Book - Honourable Friends? By Caroline Lucas
Do I want to know any more about the despicable way British politics does its murky work than I already have the misfortune to know? That’s what I asked myself when I saw this on the library shelf. I decided that anything Caroline Lucas does is only going to make the world a better place so I dived in.
One of the word’s bravest and most principled politicians
Well, I’m sure they are others in the world who have had to fight more corrupt governments, however, there are few politicians that the statement on the jacket can be said about. Today, (and it’s got markedly worse since when I started reading the book) UK politics is bad as it can be. It’s as bad as I’ve known it and it’s never actually anything I’ve cared about or had any interest in. I’m disappointed in myself that I actually recognise the names of more than 5 current politicians than at any other time.
Apart from the fact that the candidates know the result before their name is called out on election night (nooooo!), almost everything I’ve read in this book is unsurprising and appalling (U&A)
There was no office for Caroline and her team when she started her job as an MP (there was when she started as an MEP).
The idiocy of having to call people honourable friends (especially when they are the opposite) rather than just ‘Caroline’.
Caroline points out champagne sales in Westminster going up as ‘brutal cuts’ being made to services.
Apart from all the shambles of the EU referendum and everything that has not happened since (and other referendums have happened and the government has taken no notice of the result), the worse thing for me is how we treat those most in need. Cutting peoples money (benefits) means they're not spending so businesses close, jobs are lost and we're all worse off.
I deliver a few money workshops in schools and I often explain that benefits are like insurance; we pay into welfare & one day we may need to make a claim. Everyone will claim a pension. The book points out cuts to services are in predominate female employed areas (who already get paid less) and they affect full-time carers most, also predominately women.
Can you imagine if a regular business operated in this farcical way? What sort of example are they setting the rest of us when they are firmly in the 19th Century, let alone 20th? It seems there is one law for MPs (lying to police, claiming unlimited benefits (expenses), wasting time & money) and another for us, the people they serve.
Caroline’s only overseas trip to Portugal (at the time of publication) to find out the outcomes of legalising drugs was self-funded. On a side note, I knew this from being offered drugs on every street corner in Porto to which I politely declined in the same way I do to people handing out leaflets.
Some staggering facts:
Over half of the 2010 Cameron government went to private school.
Over half went to Oxbridge
The cabinet’s wealth in 2012 was £70m
There is a chapter on Caroline’s arrest and acquittal and a quite frank section about the police practise of kettling – holding protesters in one place which as I am sure is obvious to those of regular mind, unnecessary, in particular for peaceful, quiet protests.
It was good to learn about Caroline’s efforts to banish unnecessary fees charged to tenants as these have been banned this year. It also proves how lengthy and fragile every attempt to change a law takes.
We could do with a change in the law to buildings lying empty when people are homeless. Apparently the landowner pays less tax for unused land so there is no incentive to actually use it. Vancouver bought in an ‘empty homes tax’ recently prevent this and now people are renting their second homes out at a reasonable rent so everyone wins.
Of the other things Caroline supports, I’m a big fan of job share and flexible working and pleased that there are tiny inroads into this for MPs. However, they need to come into the 21st century and stop voting at night and with their feet. That is so 19th century.
It’s interesting that the author asserts that whereas the liberals campaigned for in sex & race equality, decriminalised homosexuality and legalised abortion, Labour didn't support women (feminism) or their rights. Perhaps for many of us our perception is wrong?
Overall, there is positivity around collaborative cross-party work as it seems in today's society of the majority of politicians there to serve themselves rather than the people.
I’m looking forward to a time when I don’t know politicians names. Can Caroline and her ilk get that for me? If so, I will support them with everything I have.