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Caroline Lucas has mentioned that it’s time for the left to take again management of political storytelling.
The Inexperienced Get together’s solely MP, who’s standing down on the 2024 Basic Election, advised Hay Competition audiences that “these of us broadly on the centre and centre left must get a hell of loads higher at telling tales, as a result of in the intervening time storytelling appears to be the protect of the fitting”.
Lucas was speaking to Baroness Hale, former President of the UK Supreme Courtroom, about her new ebook One other England, through which she argues that our literary heritage can information us to a extra progressive nationwide narrative.
“It’s virtually as if we on the left really feel a little bit bit squeamish about telling tales, we wish to stick with our info,” she mentioned, citing the Brexit referendum – through which Lucas campaigned for Stay – for instance of the place this didn’t work.
“You had the Go away marketing campaign leaders speaking concerning the tales of ‘taking again management’, and we on the Stay aspect have been simply banging on about your grocery store trolley, how your meals was gonna value extra. And that was true, and it did matter, however in some way it wasn’t an argument with the identical weight and compelling nature as merely ‘take again management’.”
Lucas was elected to symbolize the Brighton Pavilion constituency in 2010, changing into the UK’s first Inexperienced MP. She has additionally served because the get together’s chief on two events.
She advised that the left’s drawback with storytelling is presently enjoying out within the lead-up to the US presidential election. “Biden should have the higher story actually, I imply he’s doing numerous the fitting issues with the Inflation Discount Act, and but his story is a wholly defensive one.
“And Trump’s story, though it’s completely darkish and horrible and cruel, it’s a bloody good story and you may see why it’s having an terrible lot extra impact.”
Lucas mentioned that permitting storytelling to turn out to be the protect of the fitting wing meant that “it’s probably not a shock that we get the tales of exceptionalism, of imperial nostalgia, of Boris Johnson banging on about the whole lot about us being world beating and so forth”.
She cited the Battle of Britain within the Second World Struggle for instance of a narrative that right-wing politicians typically inform about Britain’s historical past, however advised it’s often not talked about that one in 10 RAF pilots throughout that occasion have been “in reality refugees from occupied Europe”.
The departing Inexperienced MP additionally criticised Labour chief Keir Starmer for saying he wouldn’t reverse the two-child profit cap, and expressed frustration on the lack of dialogue a few wealth tax.
“Why is a debate a few wealth tax such a taboo on this nation? Why is it effective to tax revenue however to not tax property?” she requested. “We have now the Labour get together operating scared of getting even any debate about some form of tax on the ultra-wealthy. This may be simply the one p.c most rich individuals – most individuals wouldn’t be affected by it. So why can’t we even have the talk about it?”
“Even in Switzerland they’ve some form of wealth tax and after I final checked it hadn’t turn out to be some form of hotbed of communist revolt,” she joked.
Hay Competition continues till 2 June; for extra info, head to hayfestival.com.