Let's all sit down, have a cup of tea and think. (EU Ref, Corbyn, Cameron and Boris).

I am unsure where to begin, It hasn't exactly been the quietest of weeks in British politics. Tomorrow, it’ll have been a week since the historical vote 51.9% of the 72% of people who voted decided that they wish to leave the European Union. Since then, we’ve heard a PM’s plan to resign in October, an opposition which has completely torn itself apart and from many can gather the collapse of the establishment. It has been unprecedented – while I can say individual events from this last week have happened before, for it all to be simultaneous is really quite shocking.  I remember last year in May, when three leaders resigned at once post-General Election. I thought it was remarkable. However, the EU Referendum has blown that completely out of the water. 

What I will say here may come across as 'right wing' and unpopular. Understand, friends, this is not my intent. I am lucky to know many radicals, anarcho-socialists and the like who have shown me an admirable albeit different perspective to my own.  I would say many of my friends are much more progressive than I ever will be and actually, it's been hugely beneficial in evolving my own views. Through having a different voice to my own shouting I've reaffirmed my own ideas as well as learnt a thing or two from them, and hopefully, vice-versa. 

For me, this was a surprising low turn out for something so momentous. In 2014, the Scottish Referendum had an average of 97% of people going out to vote. For the EU Ref, it was 72. If I'd had been Cameron, I'd had seat at least a 75% turnout with a two-thirds majority before anything can change. But, without this conditions, we have see free democracy in action. And it has been rather disappointing. Bother sides - leave and remain - campaigned sloppily.  The Leave Camp made themselves racists scaremongers without presenting fact while the Remain Camp was, at least, uninspired and dull a lot of the time. 

This isn’t a bash at Corbyn, or anyone, really. I’m disillusioned by the whole of them right now. Cameron and Corbyn couldn’t put partisanship aside to campaign together, Farron was a minuscule figure of no importance, Hilary Benn is a fine spokesperson who didn’t try hard enough, Corbyn could have led a convincing argument to people on-the-fence dure to his moderate Euroscepticist views and yet, all this didn’t happen. The best campaigner on the whole thing was Gordon Brown, former Chancellor and Prime Minister, who I think is about the only person who could save the Establishment right now in a grand, 2009-style.

One of the things that I've noticed during this campaign is both sides have lived up to their political stereotypes. The lefties were a bit of a wet drip, the right were scaremongering jackasses. And as much as I don’t agree with Cameron, he understood his failure and then resigned. Osborne, a man who I have very little respect for, is not standing for leadership, recognising the political reality. To me, it seems that progressive circles could learn. Last night’s vote against Corbyn was lost 172-40. When IDS had a confidence vote in 2001 as Opposition Leader, it was 90 against, 75 for him. He resigned shortly after, which I think Corbyn should seriously be considering, because essentially we've had a General Election. The EU Referendum decided the fate of our country and 2017’s Prime Minister - because anyone in the Remain camp who wants to be PM kinda of has just been shafted out of the opportunity. 

So what, does this mean I think the bearded bloke should take a step back to the back benches? I’m unsure. I like Corbyn; he is an honest man, who seems kind. I don’t agree with everything he says (there are few people who I think can say they agree with everything a politician does) and he has inspired young people in a way they haven’t been inspired since probably someone like Nick Clegg in 2010, who seemed at the time the saviour for sensible Progressivism. How times have changed (and how much, if one applies thought to it, Clegg has SO much to answer for).

However, do I think of him as electable? As someone who can run a government? But then, who else is there? It is difficult to determine. I’m a fan of Hilary Benn, the Eagle Sisters, Owen Smith, Keir Stamer and a few others but no one seems to stand out like Corbyn does. No one quite appeals to the working class, either, who have aligned themselves with a fake “populist” who I daren’t name, for I am tired of trying to pretend we’re not making him a politically legitimate threat by naming him. So the left’s in a pretty rotten borough, despite having good choices, no one wanted to compromise. Not once. Corbyn was forced to, in a pragmatic situation to keep the Party under control and now that’s been lost too. The Labour Party isn’t evil, nor do I believe anyone to the right of Corbyn is a Blairite (if this were true than *I’d* be a Blairite, which is well…bollocks).

