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In all the aftermath of the EU referendum, amid all the name-calling, blame
and more sensible calls for unity, something has concerned me, which I don’t
think has been mentioned. On several programmes, attention was frequently drawn
to the fact that the South East and especially London would vote to remain
because the people there are better-educated! I am aghast at this for two
reasons. Firstly, it implies that northerners are somehow uneducated; and
secondly because it suggests that all educated people would vote remain. I am
also aghast at the truly unpleasant insults that have been hurled at those who
voted to leave, primarily insisting that they are either racists or ignorant.
There is no point in going over the old arguments about why leaving was – in my
view – a good thing, but it appears that this issue has raised more
political passion in this country that I have ever witnessed in my lifetime and
has also highlighted many deep divisions within the country. For years the main
political parties have been so similar to one another that there has been little
to choose between them. Perhaps this is the wake up call that the country needed
to discuss all the issues which concern us, in a more balanced way. To me,
the fundamental problem lies in the fact that many politicians do not view
themselves as representatives of the people, or as public servants, but rather
as rulers who have greater intelligence than the rest of us; and also in the
fact that we have to accept that within any country there will be conflicting
views. In my experience, the smaller the institution, the more successful it
is because the people within it feel ‘known’ and feel that their views count.
Smaller schools, for example, have been shown to work better than huge schools
with thousands of pupils. In the same way, a smaller state works better than a
huge one. This does not mean that smaller businesses, industries, schools,
countries etc. etc. cannot work amicably together, rather that individuals need
to feel that they have been heard. At the end of the day, we had a referendum in
which we were all entitled to vote. An outcome was reached and the only way
forward is to put behind us the unpleasantness and start building upon what we
have, creating and maintaining good relations with other nations, and respecting
that, however small the majority vote was, it was a majority. May I suggest,
too, that there is a rethink on the ‘uneducated masses’ of the north...the
places which produced William Wilberforce, Judi Dench, the Brontes, J.B.
Priestly, Delius, John Atkinson Grimshaw, L.S. Lowry, Henry Moore, Andrew
Marvell, James Brindley, Charles Halle etc. etc. Now I must don my flat cap
and feed my whippet before setting off down ’t pit..eh-up!
By the way...my latest book "Queen Victoria's Cousins" is available now in Kindle and paperback versions:
