Leafleting for Majority, I stopped a bloke in Newcastle city centre.
Late thirties, Geordie accent, carrying a plastic bag with his shopping in, he said:
Oh, I’ll definitely be voting in the next council election.
I asked:
Who are you thinking of voting for?
“Re Form,” he pronounced, as two separate words.
You get a lot of that these days. Loads of media commentators and Westminster bubble people expound their theories why. Few of them actually go and find out for themselves.
Local elections: breaking through the Westminster bubble to find out what voters really think
I asked him if he thought Reform will fix anything after the local elections. Yes, partly as a leading question, but I was genuinely interested to hear his thoughts.
“Well, erm, aye,” then a short pause, “Farage is the man isn’t he?”
I followed up with:
What do you think needs fixing?
“Homelessness.” No hesitation this time. He continued:
Like, you see people sleeping in shop doorways. And begging, and if people give them money it goes on drugs.
I asked him his name: Ryan.
Then, I told Ryan a story.
A few years ago I visited HMP Northumberland and spoke to some of the inmates there. When I was mayor we funded courses so inmates could get skilled up and get an interview and have a job arranged all before they were released. So they came out with an income and with a life plan. I asked some of the lads what they thought would be an improvement. And they told me something I never thought I would ever hear a prisoner say.
They said:
The sentences are too short. You get lads with 3 month sentences, they serve like 5 weeks, and the drugs are barely out of their system and they’re released. But wherever they were staying has gone when they get out. And who’s nice to them? The drug dealers. So they go straight back on it.
I’m not sure longer sentences are the answer, but they were right about the problem. I explained the ‘Housing First’ policy. Giving people somewhere to live that they know can’t be taken off them. Where if they miss an appointment with a job coach they still have their home. With that foundation, they start to feel in control of their lives. They start to turn their lives around.
Working class voters have lived austerity’s devastating reality
Ryan was nodding along:
Aye, and they can get proper rehab and stuff, and they’ll turn up because they have somewhere to live. You know I struggled when I came out of prison.
I had no idea – I’d never met him before. For privacy I’ll skip over the details of Ryan’s youth he shared with me. But it struck a chord with him. The fact that I’d listened to people with his life experience. Not just listened, but heard them, and learned from them too. In return, he listened to me.
We spoke about the Newcastle Assembly where the people will develop their own manifesto. That we’ll be running in next May’s local elections for a progressive coalition to take control of Newcastle city council. Would Ryan vote for us?
Well I was just saying Re Form because there was no one else. Labour just lie.
He paused for a moment. Then, he said:
You know, if I was prime minister, I could fix this country in six months.
I was impressed. Even I’m not that confident, and I’ve ran an arm of government. I asked him what he would do. Ryan said:
You’ve got all people, like working, but they haven’t got any money, and they’re struggling to pay their bills and buy food and that. The government could support them with a bit money. And you wouldn’t have as much crime. You wouldn’t have people sleeping in doorways. And things like tourism would improve. Who’s going to come and visit here if there’s people sleeping rough?
One working-class lad with a tough history spoke more economic sense in one five minute conversation than Rachel Reeves has since she was elected, despite her Nobel Prize in economics, or whatever her CV says these days. Ryan got anti-austerity politics because he lived it. And not one word about immigration passed his lips.
Honesty and integrity: what’s missing from politics
I spoke to Alison. She also had a broad Geordie accent, and works two jobs, one as a cleaner, one as bar staff. She’s helping her daughter get through university, who’s training as a nurse.
Referring to Reform’s local elections landslide in County Durham last week, she asked me:
What do you think of them getting in in Durham, then?
I asked her if she thought they’d fix anything. Alison replied:
Nah. They’re just all talk like the rest of them. They won’t fix nowt. They’re going on about people working from home now. But who can you vote for? Labour have gone back on everything they’ve said. Everything.
She told me about her daughter, and how expensive her accommodation is. My son’s at uni too, and it’s eye watering. I told her about the assembly, about having a manifesto where the people get to take part in setting policy. Would she vote for us?
I will pet, I will.
Once you get out of the social media bubble, people just want things to work. We chose the name Majority because the majority of people agree with our politics. Making sure everyone has a secure home. Public utilities run for the good of the public. A wealth tax on the very rich. Every poll shows between 70% and 80% of people want these things to happen.
It’s also about integrity. We can’t slam the Tories for VIP WhatsApp lanes and Labour for freebies unless we’re better. The most effective line in my mayoral campaign was, “In five years I claimed £0 expenses”.
Integrity means being honest. We stick firm to our values of anti-racism, anti-ableism and LGBTQ+ inclusion. Honesty gets you respect. It wasn’t Labour’s stance on immigration that lost them these local elections. It was their stance on truth.
Featured image via the Canary
