The real world - where is it?

'Talking Point' by Councillor Ian Sharer, leader of Hackney Council's Liberal Democrat group, for the 'Hackney Gazette', 27 November 2009


Sometimes when you wake from a deep dream, you struggle to grasp what is reality. Is it the dream that seems so vivid as your mind emerges into wakefulness? Or is it the still vague apparition of the "real world" as the shadows clear away? That, I am sure, has been the feeling of many observers of the recent political scene.

Amidst the fairy-land pageantry of the State Opening of Parliament, we have had the announcement of an apparently impressive programme of law-making that on closer inspection turns out to be no more substantial than the flimsiest gossamer webs caught in the autumn sunshine. Apparently it's all about political 'dividing lines'. Very clever, I'm sure, in the Westminster hot-house but in reality, can there have been a more cynical and dishonest government since the days of Stanley Baldwin?

Then there has been the farce of the European Union presidential elections. Not, of course, elections as universally understood in any democratic society but elections by cabal worthy of the most retrograde communist politburo. The outcome has been utterly insignificant and, in this strange world of bureaucratic fantasy, that may be an advantage. Yet when politicians bemoan the lack of public interest in what they like to call "politics", can they really be surprised?

My guess is that there are far more people in Hackney talking about Thierry Henry's "Hand of God" goal against Ireland in the World Cup qualifiers than there are those debating the merits of the European Union's new High Panjandrum. There was certainly far more exuberant celebration in Finsbury Park of Algeria's qualification than was evident in the tired jowls and jaded soundbites of our representatives in Brussels and Westminster. Which, then, is the "real world" for most of our citizens?


The danger is that between these two extremes, the really important issues are locked out. And the really important issue in the coming weeks must be the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Crucial decisons affecting all of us and future generations must be taken. They cannot be allowed to fall victim to self-indulgent populism on the one side and political self-interest on the other.

Here in Hackney I hope the opportunity will be taken across political 'dividing lines' for the kind of thoughtful contribution in the 'Gazette' by Councillor Shuja Sheikh on waste and consumerism. That is why I have invited opposition groups on the Council to come together with interested Hackney residents to produce a genuinely alternative "green budget".
It's time for hard-headed innovation, not dreary electioneering.