Dissenting Disruptors

Alex

Alex comes home from another long day driving deliveries around Middlesbrough and opens a bottle of cider in his small back garden as the sun sets behind the terraced houses.

At 48, he is tired of greeting customers that do not speak English when they answer the door – it happens more and more these days, and he cannot help thinking his dad never had to deal with this when he worked in the now shrunken steel industry. Alex misses the idea of Britain actually making things instead of just shuffling Amazon packages around, wondering how a country that once built ships and cars ended up employing people like him to deliver other countries’ products to people who’ve just arrived.

During his shifts, Alex has talk radio on constantly – he does not like the BBC, which he thinks is biased, but finds the phone-ins refreshing, where ordinary people actually say what they think without worrying about offending anyone.

He is particularly drawn to Nigel Farage’s common-sense take on things, feeling like finally someone understands that working people are getting a raw deal while politicians live in their bubbles. Alex does not bother voting most of the time because it never changes anything, but when he thinks about the future, he yearns for someone to sweep away the whole rotten system and start afresh – though he is not holding his breath that it will ever happen.

Alex gets most of his information about what’s really going on in the country by scrolling through Facebook groups and YouTube channels that share videos the mainstream media will not show. He is particularly drawn to content that exposes what he sees as the establishment’s lies – whether it’s about immigration statistics, government spending, or the real reasons behind decisions that seem designed to benefit the elite. When his sister criticises him for sharing posts she calls “conspiracy theories,” Alex gets frustrated because he knows she is just repeating what the BBC told her to think, while he is actually doing his own research and seeing the bigger picture.

The changes Alex has witnessed in Middlesbrough over the past decade have reinforced his sense that the country is being transformed without anyone asking ordinary British people what they want. Lots of barber shops have opened in his local high street, the pub he grew up visiting with his parents have closed down, and half the houses on his street are occupied by people who seem to have no connection to the community he grew up in.

Alex does not consider himself racist – he has got nothing personal against immigrants – but he cannot understand why politicians prioritise newcomers over families like his who’ve been here for generations and are struggling to get by. Alex is drawn to strong leaders in politics who are not afraid to speak uncomfortable truths, even if it means breaking a few eggs along the way.