to calls for greater respect to be shown to politicians on both sides of the debate. 

But respect for those with opposing views cannot be restricted to politicians alone.  It also needs to be extended to those who find themselves the subject of political speeches and slogans.  Too often individuals are grouped together and labeled “benefit scroungers”, “bunch of migrants”, “racists”, “chavs”, “terrorist sympathisers” and so on.  

Such labelling de-personalises individuals, and undermines explanations of why people make personal decisions that may seem incomprehensible to those on the other side of the debate – such as leaving your loved ones behind to move to the UK, or, voting to leave the EU because of immigration. 

I have been to the refugee camps in Calais and heard harrowing stories of families devastated by war and poverty, and I have also stood on the doorstep in South Bristol and listened to families struggling to pay their rent and fearing eviction and homelessness.  

Sadly, such people have frequently been portrayed as being in competition with each other. 

On street stalls and doorsteps in Clifton, I find referendum conversations are almost always about the economy and international co-operation, and the vote is overwhelmingly to remain.  

But similar conversations in Hartcliffe and Withywood invariably turn to immigration and are much more likely to be a vote for leave.  

Facts showing immigration having a positive impact on the UK economy fall on stony ground. These are people who have repeatedly been told that the economy has been growing faster than ever and yet find themselves working ever harder to stay poor. They no longer link their own personal finances to that of the British economy as a whole.

They thus do not see the benefits of immigration accruing to themselves – instead, they see further competition for jobs and housing, and intend to vote for the side who say they will reduce that competition. 

The failure of consecutive governments to invest in the infrastructure needed to fully support an expanding population – truly affordable housing, decent jobs,  new vocational skills, and the public services needed to support both those already resident in the country and those arriving to contribute to its prosperity – has helped generate this atmosphere of competition between the have-nots and the have-littles.

Regardless of the outcome of the referendum on Thursday, Britain’s underlying socio-economic problems will still be there when we wake up on Friday. To resolve them we need to build an economy that works for the vast majority of the population not one increasingly focused on a tiny elite. 

I don’t want to take my country back, I want to take it forwards. To do that requires politicians to have respect not just for those delivering speeches but also for those they imagine are listening to them, and to be prepared to invest in those same people for our shared future prosperity. 

Tony Dyer is an IT specialist who stood as the Green Party‘s mayoral candidate in this year’s election. 

Image by Aaron Chown 

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