{"id":2931,"date":"2014-12-11T11:37:13","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T11:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=2931"},"modified":"2014-12-11T11:52:24","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T11:52:24","slug":"dear-mr-cameron-come-take-a-walk-with-me-julie-anne-corr-johnston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=2931","title":{"rendered":"Dear Mr. Cameron, come take a walk with me: Julie- Anne Corr Johnston"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julie -Anne is a member of the Progressive Unionist Party and a councillor for the Oldpark Ward in North Belfast<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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One of the major local headlines last week was that British Prime Minister David Cameron and Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny had \u201ccleared their diaries\u201d to lend their support to the inter-party talks at Stormont. It seems that no Stormont talks are complete without a crisis intervention from a Prime Minister, President, or some other person of note. We all remember Sir Reg Empey receiving his phone call from Hilary Clinton in 2010 over the crisis around the devolution of justice powers, and when this didn\u2019t work, former US President George was tempted out of retirement to make another transatlantic telephone intervention by calling David Cameron. One wonders whether the crises are real crises at all, or just an opportunity for our publicity hungry politicians to have global leaders run after them, chalking up another anecdote for future reminiscence. One can hear Sir Reg remarking, \u201cDid I ever tell you about the time David Cameron AND Hilary Clinton AND George Bush chased after me?\u201d to which an eager researcher will respond, \u201cNo way!\u201d<\/p>\n

While our politicians are concocting ever more elaborate crises to get world leaders running after them (Will they really be happy that only David Cameron and Enda Kenny are in a panic and that President Obama isn\u2019t warming up the White House phone in anticipation?), the Chancellor of the Exchequer\u2019s autumn statement was setting the context for increased austerity, with The Guardian headline stating, \u201cOsborne moves to cut spending to 1930s levels in dramatic autumn statement.\u201d Inevitably, this will affect the poor the most, and just as some overzealous evangelical preachers blamed the debaucheries of the poor in Sri Lanka and New Orleans for the devastation caused by natural disasters, so the poor are blamed for the current economic crisis \u2013 it\u2019s caused by immigrants, lazy people on benefits, the idle and feckless. It\u2019s nothing to do with greedy bankers and speculators bringing down the world economy. Bankers and speculators have been bailed out and seemingly learned nothing \u2013 while the poor and vulnerable are left to pick up the pieces, increasingly relying on food banks and charity to get by. While the stock markets approach apparently record levels, the poor are begrudged an extra bedroom in their homes.<\/p>\n

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I sometimes wonder how world leaders achieve the seemingly remarkable and get our politicians to reach agreement \u2013 do they dance, do they sing, or prostrate themselves like prophets in the Old Testament and cry out and beg. Perhaps it\u2019s all three, or just maybe the decisions our politicians have to make aren\u2019t that hard at all and they just like to see a little cabaret. As I write this, David Cameron is probably picking his tunes \u2013 will he sing The Smiths? Deciding on his costume \u2013 a hat or a tiara? Will he do a duet with Enda Kenny? I\u2019m sure it must be nerve wracking. He\u2019ll want to get the performance just right. If it takes a song and a dance to get someone to listen, then maybe I should prepare something for his arrival. Perhaps I can convince him that the poor aren\u2019t idle, feckless and undeserving after all. Just maybe George Osborne\u2019s budget statement is his own version of a political crisis in Northern Ireland, it\u2019s not really that bad, and with the right song and dance everything will be ok. It\u2019s worth a try.<\/p>\n

I wonder what music will work best? Perhaps I could start with a line from Pink, \u201cDear Mr Prime Minister, come take a walk with me. Let\u2019s just pretend we\u2019re just two people and you\u2019re not better than me.\u201d Then I could maybe break into Tracy Chapman (\u201cHere in Subcity, life is hard\u201d) or some Gil Scott-Heron (\u2018You never dig sharing, always had to have the most\u201d). Perhaps not, this will just depress him. Maybe I\u2019m no good at show business. I\u2019ll take him on a walking tour of the Shankill Road and ask him \u2013 \u201cDo you really think these children, older people and hard-working families struggling to make ends meet are the cause of all our economic woes. Do you really think they are less deserving that the wealthy and multi-national corporations?\u201d I\u2019d also ask him to tell Ian Duncan Smith to stop using the language of social justice to mask his sustained efforts to reduce the living standards of the poor and to make their lives worse \u2013 \u201cbeing poorer is good for you \u2013 it makes you appreciate things more.\u201d<\/p>\n

If I did take him along Belfast\u2019s Shankill Road, what would he see \u2013 social deprivation, educational under-attainment, isolated and vulnerable pensioners, unemployment and physical dereliction? I could introduce him to my friend Joe Bloggs, a single man living in a small flat who can\u2019t afford to heat his house in the winter; or there is Mrs Smith who took the bus to the bargain store to buy a canvas to hide the damp on her walls that a private landlord wouldn\u2019t repair. Mrs Smith\u2019s daughter wants to be a doctor when she grows up \u2013 the closest she\u2019s come to achieving her dream is being a community care worker on a zero hours contract for \u00a36.31 an hour. Mr Jones is an electrician by trade, but he needs surgery on his knee and is working through pain. The NHS is supposed to be sending him to private care but the funds have dried up and his knee is getting worse. He can\u2019t understand why the private clinic is operating out of the local NHS hospital. Surely the TTIP agreement hasn\u2019t led to the NHS being sold off just yet? I think Mr Cameron will have had enough by then, \u201cTake me home, this is more depressing than The Smiths. Can we please avoid the war veterans sleeping rough, I don\u2019t think I can take another look.\u201d<\/p>\n

I doubt he would reflect much on his walk through Shankill as he is taken on the journey to Stormont, it\u2019s much easier to sing for our politicians at Stormont than it is to stand up to the wealthy and say the poor aren\u2019t to blame after all. It\u2019s also easier for our politicians to exacerbate fake crises of their own making, sling some mud at each other, then settle down for a good old cabaret courtesy of the British and Irish Governments. A few songs, a few dances, a stand-up comic and some good wine, everything is ok and they are all getting on again. \u201cI didn\u2019t really mean it when I asked if you could put curry in my yoghurt\u201d and \u201cOur leader was only joking when he called you all bastards.\u201d However, while the behind the scenes chumminess resumes, greased up by a good old sing-a-long chorus, the poor are still the poor \u2013 whether they live in Shankill or Falls \u2013 and they are still left wondering who is going to come and sing and dance for them and do something to make their lives better. \u201cDid I ever tell you about the time\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..?\u201d<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on sluggerotoole<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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