There’s a fear amongst the PLP of ending up like the Thatcher days, perpetually trapped in opposition. “Corbynistas” answer me this; if he’s so successful, why did we lose the Ref? Why are not storming local elections? Are you voting, are you doing your bit? And when I meant your bit, listening to the other & not resorting to simply ‘strong rhetoric’ but making concrete arguments and making yourselves sound like you’re ready to govern, not ready for the next “Socialist Pub Meet Up Group”, in the same populists meet to for “Weekly Racist Time in the Pub”? I propose this not out of disrespect for Jeremy Corbyn, but so that his supporters perhaps can understand the fears. It is not necessarily ‘power grabbing’ – it is the act of trying to make sure they can get in government to help as many people as possible.

Meanwhile, the Tories are spicing up. There are basically two things about to happen – Boris is about to become PM or, we’re going to have a compromise candidate in the form of someone like Dominic Raab. The Remainers have nowhere near enough political capital after this defeat and well, Boris would annihilate the Labour party. I’ve spoken to locals in Swansea who have spoken fondly of him and of Leaving EU, without realising the implications of both events. 

Both sides have failed to educated and now, both sides are deteriorating. It is difficult to feel anything at all aside from despair. Why am I writing? Because I think it’s time I speak. I’ve not been as comfortably seriously talking about this, despite how political I am, because I find it all so bleak. I am usually quite forgiving of the establishment – I try to make sure I understand every side to an argument before I begin to actually decide my position on anything at all. At the moment, all I can discern is chaos. 

Hopefully, Chaos Theory is real and patterns which aren’t indicating that we’re heading towards danger will emerge. To end this post, I’ll attempt to offer some advice:

Write to your Labour MP about keeping Corbyn: If you want to keep Corbyn, then write to them, urging them to pledge support for him.

Stick with Labour should Corbyn leave: I know it seems a silly idea but decisions are made by those who turn up. If every grassroots member stopped by snobby and started thinking not only with their heart but a pragmatic head, we’d get a bit closer to governing with people like Corbyn. There are young, left voices. Find them. Research the Labour party in all its forms -see even the rightest wing elements have had benefits for people more than the Tories’ cuts.

Write to your Tory MP to ask them to express support for a compromise candidate: I know it seems silly but between the two major choices – May and Boris – it seems that it’d be better to have a candidate who could simply ease us across government. Right now, explosiveness isn’t really helping and so maybe someone who could have a sound head could go and make the tough calls in a post-Article 50 Britain.

Talk, discuss, listen: Don’t shut down, don’t operate in binaries of “Corbyn vs them” or “us vs Boris.” Ask people why they’re supporting what they support, not everyone has come from the same background/context. Some are uneducated, ignorant, unaware or simply have grown to have philosophical differences. This is okay but right now, we need rationale. We need people, campaigners, to be good. Let us be the beacon of light/hope in a world surrounded by chaos and darkness.

PS. It shouldn’t be Benn or Corbyn or Farage, or Gove or Boris or Cameron, leading these talks. It should be William Hague and Gordon Brown, and if he were alive, Charles Kennedy (perhaps P. Ashdown will do or even better, Shirley Williams). The greatest PMs we’ve never had.

P.P.S. If you’re interested in what sort of Labour member I am, look up “Blue/One Nation Labour”. I’m sort of that. 

Helping Hand To Understand: DC Comics!

As three titles from DC Comics’ Rebirth line launch this week, I thought it’s about time someone made it clear just what exactly is going on.

We’re actually best starting Flash#123 from about 1961, where it was revealed that the original Flash (Jay Garrick) and the ‘new’ Flash (Barry Allen) were from separate worlds. From this came the separation of the Silver Age, that is to say, the time of the Justice League’s creation, and Golden Age, the time of the Justice Society.

(this is basically Flash season 2).

All sorts of meet-ups started happening, which all featured the same word: “Crisis!” Be it Crisis on Earth-One (the Silver Age) where the Justice League met their Earth-Three counterparts, the Crime Syndicate or Crisis on Multiple Earths, involving the Justice Society as a whole. To make matters worse there were also worlds of DC-owned properties bought way back in the day that existed outside of the mainstream ‘Earth-One’ continuity. These were:

Ø  Earth-Two: Home of the golden age versions of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Also – the Justice Society, infinity Inc. (who were like a Teen Titans for the JSA) and Seven Soldiers of Victory. This basically covers the Golden age comics, 1938-1955 [the cut-off point is confused due to Batman and Superman being some of the only on-going superheroes of the time before Barry Allen becoming the Flash in ‘56].

