Being “Non-Political” Is Only Protecting The Powerful

“Taking the politics out” is about accepting the established order

The Council Chamber in Colchester Town Hall, where I and others were regularly accused of “just playing politics”.

“Why can’t we just take the politics out of this?”

“You’re playing politics with this important topic”

“What I’m proposing is just common sense, it’s only your ideology that stops you agreeing with me.”

“Why don’t you all just get together and agree what’s right, and then do it?”

I heard all those many times during my career in local politics. Frequently from members of the public, often from politicians in other parties, many times from people who insisted that what we really needed was a new centrist party, and sometimes even from people in my own party (back when I was a member of one). I didn’t count how many times I heard them, but I soon learned that whether they were said sincerely or insincerely, they all were actually saying just one thing:

“Everyone should agree with me.”

It’s an irregular verb: I know what’s best, you’re being political, their minds are poisoned by ideology.

There are two forms of this you encounter: the naive and the cynical. The naive view starts from the belief that are simple solutions to problems but that somehow, either by cock-up or…