The war of slander waged by
The Daily Mail against Ed Miliband’s father, Ralph Miliband, has become a
pivotal moment for the future of young people who write and work in politics.
There is something about the whole ongoing episode that has crossed over from
‘dirty politics’ into ‘dirty nationalism politics’ and it is for this reason
that I worry about what the repercussions could be for young people.
Ed is basically being
persecuted for not having a British father who fulfils the stereotypical image
of being British. The Daily Mail, in effect, offers the British test of having
a love for ‘Eton and Harrow, Oxford and Cambridge, the great
Clubs, the Times, the Church, the Army and the respectable Sunday papers’. I don’t know about you but I felt really
quite embarrassed at this list. Is this all that there is to Britain?
The paper has more to offer
on what Ralph Miliband wrote: ‘It
also means the values of the ruling orders, keep the workers in their place,
strengthen the House of Lords, maintain social hierarchies, God save the Queen,
equality is bunk, democracy is dangerous etc...
In chastising Ralph Miliband
the paper, basically, is mounting a campaign to keep politics within the realms
of the ruling classes who went to Eton and Harrow, Oxford and Cambridge, dined
at Clubs, read the Times, send their sons to be Commanders in the Army and
prayed on a Sunday to (probably) keep women Bishops out. In other words, the
call is for a return to another bygone era, a demand for absolute obedience to
the ruling classes.
What does this all mean for
someone like me and many more like me? Firstly, given the level of worship of
the free market by the right wing then globalisation is a natural occurrence.
Free market of goods and services do not flow by themselves. They require
people to travel and deliver them. So, we have migrants now living in the UK and
children, like me, being born to parents who were not born British. I hold a
British passport.
Secondly, given the high
incidence of war as a means of carrying out international relations and war is
always favoured by the right wing then refugees and asylum seekers coming into Britain is
another occurrence. The children of these families will become British at some
point. Many of these children will love Britain for offering them the
sanctuary of peace and security that they did not get in their original home
country. However (and I have met such children) these children do not believe
in unquestioning obedience. They have seen atrocities committed, experienced
being victims of state violence, they do not believe in God easily because they
think that if God existed he would not have let them suffer and they certainly
have a suspicion of guns. Eton, Cambridge,
clubs will be as distant from their lives as food stamps and food banks is to
the right wing.
One does not have to be born
in Britain to become an MP,
unlike in America.
One can be a British or Commonwealth citizen. Who is to say that at some point
we won’t have children going into politics with a firm belief that they really
want to make the world a better place and not to fleece the expenses
system?
Lastly, to question the
capitalist system is not a crime. I didn’t sit through three days of a five day
Marxism conference in London
for nothing. My mother took me. It has always been part of my education to
learn about what is outside my system of belief. I own a Ralph Miliband book.
If you don’t know anything else than your own narrow world then you may as well
live in a Duck pond or build a moat around your house.
All young people regardless
of their political belief need to support Ed M in this situation. It feels as
if a trial of class politics and economic systems and parentage is being held.
Politics will be closed off to us if stupidity, as shown by the Daily Mail and
people who support it, win.
P.S. Marxism is becoming
hugely relevant as the inequality gap grows. Ralph Miliband said: “…the real problem for the people in charge of
affairs was not the threat of revolution but the need, as they saw it, to
contain pressure for reforms which the nation could not afford’. Page 4.
