Never in my political life have I ever been so invested in the future of this country than I have in the last few weeks. It’s been a tough week and my optimism has been floundering.
If I hear strong and stable one more time…
There has been so much blatant propaganda and nonsense… but, never have I seen so many people openly engaged in politics, forming opinions and having debates discussing the policies that will affect them. It has been refreshing to see how talking about political topics is becoming ok and natural again rather than shunned and frowned upon from discussion.
Amongst the campaigns that have been ran which have included activism and spaces for discussion – there has been a vicious, biased and dehumanising smear campaign run by the majority of the press trying to fight it. It failed. The press and the government were so arrogant, they believed we would not see through their lies, they believed us too lazy to care about our country! They were wrong.
Today marks progress.
It shows that actively engaging in our current political system, however flawed it may be, can actually bring about change. We have potentially dethroned someone that wanted to re-write our human rights. Someone who has systematically increased police cuts. Someone that was responsible for reducing race monitoring in stop and search procedures. Someone who is quite frankly quivering in their boots this morning.
Young people under 30 can truly say they are part of something. A movement for progressive thinking, a movement for a fair society and a movement for real change.
We turned up in our millions! We spoke with our ballot papers. We made the first steps to take control of our futures. The first step was this election, it was unbalancing the power that seeks to reduce us to placid voting vessels, that seeks to engross us in fear, to blame culture and ultimately seeks to divide our country into hating each other.
Now is our time to act. We voted – we have momentum and it is crucial more than ever that this does not stop. The conversations must continue, the campaigning must remain strong. We need to shake up our democracy and make it work for us. I urge everyone that has been vocal over the past few weeks to continue to use these platforms and spaces to have your voices heard. They are loud, they are strong and they are echoing all over the country this morning.
We have signed up to a movement of real change, a movement that is fair. A movement that represents progress. A movement that is against oppression.
We have all signed up for a movement of hope. A movement for the many, not the few.
Written by Jay Crutchley.
Want to write a guest blog? The themes for 2017 have been released, continuing with ‘Advice’ in June. Send your blog to bradley@beatfreeks.com, or contact for more information.