When a political party gathers for its annual conference, the host city (or at least the political and security bubble that surrounds the conference centre) becomes home to feverish and partisan political chat.What is different about the next few days is Manchester is also a city in mourning after the horrific attack on Thursday.There is, of course, still sharp political argument here but the emotional and practical backdrop is one of grief, fear and an ongoing police investigation.The flags outside the conference centre fly at half mast.A community just a few miles from here, but also all over the UK, is terrorised, frightened and grieving.Many Jewish people are furious more has not been done – for years – to protect them.And all this poses some of the biggest questions about who we are and what we hold dear.The other day the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood pleaded with pro-Palestinian protesters not to head out onto the streets in the immediate days after the attack at the Heaton Park Synagogue.She argued that to do so would be “un-British”.But others ponder just how British it is to curb repeated protests – the plan Mahmood now plans to legislate for.So what are the fundamental tenets of Britishness – a concept itself some would contest – under which a multicultural, multilingual, multireligious collection of nations such as the UK could agree on?Against the backdrop of pain and grief, this is a debate about some of the fundamentals of our society – democracy, protest, offence, tolerance (even tolerance for the intolerant) and …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnWhen a political party gathers for its annual conference, the host city (or at least the political and security bubble that surrounds the conference centre) becomes home to feverish and partisan political chat.What is different about the next few days is Manchester is also a city in mourning after the horrific attack on Thursday.There is, of course, still sharp political argument here but the emotional and practical backdrop is one of grief, fear and an ongoing police investigation.The flags outside the conference centre fly at half mast.A community just a few miles from here, but also all over the UK, is terrorised, frightened and grieving.Many Jewish people are furious more has not been done – for years – to protect them.And all this poses some of the biggest questions about who we are and what we hold dear.The other day the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood pleaded with pro-Palestinian protesters not to head out onto the streets in the immediate days after the attack at the Heaton Park Synagogue.She argued that to do so would be “un-British”.But others ponder just how British it is to curb repeated protests – the plan Mahmood now plans to legislate for.So what are the fundamental tenets of Britishness – a concept itself some would contest – under which a multicultural, multilingual, multireligious collection of nations such as the UK could agree on?Against the backdrop of pain and grief, this is a debate about some of the fundamentals of our society – democracy, protest, offence, tolerance (even tolerance for the intolerant) and …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
