Be careful...
of mononymous political parties bearing flags
You may feel you belong there. They’re reaching out to you. Tongues are soft and the themes are familiar; work, family, pride. Beckoning you to a place that feels like home. Shining a light on neglected areas that have seen better days, appealing to the community to come together to make a difference. It makes sense.
You speak the language, well you use the same words at least. An appeal to ‘British values’ might seem like a comfort in uncertain times, but it offers little salve to the casualities of Empire.
Protecting our women and girls, taking care of the elderly and the vulnerable, affordable housing, funding the NHS, those are good things, right? Right?
But be careful, it might look like a welcome, but really it’s a trap. Even if they ‘don’t mean you’, it doesn’t make it safe. Who is on the list of undesirables, who decides who should be banished, who makes the rules that they say we have to follow? And what happens if we don’t?