Advertisement
Opinion

John Bird: The truths we decide we want to hear

“Brexit shouts at us as some deep cavernous suffering we’ve been papering over…”

Talking with a woman at a campsite, the woman declared in no uncertain terms that a liar, big or small, was lower than anything. “I would not have anything to do with a liar,” she said.

We were sitting in a field in Devon uninterrupted by signs in German declaring the living eternal memory of Hitler. There was no slave labour and indiscriminate, by firing squads or by baseball bat, killings of dissidents or people of foreign extraction.

In fact because of one big porky pie-lie – we were free to talk about the importance of lying. For if Churchill had not lied to the British people about their ability to fight on in 1940 we would probably be all speaking German. Obviously there were other things in play but Churchill’s “We will fight them on the beaches” was a lot of wishful thinking.

It was a lie. Dunkirk and its armada rescuing British troops from the beach was allowed to happen because Hitler allowed the British expeditionary to escape. But instead of showing appreciation by such generosity, Churchill, newly enthroned in power, said “up yours” to Hitler.

Hence Churchill’s inspired lie to the British people that they would never surrender, and fight them to our last drop of blood.

If Churchill wasn’t there to lie and cheat and exaggerate there were buckets full of upper-class members to throw the towel in. Something that Churchill was not prepared to do.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Hence sitting in the field at leisure, a leisure often built on lies and exploitation out of sight, I could not allow my colleague to get away with such bare-faced wishful thinking. I felt she ought to at least embrace how important and constructive to our well-being lying is. Although I did not hit her over the head with the countless occasions when the truth can do more damage than harm. That might then paint me as someone who therefore does not value the truth.

Churchill’s “We will fight them on the beaches” was a lot of wishful thinking

But the truth, not at all times, needs to be masked. As history has proved.

Of course our recent run-in with not entirely knowing the truth over the referendum, by either school of thought, shows at times our precious need to know the truth. In such cases, and there are many, we need the truth and not the gloss.

A few days after my encounter with the field purist I spent a few nights at a hotel in a southern coastal town. The town was struggling to pull itself up by its bootstraps, but a mass of visitors seemed determined to do the opposite. To smoke, drink, swear, argue and eat outrageous attacks on the body. Burly men and women with statements on their T-shirts like “bus wanker”. And an incredible display of outrageous bonhomie.

The people had money, an overflow of it. To me they were not the hardworking poor that liberals rush to cast in aspic. They were people who had some prosperity but were defeated by education and social opportunity. Killing themselves with manic misuse of drink, cigarettes and killer food; the chips with everything malarkey.

As if it was suicide by default.

I can remember seeing factory workers and building workers drink themselves almost into insensibility in my growing up, with me doing exactly the same. But here on this port there seemed a whole army of let-down individuals.

I am sure some social worker will correct me for this feeling of being dumped at the end of a pier with people intent on killing themselves. But nothing will explain how such social engineering came into being. For this is all the result of business mixed in with government policy, and the inadvertent result of society giving up on a vast area of people.

These people seemed the children that the world has given up on. Scared by their lack of chances to enlarge their take on the world they demonstrated how thick is the Brexit issue. How pleasant it has been for some. And how godawful for many others.

Brexit shouts at us as some deep cavernous suffering we’ve been papering over. And I saw some of that a few nights and days last week.

John Bird is the Founder and Editor in Chief of The Big Issue. Email him: john.bird@bigissue.com or tweet: @johnbirdswords

Advertisement

Change a vendor's life this Christmas

This Christmas, 3.8 million people across the UK will be facing extreme poverty. Thousands of those struggling will turn to selling the Big Issue as a vital source of income - they need your support to earn and lift themselves out of poverty.

Recommended for you

Read All
'In the moment it was great to be British': The uncynical positivity of a British citizenship ceremony
Steven Mackenzie

'In the moment it was great to be British': The uncynical positivity of a British citizenship ceremony

This Remembrance Day, let us remember the LGBTQ+ veterans dismissed and imprisoned
Craig Jones

This Remembrance Day, let us remember the LGBTQ+ veterans dismissed and imprisoned

I was walking my cockapoo when I saw a man taking a s**t in our street. This is what it taught me
Sam Delaney

I was walking my cockapoo when I saw a man taking a s**t in our street. This is what it taught me

The budget was a start from Labour – but we need much more to transform disabled people's lives
rachel reeves preparing for autumn budget
Chloe Schendel-Wilson

The budget was a start from Labour – but we need much more to transform disabled people's lives

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue