POLITICS is about values, not power. It is about the inclusive discussion of social issues such as fairness, justice and even, guess what, equality. And it is also about the consensual arrival at agreement. Yes, we might lose a few arguments but we consent to the values we have collectively decided upon.

In the Ancient Greek Polis how else did the people make decisions about social behaviour?

VALUES are IT!

I recently read an account of an interview with Yvette Cooper, she who sent people to prison for treason because they held up bits of cardboard with the words Palestine Action scrawled on them. She was explaining all the national and international factors at play.

My paraphrase: “Well you have to take into account this and then you have to take into account that and when you have taken that into account you must also take into account this. And not forgetting thingummyjib and thingummyjab, not to mention thingummybob, let alone whatsitsname”.

VALUES?

So many of our politicians are playing power games. Their interest in ordinary people goes no further than guessing what might persuade them to vote for them. And that has the effect of peddling prejudice. Lies are told about immigrants. And who can forget that sign on the bus telling us that leaving the EU would give us all an extra £350 million a week to spend on the NHS.

They might as well say “Vote for me and your team will win the Premier League.”

I wrote the GCSE in Government and Politics. Government shut it down. I designed a GCSE in Community Studies. The same. I was slightly involved in the design of a GCSE in Women’s Studies. Government said it was “Not a subject worthy of study.”

We have all seen the phrase MIND THE GAP.

The gap between the People of Power and the People without Power is growing.