An Amateur Activist
Image credit: Zeno Hind
The General Election was always about more than just Brexit. It was a time to stand up for progressive liberal values and uphold freedom of speech. One newcomer to the Party reflects on those few febrile weeks of campaigning in her own constituency and why the result should give us all reason to hope.
I confess. I came late to the Party, almost three years late after post 2016 referendum ruminations on what life might be like on this small island, stranded at sea from our nearest European neighbours, reliant on our back gardens and allotments for a staple diet of root vegetables and tuber crops. We were taking back control of our borders, our people, our values, hell, even our bangers. As our nostalgia for the post-war period grew, so did our ability to stomach xenophobia in all its ugly guises, holding our metaphorical noses at the whiff of French saucisson or its bigger, brasher Bratwurst cousin.
Well, bollocks to that. Like nearly half of the electorate who voted Remain, we too felt stranded. We had a fight on our hands to stop Brexit and stand up for progressive pro-European liberalism. I joined the Liberal Democrats in early 2019 and took part in a couple of marches, the first time I had taken to the streets since my student days in the late 80s protesting against Maggie and the Poll Tax.
Like nearly half of the electorate who voted Remain, we too felt stranded. We had a fight on our hands to stop Brexit and stand up for progressive pro-European liberalism.
There are myriad reasons for latent political activism, possibly brought on by a mid-life crisis and a sense of one’s mortality and powerlessness, the need to be part of the many not the few to bring about change. Or simply, perhaps, that as a mother I wanted my children to have the same freedoms of movement and opportunity that I had had as a young woman making my own small steps into the world. Europe, Barcelona in particular, had shaped my life. It was where aged 21 I taught English as a foreign language and met my future husband. And a similar fortune for my sister who met her French husband while crossing Europe to bring medical supplies to orphans in Romania. Peel back the layers of my new found political identity and it would reveal a certain naïve romanticism at its beating heart.
Excerpt from Confessions of an Amateur Activist. Lucy Hodges resigned from the Party shortly after the General Election and has not joined a Political Party since.
