Scotland Demands Better: Why mass Edinburgh rally will provide hopeful antidote to far-right protest in London
Politicians need to have their minds focussed on the NHS, the cost of living, poverty and inequality
It’s hard not to be worried at the sight of tens of thousands of people following far-right agitators onto the streets of London. In a time of worry for our minority ethnic communities, we need to bring friends and neighbours closer who are understandably threatened by parades of anger.
In such a febrile context, it’s naïve to ignore how overlooked so many people feel at the moment by our politicians. But it is a mistake to think that the road taken by those earlier this month, one lined with hate, leads to a positive place for anyone.
It’s quite clear to all those familiar with our poorest communities in Britain that we need real change. In this context, politicians need to do more than simply admitting that defending the status quo is no longer an option. If that was ever a good political tactic, it no longer is now.
A million in poverty
Equally, they can no longer continue to argue that they are making significant changes while tinkering around the edges. Politicians can’t offer more of the same – the point where we can maintain a million people in Scotland living in poverty, including a quarter of a million children, has passed.
It is time for politicians to offer an alternative, to strive for better. To not cede the ground to ideologies that divide and alienate people as a supposed cure for division and alienation.
People in Scotland consistently tell pollsters what they are worried about – the NHS, the cost of living, inflation, and yes immigration, but also poverty and inequality.
Long before the march in London and flags appearing across the country, the Poverty Alliance was building the Scotland Demands Better campaign. Now more than 200 organisations across Scotland have joined under that banner, a key part of which will be a march and rally in Edinburgh on October 25.
It’s a campaign that recognises there are far too many people in our society who are being left behind, who often can’t even secure life’s essentials. But it also recognises that the solutions are within our grasp, and lives can improve if the politicians choose to focus on what’s important to people.
A chance for politicians to listen
Everyone needs a decent, warm, affordable home, a job that can pay the bills and good public services, including social security when required.
It’s a non-political campaign. We are not working with or for any political party. No politicians will be on the stage at the rally. They can join the march, they can listen, but they’re not in the driving seat.
Our politicians, both in Westminster and Holyrood, have plenty of chances to speak, and there’ll be chances for them to show they’ve listened, whether it is at the UK Budget in November or at next year’s Holyrood election. Both will be opportunities to commit to actions that will make a meaningful difference.
Recent events in London underline how important this campaign is. It’s an opportunity to provide an alternative future to the darkness displayed on those streets. A future where everyone has a decent platform in life, where our economy and public services can flourish because our most important asset as a country, our people, is our first priority. Crucially, this is based on the belief that our country will do better when everyone within it is able to thrive.
Life more nuanced than social media
Social media platforms are warping the debate as they are geared up to reward posts that bait people into rage and into simplistic explanations, and once people see that content, the algorithm feeds them more.
But life is much more nuanced than that. In essence, most people just want to get on and for their families and friends to be able to do so too. People want their kids to have good chances in life, the NHS to look after them and their families if they get ill, and for our older people to live good retirements with care when they need it.
Most people also understand that families aren’t 2.4 children anymore, and that life is complicated. They want a decent job, or the chance to run their own business and pay their bills from their graft, but also know that life can trip us up sometimes and we all need a bit of support now and again.
At the moment in our country, when life trips us up, it is too often the case that there is no hand to help us up. That can and should change. We can and should demand better, under a banner that proudly states that when everyone flourishes, we all do.
Countering the poison
Many of those who watched the news coverage of the mass march that took place in London earlier this month, showing thousands of angry people draped in flags, were left feeling both bewildered and powerless.
But they should take comfort from the fact that it is, in fact, very much within their power to insist our politicians address some of the issues which have been bubbling under in British society for so long, leaving people feeling neglected, overlooked and forgotten.
To counter the poisonous movement that has galvanised people to take to the streets of London and other cities, it is time to start spreading a different message, one grounded in positivity, about the kind of country we want to be.
It’s time for civil society to stand up for the better Scotland that we believe in. For unions, charities, and every single person who wants to see change to take to the streets of Edinburgh to demand it.
Chris Birt is associate director for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Peter Kelly is chief executive of the Poverty Alliance.
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