Review: Tribes by David Lammy

Ask anyone to describe the UK’s political atmosphere, and you will probably hear words like “divided”, “fragmented” or “unstable”. This is not a new observation. Far from it, books from commentators and politicians like Robert Peston, David Goodhart and Nick Clegg have acknowledged the fissiparous nature of political conversation which, while linked to Brexit for many, is also a much broader and complex phenomenon. David Lammy’s book Tribesis the latest in this series of division-healers, but is perhaps unique in its inclusion of the MP for Tottenham’s personal experiences of conflicting identities, allowing the book to bridge together microcosm and macrocosm for a convincing reflection on social cohesion that goes beyond the immediately political nature of the debate. 

Tribes is compulsively readable, combining political anecdote, social encounters and academic research in anthropology and psychology. Its evocative title speaks not of the literal, anthropological definition of a tribe, but is instead a metaphor to describe the “creeping resurgence of our polarisation into groups at the beginning of the twenty-first century” His work aims to explain how we have become so divided and reluctant to work with one another, while providing some thoughtful ideas into how we can work towards rectifying the situation. It quickly becomes clear that identity is so central to twenty-first-century life that it is impossible not to refer to one’s own groups and identifiers when discussing it as a whole., hence why the first part of the book explores Lammy’s own background. The first chapter examines the traditional “Englishness” that has influenced Lammy following his time as a chorister at a boarding school in Peterborough, followed by his Guyanese heritage and upbringing within a British Caribbean community which has been slowly subsumed into a general Black British identity. This is concluded with the Labour MP’s travels in Niger to understand the Tuareg tribe which, according to a DNA test, accounted for 25% of his genetic makeup. What comes across is that in each case the group in question is simply trying to find belonging in an increasingly individualistic society, and that the difficulties of achieving this risk drawing people towards crime or extreme opinions. Thus the dizzying pace of demographic change has led to xenophobia among working-class residents in Peterborough while, in like manner, exclusion from social mobility and a lacking sense of belonging lead young people toward gangs in more deprived parts of London. For Lammy this is part of a widespread trend seen since roughly the eighties, when governments began to extol individualism over community and traditional working-class identities were eroded by economic change.

As if this were not enough, the pivot away from engagement with our local community and towards closed groups has helped create a “loneliness pandemic” with over nine million people in the UK saying they are “always or often lonely” according to one report. Lammy describes how social media feeds on these tendencies, as algorithms seem to promote the extremes of debate rather than more moderate views. Moreover, living in closed groups necessarily shields us from opposing viewpoints and backgrounds so that many can go through life without their views challenged, which is particularly dangerous when those are on the extremes. It is difficult to disagree with Lammy’s analysis here. As a twenty-three-year-old graduate from rural Wiltshire who has recently moved to London, I realise that place is less an identifier for me than a sort of general cosmopolitanism that attracts young people from all over the country to the capital. Unfortunately, many young people rarely socialise with people who are not in their age group or, even more tragically, from different social backgrounds. It is right to defend cosmopolitanism, but when not accompanied by an attachment to the local community as a whole this can mean that vast areas become inhabited by different social groups that face little or no interaction. This feeds into a wider mistrust of other communities or groups that have different values, leading to radicalisation in politics and religion alike. It is a credit to Lammy’s mature, balanced prose that he actually manages to sympathise with David Hall, a middle-aged man prosecuted for sending him racially abusive emails, seeing him not as a “pantomime far-right villain”, but a “sad and lonely man, channelling his personal frustrations against public figures”. 

So how do we combat the closedness, the extremes and the conflicting identities? In Lammy’s opinion, we need a radical rethink of how national identities within the UK are considered and portrayed. This means championing what he calls a “civic nationalism” as opposed to “ethnic nationalism” which, unfortunately, is emerging among forgotten communities outside London in the form of right-wing populism. The use of the word “nationalism” may frighten some readers, but its use is more than justified: our fear of the word is precisely because we have allowed patriotism to move away from moderate spaces and be hijacked by far-right groups. Lammy believes that England suffers from this problem because it was not touched by the devolution powers accorded to the UK’s other nations, creating a political and identity vacuum. It is only natural that people will turn to fringe groups when their concerns do not seem to be heard by Establishment figures. Lammy’s solution would be to set up English citizens’ assembly to make sure that issues affecting left-behind areas are heard, while encouraging a new English identity around “creativity”, “openness” and “fair play” that can heal those group divisions. It seems naïve to expect an assertion of these three principles and a loosely-defined assembly to be sufficient to tackle the inequalities and divisions in the UK, but it is surely a step in the right direction. In any case, the author is quick to point out that these solutions are suggestive more than anything else. 

          

The extent to which we have fallen into tribes must not be overstated. There is evidence that amid falling trust in politicians ordinary citizens actually trust each other far more than in the past. We even agree far more on individual issues than sowers of discord would have us believe: 79 per cent of the British public believe that “we need to combat climate change by any means necessary” and 76 per cent think that the NHS should receive “whatever public funding it needs”, to cite two examples from the book. To tackle Issues like the climate and refugee crises, it is essential, predictably, that we move beyond tribes and embrace the man-as-social-animal part of human nature, rather than focus on what divides us. While parts of this book do draw much attention to errors of opposition governments, championing what we have in common does not have to be partisan, as small “c” conservatives have as much to gain from ideas of encouraging traditional community feeling as does the left. It is for this reason that Lammy’s work is a must-read by those across the political spectrum. Some of his solutions will be questioned, but the Labour MP offers a refreshingly balanced explanation of the UK’s predicament, and we owe it to each other to debate further the issues raised without falling into back into our closed groups.