Ø  Earth-Three: Opposite Earth, home of Luthorman as well as the evil villain Ultraman and his team, the CRIME SYNDICATE OF AMERICA!

Ø  Earth-Four: Home of the Charleston Comics such as The Blue Beetle, The Question, Peacemaker and various other characters.

Ø  Earth-S: Home of Shazam Family, better known as Captain Marvel at the time (or sometimes, Captain Thunder).

Ø  Earth-X: This was the ‘Freedom Fighters’ – people like Uncle Sam, Doll Man, Firebrand and that sort of thing, as well as the Blackhawks & Plastic Man.

Ø  Earth-Prime: An Earth which was meant to be real life itself only with one superhero, that being Superman.

Now there were a load of parallel universes but I won’t go into detail of that yet. Basically, by 1985, it was the most confusing thing ever. So DC asked Marv Wolfman and George Perez to write an event which would change comicbooks forever as well as straighten out DC comics’ continuity. This was known as Crisis on Infinite Earths and basically, all these worlds were being wiped out by this huge evil dude known as the Anti-Monitor. So, a group of about 12 heroes from these 5-6 worlds were gathered together to stop him. BUT it’s such a long arc that it’s not to go into detail unless you have to so here are the basics:

From Earth-Three you had Alexander Luthor Jr, the son of Luthorman, along with Earth-Two Superman, Earth-Prime Superboy and a bunch of other guys from various Earths mentioned above. BASICALLY, it saw the end of Barry Allen (Earth-One), Wonder Woman (Earth-Two), Supergirl (Earth-One) aaaand the original Superman, as well as Earth-Prime Superboy & Alexander Luthor Jr sacrifing themselves for the entire multiverse. It’s 1985, you’ve just killed basically everyone from the DC Comics of 1985-1955 along with your parallel universes, what do you do now?

This created ‘Earth-0’ or, for the sake of keeping things simple, Post-Crisis Earth. Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman all got updated origins, Earth-Two/Four/S/X and One were all one Earth, housing all continuity under one roof. There wasn’t a single parallel universe out there and after Zero Hour, a time-travelling event from 1994, eventually things smoothed over. Post-Crisis Earth had none of the confusions of Pre-Crisis Earth and as storytelling matured, the glitches and hitches of making your golden age comics count for your stuff in the 90s soon became easier to do.

So remember how I said Alexander Luthor Jr, Superman of Earth-Two, Superboy of Earth-Prime were all dead? Yeah, think again. Turns out they’ve been in limbo this whole time and sick & tired of solitude, Alex Jr basically goes crazy. But worse yet, Superboy goes crazy first. And punches reality. I’m not even shitting you.

 (easily one of my favourite splashes ever).

Erh, here’s where it gets confusing. It turns out Power Girl is actually not from Post-Crisis Earth but instead is from the Earth-Two of 1938-1955 (I should have mentioned in about the mid-70s, Infinity Inc. and All-Star Squadron came out which were set earlier than their publication, thus explaining why Power Girl is from Earth-Two).

She’s real happy when Superman of Earth-Two comes through but uhhh, through punching reality, Superboy of Earth-Prime basically rebooted the multiverse. From this, without anyone from Earth-0 knowing, 51 other universes are created. They fight the now crazy Superboy Prime, who kills a bunch of folk like Superboy of Earth-0 and this also teases an event which would happen 7 years down line when Wally West sees his Uncle Barry for a millisecond in the Speed Force. This whole event was known as Infinite Crisis. About three years later, Final Crisis came which killed Batman for a bit and revealed the 51 other universes (and had some cool ideas like featuring a Multiverse Supermen team and Jimmy Olsen but poor execution on the most part).

So, this ‘new Multiverse’ helps to create categories. We have the Pre-Crisis Multiverse and the Post-Crisis Multiverse. An easy way of identifying everything is by going “ah but Post-Crisis Earth Two/2” or “Pre-Crisis Earth 4!” Right? It splits continuity into 1938-1985 and then 1986-2000s. THEN Geoff Johns went “damn, bringing Hal Jordan back to life was cool, now let’s do that to Barry Allen!”

