Parliamentary sketch – Just murmuring about togetherness

Posted on: 27th November 2014

The word is out. Excited flocks of starlings chase across our sight. The sky is silk and infinity.

I wish I could stay to see the spectacle of their murmuration – for me, one of the most dramatic and enthralling displays of the natural world.

But I must chase (less excited – more grim determination!) to London to re-join battle with the tribalists.

Six, seven, eight large flocks from different directions race to congregate at – it looks like – the Marazion area.

I remember a murmuration 30 years ago on a clear cloudless late afternoon Sunday sky near Loe Bar. The murmuration flew so high and the sun was so bright that the oily backs of the starlings created a glinting mirror and was mistaken for a UFO – as reported in the local newspapers at the time!

But why am I recanting this? Is this a metaphor? Where does politics come into these seasonal murmurations?

The answer is so that we can learn from the impressive impact of coming together with a unity of purpose.

We have many examples where divided communities miss great opportunities for improvement or have unwelcome developments foisted on them which would not have happened had they worked harder to find common cause and to resist the discordant voices who had axes to grind or personal enmities to be pursued.

That’s why I feel optimistic for those communities where people are coming together (even those with polarised political perspectives and histories of disagreement) to seek to find common cause.

Just such a meeting took place in Penzance earlier that day. Efforts were made to find a way forward. To agree priorities for the next decade or so and to galvanise support. Projects are coming together in Helston, St Ives, St Just and elsewhere.

Whilst of course “Coalitions” have their detractors, when those who normally disagree with each other come together in common cause to do something right for their local area it is both persuasive and impressive.

Perhaps not as impressive as a murmuration of starlings but it can sometimes require greater skill and commitment!

You can contact Andrew George by email: andrew.george.mp@parliament.uk. His constituency office can be contacted at Trewella, 18 Mennaye Road, Penzance, Cornwall, TR18 4NG. Telephone: 01736 360020.

Andrew George MP
Kernow a’n West ha Syllan
West Cornwall and the Scillies
Kwartron Porthia
Constituency of St Ives
Tel: 01736 360020
Fax: 01736 332866

25th November 2014