Waking up this morning was rather surreal if not totally unpredictable.
Hartlepool led the headlines.
Many of you may ask, not unreasonably, where is Hartlepool?
According to Google, “Hartlepool is a port town in the Borough of Hartlepool, of which it is the administrative centre, in County Durham, England. The town is 17 miles southeast of Durham, 12 miles northeast of Stockton-on-Tees and 20 miles southeast of Sunderland. The distance to Edinburgh is 153 miles.”
Some political observers framed the local election result as seismic and maybe it was.
For a town which last celebrated such notable headlines in the early part of the nineteenth century when, allegedly, the locals hung a monkey on charges of espionage gripping the national newsfeeds was, as Ian Dury may have put it, reasons to be cheerful.
Personally, my thoughts of Hartlepool had hitherto always been framed within the narrative of football. Notts normally lose there. Indeed, this season The Pools have completed the double over us without a goal conceded.
Yet Hartlepool is more important than the legend or the football. It is a powerful reminder of how we live our lives.
Politics is not an abstract notion. It is the framework that holds us all together and can, if we are not careful, tear us apart too.
Firstly, if you don’t engage with our democratic responsibility, then don’t be surprised if you end up being represented both locally and nationally by fools. It is also worth remembering that when you first went to the Cinema as a kid you may well have watched a Disney film. Whatever it was I doubt you have always seen the same genre forevermore. That should be the same for voting.
Photo by Steve Houghton-Burnett on Unsplash
Of the seven features at the multiplex choose the one that is right for the context of your life at that time. If you have kids, it may well be another Disney. If that analogy fails, take heed of these sobering words (attributed rather dubiously to Mark Twain): “Politicians are a lot like diapers. They should be changed frequently, and for the same reasons.”
Secondly, at the next election please open your door and hold those who seek power over you to account. See beyond the colour of the rosette. Better still, get involved. Attend a local council meeting and see how those who represent your vital interests perform. Why not stand for election too? You don’t have to be supremely clever or highbrow since if successful you will be supported by extremely competent officers and legal eagles. The only real qualification is to care for the place you live in and simply want better for everyone.
The ultimate power is in the cross on the ballot paper. Please don’t let the fools take over!
As Chris Kamara, the effervescent Sky football pundit, would say to Hartlepool born and bred Jeff Stelling, “Unbelievable Jeff!” On this occasion he would be right!
Up the Pools!
© Ian Kirke 2021
Title photo by Ian Robinson on Unsplash (The Headland, Hartlepool)