From the Outside Looking In

 What the Hell, Britain?

So since I left it appears that Europe, and more specifically Britain, has gone to hell in a handbasket!

Well that's how it looks from the outside. 

One interesting aspect of living here for a year has been to get an idea about how the UK is viewed by people who are at best only loosely connected to it. The bad news? It's not bright shining centre of the universe we may believe it to be...

Firstly, and this should come as no surprise, Boris Johnson is viewed widely as something of a Joke. Sorry jingoistic flag wavers of our sceptered isle, but it's true. The kids here are broadly speaking a-political in UK terms, but they know who Johnson is and the internet memes that have made him famous out here are not flattering ones! 

Secondly, people in the post colonial world don't all hold misty eyed nostalgia for the days of Empire. Weirdly, the people who live in what were essentially occupied territories don't all see us as the kindly overlords who brought prosperity and advancement wherever they went - in fact, many hold the opposite view. They have the temerity to suggest that we got more out of this relationship than they did!

In Malaysia there is not a vehemently anti British sentiment*, but equally there is not a specifically Anglo-centric viewpoint either. There is a bit of a romantic view of Western Europe, especially from the younger generations, but I honestly think this is because they like a) shopping, b) cooler temperatures and c) Western media and fashion.

(*Although if you look at the real history you could forgive them if there was - okay we were not as directly interventionist as we were in say, Africa, but we played one faction off against another and then convinced them to let us oversee the whole affair - NOTE: this is a huge oversimplification of the colonial history, but I have neither the time nor expertise to get into the detail.)

Reading Malaysian newspapers is a remarkable experience - it's almost as if the UK and Europe don't exist! Well, if it weren't for the unfolding tragedy in the Ukraine and the wide reaching consequences of that there would be scant reporting of anything at all vaguely European, but given the impact on food and fuel prices that the war is having there are concerns about inflationary pressures even here even though these are felt less keenly.

What is interesting is reading the media coverage of the UK by UK sources without he ameliorating factor of living the day-to-day reality of life on the ground.

  

I know that bad news sells, but come on! 

I get it - we are in the grip of a financial crisis like nothing seen since the 1970s. I get it - we are led by a lying buffoon (or at least we were at the time of writing - chances are it will still be a lying buffoon still even when BoJo is finally ousted, just a different one - or worse, a lying psychopath who is actually capable of real viciousness, not just incompetence). I get it - life is getting harder.

However what I have picked up on out here in Malaysia is the press's propensity to report good news stories as well as bad news and political critiques. This is a marked difference from the UK. 

There is a reals sense of pride in being Malaysian, even whilst simultaneously recognising the inherent political and social corruption and issues that need to be overcome. Not nationalism, but more of a sense of trying to make a country to be proud of. There is still criticism of the political classes and a desperate rage at the corruption seen, but it is tempered with a desire to pull together and help.

Maybe this is the effect of being a much younger country; maybe it is the fact that the country has know nothing but an upwards trajectory in terms of growth and development; maybe it is the national character - who knows?

What is clear is that the way the UK presents itself to a) the world and b) itself, is not very positive, which given how special the country is is a pity.

I'm not saying get complacent or nationalistic, I'm saying look at the genuinely good things we do. Yes, we have to hold the social and political problems up to the light and raise our voices to say that this is not good enough, but we also need to see where we are getting it right and be positive about these.

I'm lucky enough to call the North East my home and it has more than its fair share of social problems. It has suffered deep economic deprivation and the effects of ingrained poverty for decades - you can't work in a school in a poor ex-mining village for 12 years and not see this writ large in the faces of the people you come across day in, day out. There were people who you met where is was impossible to tell if they were 30 or 60 or any point in between - hard living and lack of hope takes a toll.

Here's a flag of Northumberland - you know, just because...

However the North East is doing its damnedest to fight back. It is becoming a hub for renewable energy; community enterprises are popping up everywhere; filing the gaps where public services fall short (they shouldn't have to, but there we are); new and innovative business and services are being established; the cultural heart of the region is beating again with concerts, galleries and festivals everywhere.

Yet the kicker is that we don't hear about this. Why?

I think the reason we don't hear about it is twofold - firstly bad news sells and always has.

People are too worried by the massive problems the whole country is facing and most of the news seems to have an openly political agenda and worse, one tuned to supporting key factions within UK politics - usually ones with a fairly establishment friendly and right wing agendas. It is not in their interests to look at the positive impact that grass roots activism can achieve - indeed it's a direct threat to the status quo of those who traditionally hold power and influence in society. If it became clear that local solutions and devolved power given to locally accountable bodies and ordinary people could do what big corporations could do, or that small independent businesses were more efficient and effective than multi-national ones, then that would be a direct threat to shareholders and vested interests everywhere, especially those with their claws hooked deep into our elected representatives.

Secondly the successes have come from sources that function despite the prevailing political and social landscape. They come when we transcend the divides that the ruling elites have put in place (caveat - I'm not getting all tin hat, lizard people conspiracy theorist here. I don't believe the ruling 'elites' did this consciously or on purpose, but they perpetuate a state of selfishness as they see equality as a threat to superiority - which of course it is...). They come when communities take action. They come when socially conscious business does its best to level the playing field for its workers. They come when local communities get behind local business. They come when local charities are able to support local people when they fall on hard times.

I would point to the work being done by our North of Tyne Mayor to improve transport links, get investment in the green economy and actually 'level up' (hate that phrase) the North East. This work and the successes that have occurred get little recognition, partly because we still have a very South East and London centric view of 'England' and partly because of what I mentioned earlier - the existence of the alternative is a threat to the political and social status quo. If a more open, distributed, equitable and socially conscious way of living, governing and doing business was seen to be successful then people might, justifiably, start asking questions.

Things are not great in the UK and for many it will be one more catastrophe piled on another, but there are good things that are happening and we really should talk about those too. This should not be a cover for the appalling mess the current administration is presiding over, but there does need to be an alternative narrative. Not a fairy tale to make us feel better about the bad things, but a recognition of what is going right, even if it doesn't feel like much of that at the moment.