Oldham Politics

It is never good to see the town you love in the news for the wrong reasons, but we also have to face the fact that communities are deliberately being divided and set against one another.

In a borough like ours cohesion isn’t a passive act, it requires a lot of hard work to confront segregation and provide positive opportunities for people from different backgrounds to come together, especially when there are always those who set out to exploit division. Aside from the very extremes of politics that was a belief shared by elected political leaders in Oldham who had learnt the hard way from the ashes of the 2001 Oldham Riots exactly 25 years ago.

Social media has helped amplify division, feeding it into the streams of every resident who opens social media. There is hardly a community forum, newspaper comments section free from the now normalised hate speech, let alone pages deliberately set up for this purpose. Our political culture is increasingly being shaped by that new reality, normalising hostility and playing on identity and grievance politics.

Oldham, more than many places, understands where that can lead.

At the same time politics itself has become hostile. Countless reports of intimidation, abuse, harassment, death threats and criminal damage impact not just those who are the immediate victims but put off decent people from standing as candidates at all.

This article raises serious concerns about the role played by political parties, online activists, and toxic political culture in deepening mistrust and division within the borough. It also challenges mainstream parties to do more both to confront that culture and to listen to people who feel unheard and that things are simply not getting better.

There are real issues we have to confront, and we should never seek to diminish them, or marginalise those raising concerns. If we do we force debate into the fringes, and the more that happens the more it grows in numbers.

I take that responsibility seriously. Like the vast majority of decent people in our borough, I want to see an Oldham that is united, not divided.

That will require a more full frontal challenge to those cynically exploiting our borough, and much more effort to build a common ground where concerns are heard and acted upon.

Those efforts will be fought against as vested interests are called to account, but to accept this is just how things are now isn’t an option.

Equally where parties and leaders are contributing to the change needed, across all parties and independents that should be recognised too.

You can read the full article here https://www.notreallyheremedia.com/news/oldham-reporter/investigation-into-oldhams-politics