This recent piece about Andy Burnham’s background in The Grauniad by Blake Morrison is, I
think, well worth reading:
Full
disclosure: I was present at the event Morrison mentions – a celebration of the
life of the absolutely titanic poet & playwright Tony Harrison, whose life
intersected with mine in a completely minor way many years ago.
In the course of the memorial, Leeds MP Richard Burgon (here pictured with the author),
This is
important, in the context of speculation about Burnham’s background and
its bearing on his likely approach to being PM, because one of the two practical
skills that the degree teaches is how to analyse and understand a text &
how it works. That is to say, how to
detect bullsh*t, recognise truth, and articulate meaning. It struck me then – and now – that if Burnham
can bring those practical skills to the job of PM, then he’s got a head-start on
the ragtag of Oxford PPE graduates, merchant bankers, legal technocrats and outright
charlatans who’ve recently debased the office.
And he may also stand a fair chance of beating the spivs, criminals and
crypto-fascists who would like to replace him.
At
Harrison’s memorial, I encouraged Burnham to stand for parliament & go for
PM – advice that I don’t flatter myself he paid any attention to (‘I will if
I’m allowed to’ he said – this was a few weeks before Makerfield).
We also
briefly discussed Tony Harrison’s play ‘Fram’ about the great Fridtjof Nansen, a
genuine ‘king of the north’ who responded to the post-World War One refugee
crisis by creating international passports for people made stateless by war
& disaster, enabling freedom of movement for the victims of history. I encouraged Burnham to take a radical,
humane approach to our present immigration ‘crisis’ and decisively stand up for
transforming Britain into a place that welcomes and integrates refugees and
immigrants. Tellingly, he declined to
respond to this, so I don’t flatter myself that he took my advice on that
either.
And this is
a shame because the other practical ability that the degree teaches is an
understanding of how human society and culture are mediated through the voices
and consciousnesses of an infinity of others, not the shackles of a single
stable ‘us’.
I’m not so foolish
as to imagine that we live any longer in a society in which poets can claim to
be our unacknowledged legislators, but I’d hazard that Tony Harrison contributed
more to our understanding of society and what it means to be humane in the face
of history than any of the governors of our lifetimes. It is, I suppose, just possible to hope that
a mind grounded in an understanding of what Harrison’s poetry can teach us may, when faced with the necessity of impossible choices (as Burnham will be come Monday morning), exercise the option for civilization and understanding over
ignorance and barbarism.
