The normal and the good

Welcome to my Monday Mail. 

As your Liberal Democrat MP for Mid Sussex, I write a short email each Monday sharing what I have been doing and thinking about in the past week. Anyone can sign up to receive the Monday Mail, so feel free to share this email with friends and family who might be interested too.

There are two versions of today’s Monday Mail that I could write. The first is the ‘what I have been doing’ version. In it I would share the various events that I went to last week around Mid Sussex: dinner with Cuckfield, Lindfield and Haywards Heath Rotary, the Hassocks Goes Gold wine tasting, raising lots of money for children’s cancer charities, and supporting the Cuckfield Bookfest.

That’s what I have been doing, but what have I been thinking about? 

I have been thinking about the attack on the synagogue in Manchester. The loss of two innocent lives, and the fear that has arisen. Yesterday I was also thinking about the arson attack on the mosque in Peacehaven that the Police are treating as a hate crime. I am thinking that no-one is winning here, that everyone is more afraid, less sure of their place, worried about their own and their loved one’s safety and wellbeing. 

I have also been thinking about two books.

I have finally finished the Gary Stevenson book about his life as a trader for Citibank. His central premise is an economic one. This is not unreasonable - he is an economist. He argues that the key challenge that we have faced since 2008 is about the concentration of wealth amongst the super rich and the consequent impoverishment of the vast majority of people arising from this. I have heard it said that until people can feel in their pockets that they are doing better, feeling more comfortable, ‘getting on in the world’, then no government will be able to do well. I certainly know from my doorstep conversations here in Sussex that plenty of people worry about their financial future, are depressed that they are no better off now than they were a decade ago, and very often cannot see a route for their adult children to be able to get on in life, let alone do better than their parents. When people feel they are treading water or going backwards despite doing ‘everything right’, they get pretty hacked off.

The predicament that we find ourselves in cannot be understood through the singular lens of economics though. During my adult life we have seen a profound shift in how information is created and distributed. The internet brings lightning quick communications. Social media fractures how societies consume information. The tech barons consolidate these platforms becoming arguably bigger and more powerful than many nation states.

So, the second book that I am about to read is The Coming Storm by Gabriel Gatehouse who did a Q&A at the Cuckfield Bookfest. In answer to one question, Gabriel described how the ‘MAGA’ movement has two contradictions within it: a reverence for traditionalism and a drive towards libertarianism.

Why are we living in a society where hate is flourishing? I would argue that it’s about all of these factors - not just one. It’s about social media, and it’s about societies changing, but it’s also about people not feeling that they and their kids have a better future to look forward to.  

I find these times profoundly challenging and uncertain. I don’t think that I am alone. We are served relentless slices of ‘content’: 20 second videos that our distractible brains are primed to consume and react to. I know though that this does not define us. Step away from the clickbait, and very quickly we can find the normal and the good that can nourish and sustain us.

Whether it’s the Rotarians helping build a children’s hospice in Nepal, a stimulating and wonderfully organised book festival, or a village coming together to raise money, what is normal and what is good is out there for all of us, if we only take the time to seek it. 

Getting in touch

My parliamentary email address is: alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk. If you need my help, please get in touch.

Best wishes,
Alison

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