The truth? Whose truth?

I'm reading Dennis Skinner's reminiscences in Sailing Close To The Wind. He's the Labour MP for Bolsover who is famous for his comments on the Tories in the House of Commons, having once said:

"Half the Tory members opposite are crooks."

When told to withdraw this remark by the Speaker: "OK, half the Tory members aren't crooks."

He doesn't look like this now. He's 83 and still in the House of Commons after 41 years. He's Old Labour. The party whips must have despaired of him often. Some of his reminiscences are interesting: he was a miner and describes that hard life of his family and his tight-knit Derbyshire community very well. He also describes the Miners' Strike of 1984 and its aftermath, which devastated many communities that are still struggling to recover. It's all a long time ago for most of us. The UK has changed so much it's hard to believe that Dennis Skinner and his fellow trade unionists ever wielded so much power - or even that the Labour party at one time considered itself a socialist party. Dennis Skinner thinks the Labour party should go back to what it was then. His view of matters before Tony Blair became leader of the Labour party can be summed up in two words: cosy and rosy. He ignores the excesses of some trade unionists and some left wing politicians. 

On the House of Commons, Dennis is less interesting. He refused a job as a minister. He loves the House and its procedures. For most of us, he describes a political world we know nothing about: using Erskine May (the rule book) to play about with the system, making his sometimes witty and always cutting asides from a spot just below the camera on the bottom right hand side of the picture. 

He's been an MP too long. No one should be in the same job for that length of time, no matter how good they are.

Today I also found this on Facebook - again. It reappears every few months sometimes with a small change of words. The inclusion of the word 'immigration' this time makes me wonder if Ukip or Britain First had a hand in it this time:

I'm not sure what period in history this is about. Maybe 60, maybe 80 years ago? Maybe it never existed at all. One thing I'm sure of: being able to batter people either in a police station or a school or at home didn't make for a happier, safer society. I don't think the young people of the UK are 'selfish disrespectful little assholes.' We have our share of assholes, sure, but look at the outpouring of sympathy in the West of Scotland on the murder of Karen Buckley; the fact that the UK raised 19 million quid in three days for Nepal after the earthquake; how that poor wee unknown baby was laid to rest in Lothian; the vast amounts of food raised for food banks by many groups in our communities: churches, football fans, political activists, businesses. 

We still have some of the old violence in our society in the way we tolerate wife-beating and child abuse (both physical and sexual), but these are being tackled. And we still blame people who are victims of rape for bringing it on themselves. We have to work on this. But do I want us to go back to a time when contraception was refused to single women, abortion was illegal, hanging was legal, homosexuality was illegal and homosexuals refused any kind of equality?

Maybe the answer is to avoid the extremes of both the Dennis Skinners and the hang 'em/flog 'em brigade. Neither group represents most of us. We need to work on building a kinder society. And yes, contrary to what Margaret Thatcher thought, there is such a thing as society. It's called us. And we don't need to be battered into doing the right thing.