Political Coalition - What is wrong with the British media? (Or is it just the British?)

Three months into a coalition government and the media are telling us what to think yet again!

When talking to others about the basic moralities that bind us together, be it as families, friends, colleagues, lovers or (to use that most inclusive of modern usages) whatever - the watchwords include tolerance, friendship and respect. In other words, the best of families or any other relationship grouping is one we regard as a coalition. Included in that word are overtones of respect, understanding, tolerance and a lack of self-interest (or at least keeping it under control).

Whatever the political divide, be it left/right, Conservative/Socialist, I am sure the basic values preached at home are those I mention in the paragraph above. I am equally sure that the tribalism that seems endemic to British society is at fault in blinding otherwise intelligent, thinking men and women for acting in the wider interest. I fail to see any other reason for ingrained voting patterns in this country.

To nail my colours to the mast - I have voted for the Labour party more often during my life than I have for any other party. Despite a brief spell as Deputy Chairman of a Constituency Conservative Party, I believe my politics to be centrist if not a touch to the left of that - what Harold MacMillan would have called a "One Nation" Tory.
Does this make me weak and vacillating? I rather hope not, I would rather choose to believe that I make my mind up on the basis of current circumstances.

Perhaps I risk digression here. The idea of a group of very different people hammering out their differences, agreeing to disagree and working out a compromise seems to me to be a major opportunity for Great Britain to extricate itself from the dystopian mess created by the previous years of excessive or possibly even mis-government. The idea of the government as servant to the people and not as a mechanism to reward its faithful is an idea whose time has returned with a vengeance.

I am puzzled that the media seem to be defending positions adopted in the mists of history and do not see the groundswell of support for a chance of a new political paradigm. I fear the answer must lie in most cases in their inability to eschew tribalism.

Although I see it as a parody of the Blair/Brown state and not a right-wing pastiche, I strongly advise you to see "V for Vendetta" - a film that failed to achieve a great deal of box-office success, but which I found very thought -provoking.

Dum Spiro Spero