In 2009, DC Comics published ‘Flash: Rebirth’, with the reincarnated Barry Allen [who’d come back to life in Final Crisis. Now to emphasise how unimportant as an event it was, I didn’t even mention that until now].

(As much as Barry Allen's return was annoying, this setup looked awesome).

In Flash the Rebirth, it was revealed that Professor Zoom had killed Barry’s Mother all this time, not his Father, which as you can imagine pissed Barry off a lot. In fact, it pissed him off SO much that by 2011 he decided to rectify it. This created the ‘Flashpoint’ world, which is kinda like DC’s answer to House of M. But only like, 6 years later. This alternative timeline had Thomas Wayne become Batman and Atlanteans & Wonder Woman’s people at war

Now, the solution for fixing the timeline so that it would return to Post-Crisis Earth is really dumb but it’s comics so let’s go with it. Barry was going to attempt to fuse with himself via the Speed Force in order to stop himself from stopping Professor Zoom. On his sprint he sees a total of three timelines – Post-Crisis Earth (Earth 0), the Post-Crisis Earth-Thirteen (the world of Vertigo Comics) and the Post-Crisis world of Earth-Fifty (Wildstorm). Some crazy lady tells him that they’re all connected but have been separated for stopping an ‘even larger threat’.

Hearing this, Barry does what any normal person would do: fuse them all together. Which reboots the Universe. Again. (Are you all detecting a pattern here?)

Barry just thinks everything’s normal now and gives this weird-ass letter to Bruce Wayne from his Father in the alternative timeline. Except….not quite. This is where, in 2011, they created ‘The New 52’ which is a pretty darn confusing name. To make it even more confusing, they removed numbering and decided to call it ‘Prime Earth’.

But wait Uly, surely they realised that calling it both those things would just confuse new time readers with the ‘52’ Earths of the Post-Crisis Multiverse? Or that ‘Prime Earth’ would make us think of the punching universes guy, Superboy Prime?

(Honestly, so stupid, after 11 years I'm still getting shocked by the levels of stupid that comics can achieve).

YOU’D HAD THOUGHT, WOULDN’T YOU.

To make your life easier, I suggest we spread around CBR’s great term of ‘Earth August’. This is after the New 52 (its name was given for the 52 new titles they launched from #1, including Action & Detective Comics, which had never been done before). Fans everywhere hated the New 52 – or Earth-August I should say – because it basically rebooted everyone they had loved and removed characters like Oracle, Wally West, Donna Troy and any major marriage you can think of. It was meant to be ‘cool’ and ‘edgy’ and it ended up looking like basically every other 1990s edgelord Cable comic out there.

Earth-August also saw a new Multiverse [why, I don’t know]. Without Wildstorm and Vertigo imprints, which were now just part of the mainstream comicbook universe, there came a new ‘Earth-2’ and ‘Earth-3’ (which has been a major feature as of late!) SO back to our lovely multiverse categories, of which there are now 3:

Ø  Pre-Crisis: Anything before 1985, with separations for Earth-One Pre-Crisis being 1956-1985 more or less and Earth-Two for 1938-1955.

Ø   Post-Crisis: A multiverse of 52 Earths, Earth-0 being a fusion of about 5-6 worlds from the Pre-Crisis Multiverse.

Ø  Earth(s) August: The New 52’s Multiverse, which includes its own Earth-2 and Earth-3.

It kinda had a couple of highs, some nice art but generally was displeasing. Then DC did something AMAZING. They…. listened. suddenly, these last few months we saw the return of Post-Crisis Superman and Lois Lane, that is to say pre-Earth August Lois & Clark. They were in hiding on Earth-August and had a son. Earth-August’s Superman was f*cking up basically, with people knowing his identity and it’s all being leading up to his death now.

As the Earth-August-3 universe attacked, it was revealed that a mysterious blue force was the one that vanquish Owlman of EA3. Now, in ‘DC Rebirth’ this has been expanded upon to be revealed as…DOCTOR MANHATTAN. That’s right, the dude from Watchmen. Why is it him? No one’s really quite sure right now as we’re in the early stages. But DC Rebirth#1 chronicles Wally West, trapped in the Speedforce as post-Convergence (the REAL reboot event of Earths August, which sort-of-maybe brought back Post-Crisis Earth) Earth began to show familiar faces who had been long since dead or gone.

