{"id":845,"date":"2015-07-18T17:14:17","date_gmt":"2015-07-18T17:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/?p=845"},"modified":"2015-07-18T17:14:17","modified_gmt":"2015-07-18T17:14:17","slug":"hinterland-where-is-it-what-is-it-and-how-do-i-get-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/?p=845","title":{"rendered":"Hinterland, where is it, what is it and how do I get there?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We often hear media pundits talking about the advantages of public figures having what they refer to as \u201cHinterland\u201d. Of having a real working life before and outside of politics. One definition of hinterland is \u201cAn area lying beyond what is visible or known: the strange hinterland where life begins and ends\u201d. <\/em><\/p>\n

For me it is that indefinable yet unmistakable quality that someone has when they have lived life properly, lived or worked in different places and fields and among real people with real lives. Found a few paths less travelled and emerged as their own person. <\/em><\/p>\n

And in this last week this has been brought into sharp relief but not in the way I would have expected.<\/em><\/p>\n

Two \u201cpoliticians\u201d have demonstrated just how little they have learned from their hinterland and one demonstrated how little it matters, if you have good instincts.<\/em><\/p>\n

First <\/em>Ukip’s deputy leader Paul Nuttall was branded “misogynistic” after claiming in a blog for The Huffington Post UK that Nicola Sturgeon should be thrown in front of a horse.<\/p>\n

The MEP hit out at SNP plans to vote on changes to the foxhunting ban which only affect England and Wales and wrote “Tuesday is Emmeline Pankhurst Day, and whilst I am not going to throw myself in front of a horse to make my point about British democracy on this occasion, this is a vitally important constitutional matter and perhaps we should throw Sturgeon in front of a hunt horse as part of the commemorations.”.<\/p>\n

Hinterland; between his education and going into politics, Nuttall lived and worked in Barcelona before returning to Merseyside to lecture on history at Hugh Baird College and then at Liverpool Hope University.<\/p>\n

Then the biggest joke in UK politics Nigel Farage compared the SNP to the Nazi party during a speech in the USA, referring to Nicola Sturgeon as \u201cthat appalling woman\u201d and said Ukip\u2019s failure at the election was because David Cameron promoted fear of the SNP among the electorate to win votes for the Tories in England.<\/p>\n

According to reports on the Breitbart News website, he said: \u201cThat appalling woman\u201d referring to the First Minister, \u201cshe represents a party that are nationalists and socialists at the same time\u2026 did I really say that? Well to hell with it, it\u2019s true\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hinterland: on leaving school in 1982, he decided not to go to university, but to work in the City, and apparently traded commodities at the London Metal Exchange.<\/p>\n

Lots of hinterland but no decency, respect or judgement.<\/p>\n

The third politician who caught my eye has little of what we would call \u201chinterland\u201d. Having just graduated, got her first \u201creal job\u201d and her work career seems to have been part time in a local chippy.<\/p>\n

But for all of that Mhairi Black\u2019s maiden speech in the House demonstrated the sense of decency, compassion and judgement far beyond the two numpties from ukip.<\/p>\n

Rarely have I seen a maiden speech which spoke so clearly of understanding her constituents and their problems. Identified the main causes of them and showed the way to build a constructive and effective opposition to this most ideologically driven of Governments.<\/p>\n

In her address, Black attacked David Cameron’s administration for being the most “uncaring, uncompromising and out of touch governments that the UK has seen since Thatcher”.<\/p>\n

She also criticised George Osborne’s welfare cuts, noting \u201cMy housing [in London] is subsidised by the state \u2026 but in this budget the chancellor abolished any housing benefit for anyone under the age of 21,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are now in the ridiculous situation whereby, because I am an MP, not only am I the youngest, but I am also the only 20-year-old in the whole of the UK who the chancellor is prepared to help with housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black went on to make a direct plea to Labour colleagues not to vote for the Government\u2019s planned cuts to tax credits.\u00a0 A plea which was to fall on the deaf ears of their current leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe SNP did not triumph on a wave of nationalism; in fact nationalism has nothing to do with what happened in Scotland. We triumphed on a wave of hope \u2013 hope that there is something better than the Thatcherite neoliberal policies that come from this chamber.\u201d If I was being pedantic I would argue it is Nationalism which fuelled that wave of hope, but that aside, Mhairi\u2019s speech demonstrated that it is perhaps not a \u201chinterland\u201d which is necessary after all. Perhaps what is required is much more of a sense of purpose. We saw in Mhairi\u2019s speech and in contribution after contribution from the SNP benches that we have a group of people who actually know why they are in politics, why they stood for Parliament and what they want to do with any levers of power they can lay their hands on.<\/p>\n

Mhairi\u2019s speech has been lauded, and rightly so, on all sides except from Labour in Scotland and BBC Scotland. Many have said that it demonstrates the need for more young people or more women etc selecting their own preference groups and I am doing the same. It demonstrates the need for more people who know about politics but also their own people. Who know political theory but also the realities in the streets and work places. Who know \u201cthat strange hinterland where life begins and ends\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We often hear media pundits talking about the advantages of public figures having what they refer to as \u201cHinterland\u201d. Of having a real working life before and outside of politics. One definition of hinterland is \u201cAn area lying beyond what is visible or known: the strange hinterland where life begins and ends\u201d. For me it is that indefinable yet unmistakable quality that someone has when they have lived life properly, lived or worked in different places and fields and among real people with real lives. Found a few paths less travelled and emerged as their own person. And in this last week this has beenRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[135,134,133,66],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":846,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions\/846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}