We Need To Talk About Trans Politics

An oppressed majority

Increasing numbers of people are politically non-binary – but there is still pressure to conform to out-dated notions of left or right, write David Martin Jones and M.L.R. Smith.

Have you ever felt like you do not meet society’s expectations? Are you wondering about your identity? Do you find conforming to social stereotypes oppressive? Do you have ‘strange’ thoughts about who you might be, causing you to question prior assumptions about yourself?

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘yes’, then you may well be trans. We’re not talking gender here. We’re talking politics. The growing ideological fluidity between traditional notions of left and right is leading to political cross-over and convergence. Groups that once had little in common suddenly find they are united.

People who are trans-political, or who identify as politically non-binary, come from both ends of the political spectrum but all now find themselves at odds with the Conservative and Labour Party, as well as the mainstream media narrative of contemporary events. Welcome to the new trans politics.

Here, we have put together a handy guide to help you work out if you too might be trans-political.

If you used to describe yourself as a ‘classical liberal’ and voted Conservative before Brexit was even a thing, but no longer feel at home in Johnson’s one nation, the following signs may help you determine if you are, indeed, trans:

• You once thought Russell Brand a buffoon. You saw his performances on Question Time and Newsnight (back in the day when you bothered to watch these programmes) and thought he was a braggart spouting new age drivel. You are now an avid follower of his YouTube channel. You find him thoughtful, insightful, often funny, and a perceptive interviewer.

• You look back and think that while you rarely agreed with Tony Benn’s or Michael Foot’s political agenda, nevertheless, you admired their commitment to parliamentary democracy, scepticism about power and privilege, and respect for civil political debate. You regret that people like them are nowhere to be found in contemporary politics.

• You would much rather read the work of actual investigative journalists like Glenn Greenwald than the repetitively predictable opinions of any number of Oxbridge grads who occupy the comment pages of the national newspapers.

• You find the Daily Telegraph boring.

• You think George Galloway may be self-regarding and idiosyncratic, but he seems more open minded, and certainly far more articulate, than your average university professor of social science.

• You have a sense that Margaret Thatcher may have been too harsh on the miners and might have laid waste to British manufacturing.

  You are increasingly concerned that unfettered capitalism and unregulated big corporations do not necessarily promote the public good.

• You begin to think there may actually be such a thing as the ‘military-industrial’ complex.

• You would much rather read something from Left Lockdown Sceptics or the Off Guardian than the mainstream media.

• You find Spectator TV and Times Radio unbearably smug.

• You think a fourth runway should be built at Heathrow, preferably with direct flight paths over Richmond and Putney.