Where’s your backbone, politicians?

I’ve been wondering for a while what it’s going to take for people to stand up and be counted on issues which matter, and this week I think we’re beginning to see what’s often referred to as a tipping point. I’m no political columnist, but I am probably your typical watcher and listener of news. And last week was a hell of an interesting week.

Over in the UK things are really heating up with Brexit. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has bet the house on a two-step strategy: step one, getting enough political support to exit the EU without a deal on October 31, which looks unlikely. Step two, if he can’t achieve that, then call a general election to create enough support.

Finally MPs there are beginning to get some backbone and do something. A raft of Tory MPs have rebelled – and been expelled from the party – over Johnson’s approach to Brexit; the most damning being the PM’s own brother Jo Johnson resigning on Friday. A moment of light in a longdark tunnel was the headline: ‘‘Jo Johnson quits to spend less time with his family.’’ But I digress.

Other politicians across all party lines moved to block Johnson’s plan through the creation of a new, hurried act of Parliament. Rightly or wrongly, at least UK politicians are standing up and being heard, rather than sitting back worrying about their pension plans and parliamentary perks.

Meanwhile, real people are also taking to the streets. Protests were held in more than 30 towns and cities throughout the UK, including a mass demonstration on Parliament in London. My friends have been out waving placards, something that hasn’t happened since our student days.

Here, I was listening to an interview with Victoria University vice-chancellor Grant Guilford, who – along with Lincoln University and now Massey University – is supporting students taking part in the mass rally on climate change action on September 27.

The rally coincides with the United Nations’ Emergency Climate Summit in New York.

To be fair, the universities had no choice in the matter. Their students and staff were going to protest and miss lectures whatever they said or directed, so better to roll with it.

But it was interesting to hear Guilford describe school students as ‘‘the adults in the room’’ on climate change, while claiming politicians were ‘‘a long way behind with their naive and bickering behaviour’’. I have to agree.

Teachers and parents will now be working out how to deal with the flood of students who will want to get out and march.

What is great to see is that people, people like you and me, have reached the end of our tether and are starting to make some real noise about what we believe in.

Fake news, bullying political leaders, politicians more interested in playing political games than acting in the best interests of the country and voters. It seems like people have reached a tipping point where they are finally being galvanised into taking action. And a good old-fashioned protest is a peaceful, yet powerful way to make that voice heard.

I’m not a radical or an anarchist but my observation is that people seem to be getting increasingly less accepting of the old ways of doing things, and far less trusting in the institutions than they may once have been.

Blessing or curse, we do live in exciting times.