Poverty is still the elephant in most rooms of government. But do they take it seriously?

We may be going through what is almost a repeat of what happened 500 years ago. Henry VIII’s break with Europe – a Brexit of the time – occurred when he made England a Protestant nation. He destroyed the unofficial health and social services, which were the monasteries, by closing them down. Monks attended to the poor and the ill and injured and nothing replaced them when Henry sold or gave away the monastic lands to the better classes. 

A seismic change came over England as pain and suffering, and a new direction, took place. England was grabbed by the throat and transformed. A modern, different country took root. A country that eventually became a world-conquering power; impossible without the changes that Henry VIII instituted. And which, in the course of his reign – if my history serves me right – had executed and strung up along the highways of the land about 50,000 of what were called ‘sturdy beggars’. Sturdy beggars were the able bodied who could have worked but chose to beg. 

The subsequent conquering nation did its conquering and came out the other end as a limping and failed empire that, after the disastrous First World War – which it won militarily but lost economically – was largely weak. It mustered for the Second World War as best as it could, but without the aid of the USA and the Russians, it would have become a Nazi nation. 

This flight into history does not suggest that we will duplicate exactly the same footprint that Henry left us. Rather, it alerts us to great changes that are coming down the line. That the nation was torn apart half a millennia ago, and its like has not been seen since. Until now, as we watch the old political system stumble, as we watch a radical new direction mapped by people who don’t want to do more of the usual. A deep iconoclasm has taken over in language, and in intended deed if the new people get their hands on the tiller of power. 

What is different this time is that the power for change is not the throne but a deeply disgruntled section of ‘us’. A part of us who have felt overlooked. Who look upon current politics as inept, preoccupied with obsessions that don’t face up to the problems of the quality of their lives. Whether that’s potholes, waiting lists, Channel-crossing illegals, cost of living; whatever is their concerns, among this part of ‘us’ they are pissed off
and powerful. 

For they have the power that they have always had but never used to upset the liberal apple cart. And it seems unless there is some incredible rallying of the liberals – the liberals being broadly the established parties – there will be little left for them but tatters and rags of their former power. 

I utilise history to underline this oncoming change. I cannot think of a time when so much changed so suddenly in England, spilling out then into Wales and Scotland, as is prefaced by current politics. This potential transformation of England and its direct neighbours, and the sense of political stumbling as the traditional parties of power offer no solace to this multitude of the dissatisfied. 

Many of this multitude brought us Brexit, demonstrating their frustrations in a way that frightened those that were alarmed and hurt by the thought of leaving. People who were alarmed that 52% of those that voted could say ‘fuck you’ to the 48%. Now a Brexit of a different kind is in the offing. Largely because whatever the diet offered by the political establishment does not satisfy the appetites of people who feel England is not theirs. And hasn’t been for a long while. 

We know the traditional political apparatus in America had their own version of Brexit in the same year as we had ours in 2016 with the victory of Trump. New rude politics took over that looked nothing like the carefully honed establishment politics of previous times. Trump trumped the old guard. Now a trumping of the old guard seems on the cards over here. 

Read more:

• SIX The Musical star Aimie Atkinson: ‘Henry VIII’s wives had issues that women are still dealing with’
• Turns out Nigel Farage isn’t prime minister. So why does he get so much airtime?
• Copying Nigel Farage gives him a credibility he hasn’t earned

With me being fanciful, you might say America had Elvis and we got Cliff Richard; both representing another seismic change in our cultures, in that they liberated the youth from their adult domination. Change is certainly on the cards once again. 

Is Farage the contemporary Henry VIII? Much can happen in the next three years to that present dominance. It largely depends on whether the existing political class, providing opposition and government, can pull the rabbit out of the hat. Which seems unlikely because they are not turning their attention to the concerns of the disgruntled. 

Nor are they working in harmony to fix the holes – and potholes – of an apparently wasting-away England. They pretend more of the same will suffice, whereas clearly since Brexit stuffed them they have yet to recover. Now the new Brexit awaits them; the rabbit and the headlights are conjured up as their only possible response. 

Poverty, the driving force of much of this background, is still the elephant in most rooms of government and its
opposition. But do any of the blighters take it seriously? Poverty undermines government and governance. Undermines budgets, health service, schools and social security. Poverty stomps its big boots over us all, the threat of it and the reality of it. 

The liberals need to find new ways of protecting what they see as most precious. For it is definitely under threat.

John Bird is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Big Issue. Read more of his words from our archive.

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