Peterborough city councillor’s call for unity across the UK

Campaigns leading up to last December’s election saw no apparent brake on the use of devious and sometimes dishonest tactics, such as fake websites, doctored videos, misleading data and deception on social media. Many commentators found it to have been the most dishonest election ever, suggesting it was caused by a serious lack of leadership and coherent policies.

I realise that in a quest to achieve their ambitions, parties will try their hardest to reach out for support, and will deliberately say what you want to hear, regardless of what is realistically do-able.

We must accept that electioneering is part of the game for politicians, but draw the line when their tactics are disingenuous or misleading. Hopefully, recent results showed that a cheat never prospers, and how an intelligent public saw through the bluster and went on to vote a large number of MPs out.

But of those who survived the cull, there is Jess Phillips MP who had campaigned earnestly for the Remain faction in Brexit debates. Remainers had fervently been making unfounded claims of nothing but doom and gloom as a consequence of Brexit, and I use this example to highlight the rhetoric and use of misleading tactics. I wonder how many of us noticed, in a recent televised interview with Andrew Marr when he asked if the argument was over, she admitted that no-one can tell how it will be. When asked if she was a (EU) re-joiner and would she campaign to return as soon as possible, she replied to say we will have to wait and see what the situation will be, and that people can sit and pretend they know what is going to happen, but that is just a lie. “If we are living in an absolute paradise of trade…..then maybe I’ll be proven wrong”.

The trend seems to be that it is all part of a game as to who can outdo the other by any means, and sadly, there seems to be no penalty for misleading – other than at the ballot box. It is about time that politicians realise we are struck by election fatigue, and all because they have stumbled or fudged their way to endless confusion, absolutely rudderless. I’m afraid that unless the new Prime Minister can show character, competence and vision, we can only expect more of the same. He needs to focus on bringing together all sides of the political spectrum to refresh our trust in politics and the issue of integrity.

The unity I ask for does not mean a change in political beliefs, because those can be maintained and will remain as each party’s ethos, but there has to be a realisation that we cannot accept more of the same old ways that have failed us. Infatuation for one political party is a relic of the past. Long gone is the promise of support by family tradition, because one thing the election results showed is that we are an intelligent and better-informed electorate who should not be taken for granted. We can recognise and respect leaders with empathy, who listen and learn, and not too full of their own self-importance to seek alternatives to succeed, so let us hope the current crop makes a better fist of it.

However, respect must be earned. Show me someone who can be open and sincere with their intention, and delivers it with focus and 
energy, and they will have mine.