(“I’m bored, let’s make the DC Universe” – Dr. Manhattan, apparently).

And now, we’re awaiting DC Rebirth titles, bringing Post-Crisis Earth but slightly altered back from Comics Limbo! After reading DC Rebirth#1, I’m super excited. I’ll be collecting 4 titles – Superman, Action Comics, Supersons and Batwoman. Possible reviews to come soon.

NOW – a TL;DR:

1938-1985 à separate universes for golden age and silver age, as well as DC purchased characters like Charleston and Fawcett. All changed in “Crisis on Infinite Earths” and later in “Zero Hour.” Known as Pre-Crisis Multiverse.

1985-2011 à A combination of Earths 1, 2, 4, S, X and others. This housed all creations bar Vertigo and Wildstorm under one roof, making it easier to follow post-Zero Hour which straightened the timeline out. Infinite Crisis saw the recreation of the Multiverse, so this is the Post-Crisis Multiverse.

2011-2016 à After Barry Allen edits time to save his Mother then to un-save her, it creates (and destroys) an alternate timeline which basically brings an end to the Post-Crisis multiverse and refuses Vertigo/Wildstorm in with mainstream DC. This also brings about an edit multiverse, so is the Earth August Multiverse.

2016- à Dr. Manhattan turns out to have fled from his Watchmenverse and apparently, all this time, has had a play in creating the Post-Crisis DC Universe. This is ‘DC: Rebirth’, which will bring back the Post-Crisis Earth (it is unclear if there will be a ‘Rebirth’ Multiverse or if it’ll just bring back the 51 other Earths or whatever. Many unanswered but exciting questions!) To save confusing, code this as Earth-Rebirth.

This has been me giving you a helping hand to understand DC Comics! Couple of links to help with any further reading too:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/unpacking-dc-comics-reboots-relaunches-retcons

and

http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Post-Crisis

A Young Friend's Diaspora.

 For the past few months, I’ve not really been a Quaker.

I’m not how to describe what I mean by that. How does one define not being Quaker after identifying as such, or even how does one define being Quaker? Answering that can be difficult. To get to the bottom of it, I thought about looking towards some writings, which can offer a bit of insight at least. Advice & Queries (quite literally, a bit of advice and not commandments in anyway) gave me this:

“Come regularly to meeting for worship even when you are angry, depressed, tired or spiritually cold. In the silence ask for and accept the prayerful support of others joined with you in worship.” (A&Q 10).

Over the last few months, I’ve felt everything of that first sentence. I’ve been ill and ill, finding myself not getting any more it seems so very frustrated. To enter an hour of silence – the way of Quaker worship – has been an intimidating thought. So without Meeting, I have felt disconnected from our community, especially as I don’t even have the Youth events to rely on for my ‘Quaker fix’. I am a floating young adult in the abyss of university away from spiritual matters. As time has gone on, even in better moments, it’s been difficult re-connect.

I mean – university life consists of loud drunken nights out, shouting at the top of your throat about politics and for me personally, speaking into microphones in a poetry night. Quaker Meeting didn’t feel quite right. I was angry over the state of how I ended up getting to University and the complications right-off-the-bat. That a path was not clear for me. Over time, this anger subsided into an apathy from ‘God’ if you like which meant Quakerism seemed hollow. However, over time, this began to change.

The love of my young Friends has been immensely valuable to me. Their support, wisdom and appreciation for me has helped me realise what good friends can be, as well as Friends. As University life has gone on, I began to really miss feeling connected to communities, to people and to the Earth around me. And really, it’s here where I think this line of defining myself as Quaker became even more blurred. I, a spiritualist who had been frustrated over his faith for many months, now crave that spirituality again. And funnily enough, the only way I can really describe this feeling is through a Jewish phrase:

Diaspora. Though I certainly am not missing a Promised Land of any kind, I think my separation from my Quaker identity and spirituality has been something which has heavily influenced me in university. While I enjoy nights out, drinking, partying etc to not have that calm as well as calamity has been something which I think (personally) has been bad for me. I have felt misplaced sometimes in social situations I couldn’t have imagined for myself a year ago and now, looking at it in a bigger picture, it feels odd to be away from Quakers considering how much over the last two and a half years it’s been such a big part of my life.

