I was born in a mining town in the ‘70s, to a working class family. A happy, but inauspicious start.
Some decades later, after my degrees, my failed and my successful careers, and a huge amount of planning and work, I am doing very well in life.

Somewhere along the way, my dad’s council job, my state comprehensive education, and my long exile as I escaped my region’s collapsed economy seem to have been stripped, by others from the current “me”, and my current situation is all that is seen. I’m now “privileged” you see.

Because of this, my memories, the views I gained along the way, the insights Ingot from living overseas, learning other languages and cultures, building businesses, nurturing staff, and now having children, they don’t matter.

My skin colour, income, and house have eclipsed all that I was born with, and all that learned along the way. I’m not complaining, I have literally nothing to complain about, but identity politics is so fickle. Achieve what you set out to do, and that’s it, you are in a new box.

Do we really want to discount the views of people who’ve seen both sides of some pretty tall fences? Is public discourse improved this way?