Can we talk about moral purity?

[howonearthdidwegethere]

I see this come up a lot on this board and want to offer up a couple of examples from my experience that bolster the case for working with a range of voices on a single issue. (I'd welcome counter examples, as I genuinely want to unpick this for my own sanity!)

Example #1: Named Person law
In Scotland, the SNP Govt passed a law (supported by all the opposition parties bar the Tories) that would have assigned every child in Scotland a state guardian. Please Google for more details if you're interested.

A groundswell of grassroots opposition rose up to challenge this law and it was largely fronted and resourced by a Christian group (forget the name of the organisation). They set up a campaign group (No2NP) and were joined by a children's law centre and a former senior social worker but the Christian group were the driving force.

I could see this law was an affront to civil liberties and yet Liberty were nowhere to be seen (waves at Shami). My most generous interpretation is that Liberty has no real presence in Scotland so weren't up on it all. Nonetheless, no human/civil rights groups spoke up.

Anyway, lots of my left-leaning, liberal mates tried to warn me off supporting the campaign, because of the Christian group and what other causes they had supported.

But the campaign group ploughed on, took a legal case and were vindicated in their concerns by the UK Supreme Court.

Example #2: EU referendum
I spent some time campaigning for Remain and most memorably spent a few hours in my hometown leafleting a few days before the vote. Standing on the same block were a former senior advisor to the Tory party, an SNP member and a lifelong Labour voter.

That individuals with very differing (often oppositional) politics could come together to fight for the same issue I found really moving. I remember too a photocall of Cameron, Ashdown and Kinnock doing a stint on a Remain phonebank, and felt similarly moved.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn refused to share a platform with any Tory or even (horrors) Brown or Blair. Of course, we can only speculate here but you have to wonder if we would be where we are now had he not taken such a puritanical view re engaging with the main Remain campaign.

If we indulge the culture wars narrative, aren't we ourselves just being complicit in the polarisation of politics, which is what's got us where we are today (Trump, Brexit etc.)?

UpstartCrow I agree the establishment tries to force identity politics down our throat. They know, otherwise they‘ll lose. The result is that the economically most strained communities are sold out by the ‚woke people‘ on the Left. (And the Right, but that is basically the Right‘s Job Description). The left has abandoned its base for identity topics like the TRA Agenda and anything else that doesn’t interfere with neoliberal exploitation. This gave us Trump, this gave us Brexit. And similar sh*t across Europe. The Left elite generally avoids talking class like vampires fear the sunlight. It is quite ridiculous, actually.

Totally agree deepwatersolo.
I live in a very deprived area and am often involved in community education. The youth work management in particular are largely middle class and have totally bought into the identity politics crap.
They are completely ignoring how this stuff impacts the most vulnerable kids in my community, especially the girls. It's broken my heart quite frankly and I can't go back to youth work because of this.

Bluetits that reminds me of this thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3203804-The-Deptford-People-Project-and-the-impact-of-self-ID-and-transactivism-on-working-class-women

Funny enough chatty I saw that article. I am from that area originally and a Facebook friend from there (who's loosly involved with the Deptford project ) sent it to me after seeing I had shared GC stuff.

Just googled the Named Person's Act. Seems very chilling to me. Big brother state in the making.

The named person's act was discussed a while back during a child protection training session I attended. It was still the planning stage at that time. It was explained to us as a way to make sure there was a way to make sure different agencies involved in children's lives (ie schools, health care workers, social services etc) were coordinated in dealing with any child protection issues that may arise. Having a named person responsible as a main contact should mean that nothing gets missed and people will know who to report concerns to.

It turns out to be much more than that.
Seems like another example of 'it's all for the good. Trust us- nothing untoward here'

They are completely ignoring how this stuff impacts the most vulnerable kids in my community, especially the girls. It's broken my heart quite frankly and I can't go back to youth work because of this

Girls' work has mostly played second-fiddle to 'youth work' which has made boys front and centre though (IMHO). I guess I just see this as girls being screwed over again.