At first I thought we were talking about Vladimir Putin. However it soon became clear that the “Beast from the East” was a weather phenomenon. The Russian high pressure system has escaped from its Siberian archipelago as the normal West to East jet stream has temporarily reversed. The result is that strong and cold East winds flooded over the whole of the British Isles bringing with it the coldest conditions in the UK for a decade. The nickname given to this weather feature works, not only because it rhymes, but also because of its association in our minds with the political and military threat that the Russian leader holds in our minds. Putin’s aggressive speech last week was designed to strengthen that image.
Soon the 'Beast' was joined in the mix by Storm Emma raging in from the Atlantic. The gale force freezing winds made it very difficult to go out at all. The snow has caused havoc for many although we have been lucky in Liverpool. Storms are so much more understandable now they are given names. We can really get to loathe and fear them properly. It was much more difficult to do so when they were anonymous and just the latest in a series of Atlantic cyclonic systems. Now Emma can be easily talked about and its effects remembered and noted especially when it met the 'Beast'.
Our personalisation of the weather is really not that disturbing; after all where would we be if we didn’t have the weather to talk about and we might as well spice that up a bit. On the other hand this personalised approach to speaking of the weather is symptomatic of a problem affecting our thinking in relation to many more serious issues.
Take the word ‘grandee’ for example. We all got to know Martin Donnelly last week. This relatively unknown government ‘grandee’ turns out to be a former top civil servant in Liam Fox’s Brexit Department until he quit in March last year. He came up with a sound bite of his own when describing the appetising Brexit menu ahead. He said this on the BBC Four Radio Today Programme last week "You’re giving up a three-course meal, for the promise of a packet of crisps in the future if we manage to do deals outside the European Union." What a wonderful way of describing the risks of a complex situation in a simple to understand way. On the other hand those who opposed his view soon started their familiar smears of anyone who opposed them. This is what Douglas Carswell tweeted: “The grandees that preside over us don’t like Brexit - SHOCK.”
As a former ‘Legal Aid Lawyer’ I understand these type of smears well. Rather than someone with a vocation who pursued issues of injustice, I became a ‘fat cat lawyer’; a person who acted for criminals and asylum seekers who were sponging off the state and ruining our society just so I could get rich. If only that had been true. Civil servants (and ex civil servants) likewise are no longer highly respected public servants doing their best to help govern but self-serving ‘grandees’ who have some kind of status to protect contrary to the public they once served.
It is very easy to demonise and whip up resentment and it’s very hard to get over properly argued facts and statements. This makes it difficult for a democracy to work properly and accounts for some disturbing developments in our political life. The “Beast from the East” will soon be forgotten but our national life is in danger of descending into a series of banal and sterile smears. Heaven knows where this will lead us but I doubt if I will feel at home.