Issue 77 / May 2017

SAY
THE FINAL
Photo by John Johnson
As we watch our treasured
punk icons melt into
establishment figures, Labour
MP for Wirral South ALISON
MCGOVERN muses on the
nature of being an outsider:
that it may be cool to be a
rebel for a while, but to effect
real change we all need to be
on the inside.
“Today’s rebel
is tomorrow’s
establishment
figure”
Liverpool is a rebel city, right?
We are not like the rest of England, and we turn our
back on the country, and look out towards the Atlantic,
right? Part of our self-image on Merseyside is surely our
radical, uncompromising nature. We stand apart. We take battles
on. We won’t be told. We are contrary. Gobby. Up for a fight.
Right?
Culturally, being a rebel is great thing to be. In music,
film, art, sport even, being a rebel is synonymous with
being original. Rebelling means doing things differently. It
means critically – furiously, even – taking on the accepted
way that things are. In politics too, my Merseyside heart is
rebellious. Getting into politics to change how the work gets
done, not just to be the one who does it. Not just playing the
political game. Ripping up the bad rules; making new rules.
And our Liverpool rebel hearts have served us well. No one
thought that the public would love mad, yellow half-lamb-halfbanana
art, until we showed it could be done. We take on lost
causes, and make a virtue of the disdain with which the rest of
the country has sometimes treated us.
But here is a weird truth: today’s rebel is tomorrow’s
establishment figure. The Beatles were rebels once. Their hair,
their accents, the lyrics. It’s easy to forget it was once all very
controversial, even before John Lennon said they were more
popular than Jesus. In the end, they have become the gospel
truth of music. Those people who say they don’t actually like the
Beatles? That’s just rebellion. Jazz was deeply controversial once
too; now it is often middle of the road. The enfants terribles of
punk ended up becoming national treasures. Madonna was once
a rebellious young New Yorker, until one day, there she was in a
hunting jacket and hanging out with top Tories.
Why does this happen? Is it just age? Do you always grow
out of rebellion?
No, I don’t think so. Plenty of people come to rebel status
later in life. Picasso was more rebellious as he went on, for
example. Rather, it’s because in the end, a rebellion, to really
change the world, needs wide acceptance. The unpopular view
must become accepted wisdom. Once that happens, change
is established. I am old enough to remember when the idea
that two men or two women being married would have been
shocking. Now, it is (in Britain, anyway) so uncontroversial that
the legislation passed through our Parliament with support from
all corners. Even the establishment Tories. Change happens
because a minority view becomes majority consent.
Therefore, even my rebel heart knows that to see the big
change our society needs – an end to homelessness, more money
in people’s pockets, power based on talent and hard work not
family or connections – those of my political persuasion must
be more than a sect. Even a noisy inconvenient faction can
be ignored if they are just shouting from the sidelines, never
imposing a view to influence the decision, just shouting for the
sake of the din. Madonna, in the end, was able to change pop
music not just because she was a rebel, but also because she
was popular. She was followed.
Though I’ll never forgive her for the hunting jacket.
What’s more, being a rebel, staying outside the consensus,
brings with it consequences. Rebellion is isolating. Liverpool’s
outsider city status binds us together, but kept us misunderstood
by others in Britain. How long has it taken to correct the
misunderstanding heaped on our shoulders? So, it may be cool
to be a rebel, but it can also be uncomfortable. Artists are often
outsiders too. And they experience the pain that goes with it.
That loneliness, I mean.
Standing alone, with self-belief, may be one thing. But what
about the equal value of being a cog in a larger machine? We all
have that very human need to feel a part of something bigger
than ourselves. We want to work together with others, not just
dissent. Societies only function if, in the end, rebels row in with
everyone else. People are entitled to fight their corner, to seek
change, but permanent rebellion can never give enough of a
permanent platform to stand on. To build from.
So, in my mind, there is a sweet point somewhere between
rebellion and creating structure – a system – that people can
actually believe in, and use to their own advantage. Rebels who
never try to change the consensus view are doomed to fail on
their own terms. So that’s why I say to my fellow Merseysiders:
us rebels can’t get stuck on the outside. We are entitled to be
heard, and to change the establishment – just as anyone else is.
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