I saw a TikTok during one of my allotted doomscrolling portions of the day, and it was someone suggesting that the UK uses different language to describe its politicians than other countries in Europe, and how that might affect our relationship with them.
It was the use of the words representing vs serving.
I found it fascinating because we are at an incredibly strange time globally.
I mean, Donald Trump, Russia and Ukraine, the horrors we are seeing in Gaza, fears of AI takeovers, and the one that has sparked recent protests in Paris and Milan: the cost of living.
Not since the pandemic has something brought so many around the world into the same boat.
Unlike the pandemic, there is a group of people who this global emergency can bypass.
But for the majority of people, the cost of living has become crippling.
Despite having some of the highest electricity bills in Europe, Britain hasn’t seen cost of living protests on quite the same scale as those we’ve watched elsewhere.
Or at least, none that seem to have made nearly as much noise.
While we see people taking to the streets in Paris, our Prime Minister is making TikToks about parking fines and people who vape on buses.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate Andy Burnham’s attempts to soothe some of the issues his predecessors didn’t.
But that’s not really the point, is it?
When you look at the scale of the issue in the UK — food prices up nearly 39%, food parcels distributed by food banks up around 50% since 2019, and typical household energy bills up around 58% since winter 2021–22 — these policies from the Prime Minister come across as deeply unserious.
But have we not come to expect this from our elected officials here in the UK?
I won’t even take a cheap shot at Liz Truss, because it was the untethered fool Boris Johnson who laid the groundwork for the revolving door of clowns we’ve seen go through the doors of No. 10.
But the more I thought about that TikTok, the more I wondered whether my frustration was actually about the politicians themselves, or about the relationship we’ve come to have with them.
Because it’s not that British people are somehow less angry than French or Italian people.
I don’t think you can look at the cost of living here and reasonably conclude that people simply aren’t bothered.
So why does that frustration seem to find such different outlets?
Initially, I thought I might find an answer in the language.
I couldn’t find enough evidence myself to suggest that the language used in countries like France to describe a government’s responsibility to its people is fundamentally different from the language used in the UK.
And I think that’s important to acknowledge.
But I also don’t think that makes the distinction between representing and serving any less interesting.
Because I think there’s a huge chasm between the two.
To represent someone is to speak on their behalf. To serve someone is to work for their benefit.
And while the two aren’t mutually exclusive, I wonder whether we have become more accustomed to thinking about the first than expecting the second.
Do you feel served by your local MP?
I certainly don’t.
And that question has stayed with me, because I don’t think the answer is as simple as whether you like the person you’ve elected.
It’s about what you believe they’re there to do in the first place.
If we look back to 2023 and the protests in France against the pension age being raised, there was a tangible decision that President Macron could have reversed to address the protesters’ central demand.
But when the grievance is something as broad as the cost of living, what does a government actually have to do to convince people that things are getting better?
And perhaps more interestingly, what do people believe they have the right to demand?
A recent victory in Serbia saw the incumbent government ousted by an insurgent student movement, putting forward political candidates who were teachers and lecturers, doctors and nurses.
It shows that mobilised movements can work and that the Serbian people have chosen to want more for their country.
Having done this in a remarkable way, it gives credence to the idea that politics is a living entity, malleable enough to be shaped by the people for the people.
What happens next is yet to be seen, but the movement has already challenged the idea that political change has to come from the people who already have the power.
I then saw a clip of a protestor in Paris being interviewed.
He said that he thought that the violence was legitimate.
The interviewer then gave him an out, asking him if he thought that it was okay for businesses and places to be trashed, he said and I quote-
“Kind of”
The interview concluded with him saying that if the government was listening to them, taking them seriously, none of this would be going on.
I don’t write this because I think that trashing businesses is the way to be heard by your government, I don’t. But it struck me how matter of fact and cool he was about it all.
That is his legitimate and fair reaction to have.
There is a part of me that thinks if this had been the state of affairs in June or July, the UK may have had a louder response.
But again that is speculation.
What is worth a thought is, what do Brits actually expect from their governments?
Do we expect them to change things for the better or do we just expect them not to make them worse?
Do we even expect them to hold a position for longer than an interview?
I certainly don’t think there is a great deal of faith in our elected representatives.
But we keep sending these people to run our country.
At what point do we start putting forward individuals whose desire it is to serve their communities?
How long do we pretend like Andy Burnham watching Gogglebox actually matters?
I don’t wish to be represented, I want to be served by my local MPs, councillors and MSPs- because if not them, then WHO?
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