There is always a political narrative; the story in our political space that defines politics, ever shifting, ever changing, mesmerizing almost, by its constant movement told in the media of now, that defines the form, the feel and the function of the political space itself.
Through these media driven narratives there emerges a consensus about what should be included or excluded from political thought. This social space is supposed to be where we engage with the civic administration of power. Issues and ideas jostle for attention; to enter the narrative and perhaps become acted upon. The public response to the narrative is carefully monitored; the narrative adjusts to steer opinion, like some blocking move in the game of Go. Meanwhile there is an acceptance that in reality the decisions of government are, for the greater part, driven by narratives emanating directly from the practice of power that are, in telling ways, shrouded in a secrecy and complexity that partially conceals a brutal, self interested cynicism.
The internet's plethora of competing narratives, spanning all imagined explanations for our experience of being, can be used to create new narratives as millions of minds probe towards consensus using the stories they adopt and reject. This has emerged in an age of fear, where fear has been for so long a manipulated facet of the narrative to hold us from rebellion against our alienation from power.
The result in the UK is a change in our politics that is both exciting and alarming. Broadly people are being drawn into two competing groups. There are those who see the country under siege from migrants and pooled sovereignty agreements with other countries, who seek some reclaim of a world that probably never existed. In the opposite corner are those of the planet in crisis narrative.
This is the world of the populist politician; the champion of causes. This is the world of Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson. This is the world of Nigel Farage. This is where ambition breaks with convention to grab for power. The Machiavelli among them is Tom Watson.
