Stories for 100 Days of Writing

Politicians and Their Influences (4 Controversies)

A small study on the influence of politicians on our society.


As one of our politicians was gunned down here in the UK, we found as a nation, a new threat to our freedom. Until now, as have many countries across the world, we've been dealing with those who try to attack us from the depth of our own people; radicalised out of a peaceful religion into causing as much death as possible. They are often not from abroad, not having arrived on a boat or a lorry, but are born here. As the political has wrangled on, about whether the UK would stay or leave the European Union, people became vocal about subjects that perhaps were not necessarily the most important issue, immigration being one of them.

It was as people discussed whether they wanted to stay or leave that I began to look at the battle between the politicians, it started to look remarkably like the campaign in the US for the leadership of the Republican and Democratic parties, with various people throwing mud at their fellow party members. This I see is the normal process in the US but is unusual to this scale in the UK. Because of the battle and the confusion about the reality of what was true and what wasn't, uncertainty settled in the UK and gave rise to voices that we would not normally hear that much of, the far right especially. It was in the name of the independence for the British People that Jo Cox was murdered, a politician who was well known for working with refugees, this showed us that the rise of a different sort of voice was raising its head, one who advocates violence in the name of the Nazi party and the likes. Stirred up by politicians here and abroad, they have rising up and showing themselves where once this would not have happened here, at least not in the open. Yes, theyâve always been here, but very much behind closed doors, it's the rise of radical politicians that have given them the courage to come out of hiding and voice their opinions openly.

Nigel Farage and his counterpart Donald Trump have been stirring up a storm and have incited people like Thomas Mair (Jo Cox's murderer) to go out and kill. It's no different from the radicalisation that these men are screaming against! Therefore, what do these men actually represent, are they standing for what the people really want and believe in or just their own ideals; do the politicians realise that their rhetoric gets people killed, they aren't just empty words.

Yes, our country is at a point where people are fed up with the same politician's promises and them failing repeatedly to deliver, and they want something to change. Politicians like Farage take advantage of this and they play with words to appear to be exactly what people want. However, what many people donât realise is the radical can quickly get out of control. We have the democratic right to the freedom of speech and that should not be curtailed but maybe there is an issue when party leaders are damaging the credibility of a whole country.

I did see a subtle difference between the two politicians Farage and Trump in their respective countries recently. Just before the murder of Jo Cox, there was, of course, the horrendous attack on a nightclub in Orlando, which killed forty-nine people and wounded fifty-three others.

The reaction to the two incidents by the respective politicians was certainly different, here, in the UK, Nigel Farage was at least respectful of the family of Jo Cox, one, in the way he spoke and, two, that he called for a suspension of the European vote campaign. In the US, after the Orlando shooting, Donald Trump was straight on the bandwagon, no respect for the families who had lost loved ones, no thoughts for those who were still fighting for their lives, and may be severely injured for life from this attack. Instead, he attacked the current President Barack Obama for the wording of his speech, which I personally thought was delicate, well worded and sympathetic towards the families. The President also called once again, as he has before, for a change in the gun laws, Donald Trump saw that as a threat to his rights, rather than as a way of saving lives. So does he think it's ok to put guns into the hands of those who are already on a terrorist watch list and then come and murder his family, I think not? Sometimes politicians need to get their priorities right, Trump I'm afraid failed miserably this time in my eyes.

So as we have now come through the 'Brexit' vote as they have called it, and the decision has been made to leave the UK, the Prime Minister who decided to call the Referendum, it appears doesn't have the courage to see it through. He has resigned stating that someone else would be better doing this than him, basically, he didn't get his own way so he decided to bow out disgracefully. So, the politicians who were quietly stabbing him in the back during Brexit then vied for position quietly or less so, stabbing each other in the back in the effort to get the number one job of Prime Minister, now up for grabs. Of course, while this is going on there is a vote of no confidence in the opposition but the leader Jeremy Corbyn has decided not to go anywhere and there is now just as much of a split in the Labour Party.

For approximately two weeks the UK has been in turmoil because one man didnât have the courage to see through his responsibilities. Farage also exited stage left, but is still lurking within the European Parliament; just to annoy the hell out of them. He may also throw a few more insults at them if he gets the chance. His last attempt was to tell them that none of them had ever had a proper job, he was not diplomatic, he was downright rude and it is this attitude that in the end gets us nowhere except under the skins of those people that at some point, we will need to be making trade deals with. How did he think that was going to help the country heâs supposed to care about.

Meanwhile, in the US, Donald Trump is getting ever closer to the possibility of becoming President and the world looks on in as much disbelief as they did at the results of the Brexit results in the UK.

The world is watching our two countries; the people everywhere are watching our politicians and the way our people are voting. The people within our two countries are rising up and following politicians who are damaging both our countries' reputation. Part of the UK's political situation is settled now with a new Prime Minister firmly ensconced into No 10, we still have the opposition to sort out but maybe a stable time will now be ahead of us. This will settle just in time for the US Elections, and the interest that that will fire across the world as we find out if we have the first Female President in the US or Donald Trump will no doubt start another fluctuation in the financial markets, and cause chaos across the world again. Politics, you have to say isn't always boring!