Perhaps this Diaspora is increased by the longing of all young adult Friends to find their place in the Religious Society of Friends. We are all wandering away from youth hood into an unoccupied territory. After all – the old joke goes that by having a couple of young adult Friends in a Meeting, we change the average age from 80 to 70, right? Some find solace in volunteering for younger people events, by giving back to the community which gave them so much. A minority (for we are always people of minority opinions!)  bring their vitality to a Meeting for Sufferings. Others use YFGM, of course. I’m unsure of the next step.

What I am sure of that, despite loving every minute of university (including all the days where I’m locked away due to exhaustion and illness), my diaspora will not go away easily. I am longing to return my spiritual island, so that I may find a peaceful settlement for myself again. 

Reflection on Uni Slam 2016.

I had attempted to write about Semester 1 before its sequel began but, as I’m about to explain, my weekend was kind of occupied. 

Yesterday, along with four other English Lit students from my Uni, I attended a competition under the name of UniSlam. It was, to say the least, an impressive showcase of poetry from 16 different Universities across the whole of the UK. Having been arranged into heats, we were knocked out by the first Prelim against much older, much more experienced competition. There are no hard feelings – this was our first attempt and our team was compromised of primarily first and second years against Final years & Postgraduates. What it did make me realise however is just how much more work I have to do.

Since arriving at University, I wrote more poetry in the last four months than I did for the rest of 2015. A lot of last year was quite difficult for and usually I channel via verse but it never seem to come until I started to attend HOWL Poetry Sessions in Uplands, Swansea. At last I had found a scene originally only viewed on Youtube and admittedly, in dreams. When arriving at HOWL, one realised just how huge the poetry spoken word scene is and there are constantly events for us to attend as performers. It’s really refreshing as a student being able to do something which has really been a part of my life for the best part of 5-6 years. (That is to say, that’s how serious I’ve been writing poetry for, as serious as you can get at least). 

To then attend a national competition representing my Uni was really special to me. The range of talent amongst the performers as well as the content made me realise while I have improved, I have so much more to work on. I don’t like talking too extensively about my work – I think poetry is good when you can draw conclusions from it yourself, it proves you’re engaging with the art. I’ve really tried to construct stronger analogy as well as broader themes, feeling my poems would become very out of touch. My judge yesterday said sometimes, ideas were still hard to follow through, which I wholeheartedly agree with. 

My only New Year’s resolution (aside cycle more) is to write like I’m running out of time. This is in reference to Hamilton, my favourite musical written by the brilliant Lin Manuel Miranda. Recently he has been doing some 6 performances a night, writing music for a Disney film, writing a song for a Star Wars film as well as having just written Hamilton AND helping raise his 1 year old song. It is this enthusiasm which has really made me race and jump up more at writing and forcing myself to write in general – if LMM can do all that, I can at least finish whatever I’m working on. 

This inspiration has made me more creatively resilient, which I think Uni Slam has done too. I was ready to hear constructive criticism to work with so I can get stronger as a performer and as a poet. I’m not saying I’m about become some neo-Ginsberg type any time soon but, I’m hoping that I can reflect in a few months’ time and be able to see an obvious change and growth. My only regret concerning this wonderful opportunity is that there wasn’t enough time to be able to spitball with other creatives, conferring with my contemporaries and simply a lot of admiration from afar of others.

Now, it’s back to notebooks to do some more scribbling....

Is our safe space that safe at all?

Yesterday I came across an Independent article which reported my University (Swansea) as one of the worst institutions to having bans on things it doesn’t like. The notable example the article (and others which have talked about the report) have turned to is how Pole Fitness was banned on the grounds of it being “inextricably linked to the multi-million pound sex industry” as the line has gone. It really pissed me off when I read the article. But, having revision to do, I turned away from my rage to allow myself to contemplate what this meant and to give myself time to calm down before writing thoughts upon it. Because part of the reason I’m so adamantly against banning (which I guess is what I’m about cover here) is that on should think before saying things. 

