The growing rise of One Nation

here and Reform in the UK is causing alarm among the more "traditional" parties in politics.

"One Nation is dangerous," I was told yesterday. This came from a resident in these units who apparently has strong political views. I listened. I said nothing. I was thinking about psychology, not politics. Why do we "believe" things?

As children we believe in Father Christmas or Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or the "tooth fairy" or participate in "Elf on the Shelf" or something equally unlikely. I knew full well who "Father Christmas" was at age three but I also knew it was wise to "believe" in it and not say anything to those children who did believe. I now wonder whether there were not a few more children like me. Country children know milk does not simply come in a bottle or calves from holes in the ground so why should they believe in Santa Claus? They have other "magic" right around them. 

When I was small other things were magical too. They were rare. We did not have doors which slid open. I remember the first time we came across one and my brother insisted on going through it three times. We thought travelling in a lift (elevator to you North Americans) was fun. They were often operated by a man in uniform. We thought it would be a fascinating job to do that all day! 

There were traffic lights and pedestrian lights - both unheard of out in the rural areas we lived in - and the way "the Man in Blue" site worked at the railway station so you knew where to go and catch your train. (There was no Platform 9 and 3/4.)

I thought of all these things and more, of how I believed not so much in them but in the magic of them.  Watching people interact with them was fascinating. 

Perhaps now it is the same for many adults. There is a fascination with the new politics of One Nation. People want something different. For some it is perhaps a return to the past, to a time when things seemed more certain. For others there is a desire to believe in something akin to Father Christmas and the tooth fairy.