Tower Block of Commons
The programme highlights the disconnect between political debate at Westminster and some of Britain’s poorest neighbourhoods (for example, even a prominent politician like Ian Duncan Smith was not recognised by his host). Interestingly, what seems to bridge that gap is relationship. If nothing else, Tower Block of Commons points out that tackling the ‘big issues’ requires more than abstract debate and that there is no substitute for genuine human contact.Churches often (and rightly!) teach about why we should be concerned about the issue of poverty. Sometimes the issue is romanticised, even though working with the marginalised can be difficult, messy, confusing and risky. I sometimes worry that I appear like the MPs in the programme: slightly bewildered, having a great theory about social justice, but unable to communicate in a way that makes sense (and perhaps thinking that I'm more important than I really am!). Last year, I blogged about how relationship trumps myth-busting studies. I still believe this is true, but that an essential part of a relational way of working requires learning from each other. My opinions about the needs in Springburn must be informed by the people who have lived here longer than me. In an interview about the programme, Ian Duncan Smith commented, "well, I don’t know how much they learnt from me because it was meant to be the other way around."
NB: if you do tune into Tower Block of Commons, be aware that the language befits the areas and there are mature themes.
