Pulling Together

When a concern hits the Nation I have been surprised how, from across a very wide spectrum, all the people you talk to, from the extremes to rock solid traditionalist, there is a centralised opinion which conforms on the right response. Very pragmatic, largely conservative with a knuckle down and deal with it approach. Across the Nation we are more united in our responses to affairs that trouble us than you would think from the presentations showing our divided Nation. Within that broad spectrum of agreement on the direction needed as a response there are of course huge and passionate differences on how that response might be best implemented. That is were our diversity shows itself but that then is a healthy arena for debate, compromise and reaching consensus.

So long as there is a pause button. In highly charged situations say where a girl has been assaulted we do need a check to the Nations emotive response of tying the culprit to the whipping post. We need time for passions to cool and logic, reason and doubt to surface. Just maybe the culprit was a boy of same age and they had just finished playing a computer game, or the girl was a self harmer and it brought her pleasure, or a parent slapped her shin once for excessive outburst and the girl was given to drama, or a schizophrenic patient missed medication and found themselves in a wrong place and time or just that act of a middle aged immigrant known sexual repeat offender. We need time to pause and review before jumping in with solutions, no matter how overwhelmingly right they seem at the time in the heat of the moment.

So not a fast-response Nation, slow but not therefore ponderous, more measured. Neither uniform across our lands. Let us not reach a one size fits all solution but rather rejoice in all our regional differences, those nuances that lie between city, town and rural communities. Far better for a wide range of permutations on a theme than one lumbering insensitive road-roller of a solution. Variety brings the opportunity for novelty, freshness that new take that might just provide the right approach. Of course it also brings mistakes, erroneous conclusions, inept or inapt, which is where we need to talk. Tell each other what we are doing, compare and contrast with others, learn which ways work best, where and how. Together we can work towards ideal solutions for all of us, modified and adjusted to suit our local needs and limitations. We can work together, not under the weight of top heavy centralised bureau's of control and regulation, but collaboratively and confidently finding our own solutions whilst listening and learning from others in similar circumstance. Now that is what I call Politics.