STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

I'm a first-class fence-sitter sometimes. In the interest of diplomacy, I find myself carefully counterbalancing arguments, asking questions of either side, and yes, even playing Cecil's Advocate from time-to-time, but crucially, not revealing what I actually think - like a BBC journalist without the job. Or skill. Or platform.

The problem is that the world is rapidly turning into a place where you are no longer able to do this. There's no space for the central ground between Leavers and Remainers, between Conservatives and Liberals or between President Business's Cheerleaders, and those who think he's a Mountainous Glob of Gelatinous Hair.

Social Media doesn't help. The further right the right go, the further left Twitter seems to veer into outrage. The further left the left go, the more the Daily Mail and Fox News spin out to the right. I can only assume that flimflambook is the same, with everyone's echo-chamber pushing them further and further into a more militant version of what they already think.

There's no-one left in the middle of this trench war.

In fact, everyone hanging around that centre-ground is under pressure to decide where to go, while the others fight over the fence.

Nobody asked for this divergence. It just started happening.

I don't like it. Oh and not just because I outraged some Belgian football fans on Twitter the other week. And not just because I got told to 'shut my ******* mouth' by someone who didn't understand irony, but mainly because I don't think this division of ideas helps anybody.

I don't like it. I don't like the divergence, because somewhere, somehow, a lot of us forget that People are More Important Than Stuff. And whether we're passionate or not, our ideas, ideals, political sermons or religious leanings are all just stuff.

So, do I have opinions about President Business? Oh yes. Did I vote in the Brexit Referendum? Yes I did. Do I have a view about whether Scotland should be an independent country? Yes. Am I somewhere between the two vast extremes of Liberal Outrage and Far Right Nationalism? I certainly hope so. Am I going to Tweet about it?

Nope. But ask me face-to-face and maybe we'll have an impassioned discussion in which I hope we'll both listen and be prepared to change our minds without getting all defensive. There's no room for trenches out here in no-man's land.

Just people like us, in a lost-looking world looking for a bit of hope.