Courage and the Real Project Fear

Britain is a mess. We need a national-scale self-help book – something along the lines of the classic “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway”.

Fear is everywhere in the UK and it's playing havoc with our political discourse. There are of course two categories: credible, rational fears and misplaced fears of the bogeyman. The former should be respected and a big part of our political leadership should be dedicated to listening to the genuine fears of all members of our society (including non-voters such as youngsters and non-UK citizens), and working out how to address them. But misplaced fear should be called out and faced down. And even genuine fears need not be insurmountable. This is what is meant by the word courage. There is a rather widespread misunderstanding of the word that suggests courage means an absence of fear. As a singer, I have conversations almost daily along the lines of “you're lucky, you don't suffer from nerves”. Wrong. Every single time I go on stage the fear is there. The difference is that I have learned to feel that fear and go ahead anyway. If you want a picture of true courage look to the real heroes and heroines of the emergency services who repeatedly put themselves on the line in our service, day in, day out. They run towards the fire or the scene of an attack while we run away – but you can bet it isn't because they don't feel scared. They know the risks better than we do, yet their calling to public service leads them to overcome the terror. We have had many occasions of late to appreciate our national indebtedness to their bravery.

Sadly, in our policy-making, we back away from the really brave decisions and instead pander to misplaced or exaggerated fears, urged on by our leaders and tabloid media. It is a big part of why we are now in such disarray.

Wednesday's Daily Mail newspaper used its front page to launch a bizarre attack on The Guardian, running the headline “Fake news, the fascist left and the REAL purveyors of hate”. The article goes on to say: “The Mail will, however, confess to one sin...we love our country, fear its enemies....”. And this little phrase suddenly brought into relief what drives The Mail and other papers like it. They fear for their own future, and they seek to protect themselves by stoking the fears of their readers.

And so to the biggest political decision of recent times in the UK – Brexit. It was built on fear. Farage with that poster warning us of an unstoppable influx of refugees from the Middle East. Fear of faceless bureaucrats telling us what to do and undermining our sovereignty. Fear of Turkey joining the EU. Fear of losing our national identity. Fear of EU migrants taking our jobs. Fear of health-tourism crippling our NHS. Fear of an EU army. Fear of a federal Europe making individual nationalities a thing of the past. Fear of experts.

The great irony is that it was the Remain Camp which got the label, but the real Project Fear was in fact The Leave Campaign. Projection Theory, the psychological premise that people hide from their own characteristics by denial, whilst simultaneously identifying those same characteristics in others, may have something to offer here.

If the Brexit referrendum result was largely the result of exploited fears, the obstinate and imprudent pursuance of hard Brexit by Mrs May is evidence of further pandering to fear. It has been said that if the result is not implemented we will have riots. Why? It is a matter of record within the terms of The Referendum Act itself that the result would be non-binding. If we face a threat of violence from Farage or others, why do our leaders not have the courage to stand up to him? It's blackmail. Why should we make national constitutional policy based on intimidation – apart from anything else, it sets a terrible precedent. Not happy with some aspect of law or policy? No worries, just threaten to take up a rifle as Farage has done, and the government will do whatever you want. It is dangerous to bow to this way of thinking.

Wouldn't it be better to overcome the real Project Fear and face the result with courage? Courage to go and talk, genuinely talk and more importantly listen, to those communities who voted Leave. Find out which aspects of recent government policy have made their lives a misery and stoked their anger – a very long list will certainly emerge. It might well be messy and there will, no doubt, be unhappy crowds with which to engage. But it's the only possible way forward to finding solutions. Depressingly, Mrs May showed in the recent General Election campaign, and again at Grenfell Tower, that she struggles to recognise her obligation to hear the concerns of ordinary people. She is too scared to engage with real men and women. That is why her Brexit policy is such a fiasco – she has no mandate based on truths. And until a leader of stature emerges who does have the courage to face reality as it actually is, we are in political stalemate. Someone has to grasp the nettle and confront the lies and baseless fears of the referendum campaign. Because until they do, the very REAL problems of our society go unanswered – and that will be the greatest tragedy if Brexit goes ahead. Everyone will lose and the people who thought they had finally been heard will find that they've just been conned on a breathtaking scale. The societal failures that led to the Brexit vote will still be there, with thousands of new ones.

We do have brave politicians in our midst. Caroline Lucas who is never afraid to stand up for her principles, even as the sole Green MP at Westminster. David Lammy and Diane Abbott who rise above astonishing racist provocation to fulfill their duties year in, year out. Tim Farron, the only leader of the 3 main parties who was prepared to stick to his Remain credentials in the face of the referendum result. And of course, Jeremy Corbyn, who was subjected to nearly 2 years of unrelenting negativity from every corner of the media and nevertheless kept his integrity, refused to trade insult for insult, but quietly and bravely held to his core beliefs: it has served him well. There are numerous other genuinely committed and brave politicians on the back benches.

So far the British electorate has lacked the courage to trust these kind of brave figures with our leadership. But if we are to overcome the chaos unleashed by the real Project Fear, we are all going to need to show much greater bravery and resilience going forward.