The report suggested anti-trans/pro-Israel and Atheist/Secularist speakers are the most commonly prohibited from speaking at Universities. These three issues, hot topics from what I understand of progressive politics currently, make sense. I would like to say that I’m speaking as someone who is the son of a trans person, a Quaker [ergo religious] and Palestinian sympathise when I write this blog. But one thing I believe adamantly is that we as young people should not have cotton wool over our eyes. In a world where politicians sneakily pass things through parliament without us looking, where men in authority may commit crimes lost to “missing dossiers” we must be aware of what is going on around us – even if we happen to thoroughly disagree with a voice that is speaking. 

When Germaine Greer eventually pulled out from speaking at Cardiff Uni, I was honestly gobsmacked. A minority of people – a few hundred – rallied against her enough to be able to make her decide not to speak. While I disagree with her stance on transgenderism and ergo, believe her progressivism to be out of date, I cannot stand the idea that she’s not allowed to speak in guest lecture which is not mandatory for students to attend. I do not think that having her attend the University is saying a fuck you to trans people. Because I think that there is a certain amount of respect/support always growing when it comes to these issues – though, I understand how it must be frustrating having a voice appear at your uni may be perceived as supporting her views. But hear me out: 

If we let her speak, we can question her. We can argue with her, we can fight against her. Because by doing so, by making her think about what is being said, I think that that is allowing free speech. This idea that we simply allow offence no-questions-asked in the name of freedom is a nonsense query. Much like claiming that having someone speak in the first place is also nonsense. One of the recurring themes from politicians left-to-right when discussing Donald Trump the other being banned from the UK is that they believed they could challenge and even change his opinions. By banning we do not allow our causes to be fought for – what we do is pretend an opposition doesn’t exist. 

The same goes for Israel/Palestine. I was part of celebration when our Parliament voted to recognise the state of Palestine two years ago and would still cheer now. But I do not believe that people can honestly claim a simple black and white position upon an issue as complicated as a country which was established 70 years ago out of another country, leaving a complicated political and cultural battle with it, is foolish. This issue cannot just be divided into “Israel wrong, Palestine good”. I originally thought that too – but looking into the issue, a lot more is at play. Perhaps having speakers in say, a place of higher education getting to talk about this in a different context would help us understand it more – hint hint. 

Obviously, there is a defence that we need our universities to be a safe place. I understand this immensely well, as someone who is LGBT and someone has suffered mental health issues. Having your learning as well as social environment be accommodating and accepting to you as a person is vital for your wellbeing and progression. But, there is a case to be made that by having SUs and Universities allow ideas to spread and educated/argue between us as young people will generate some opposition, yes, but even if you do not want to put up the fight yourself it will simply help Allies understand if you can help say “hey, this person said x which is offensive” to which someone more to-the-cause will remember. By having opposition, you create a breeding ground for your principles to grow and be even more sophisticated. 

Now, as I was lying in bed struggling to sleep (as pre-exam nerves do), I thought “well hang on. I don’t want a Neo Nazi Students Society in Swansea – so maybe even I have a line on free speech and banning?” And it was here where I saw problems develop. The distinction I can make with something like a Neo Nazi group of course is that they tend to be harmful of people, which as a pacifist (again, Quaker), I really cannot condone and do not think that any SU anywhere should be aiding people in harming others. But speaking does not necessarily mean harm and it is important we, as a Union, University and communities really examine what we mean by this. 

I happen to tink there is quite a strength for the idea that, Uni offers itself as political experimentation in a safe environment. If people want to dabble in UKIP politics now, only to realise maybe it’s not the best way for them, it’s a good environment to do it in. There should be regulations as to how people behave, as mentioned, but allowing a safety-net of it all just being part of Uni is perhaps smarter than people trying to ‘find out about these things on their own’. There is a trend amongst young people to do things out of protest which can lead to several dangerous behaviour developing. “OH we’re BANNED from doing x/y/z so we must do it excessively now, in fact.” 

We must allow discussion, though I always say that when discussing politics it is best if you treat it as a legal argument that one is having over a tea party. People must think and have good manners, the sort of thing you would like your Mum to hear as well as convey your argument. Tact is vital in a world where we allow several microphones to go off and rally different causes.Obviously, there will be people who disagree to this stance. And, obviously, I welcome them to. If I do not reply take it I’m taking a well-deserved holiday after a rather long revision period.

Peace and love to all.