SPOTLIGHT: Kick division into touch

Standing up for what unites.

Remember that spoof tale a decade ago that claimed the world’s population of Garys was destined to disappear by 2050?

‘Welcome to a Zero Gary Future’, it warned, as parents spiked the Norman-derived name for spear in favour of cooler alternatives.

It was a satirical stunt, but like the best parodies, it carried just enough grains of truth.

Gary has been in decline for decades – the name that is, rather than the health of the last remaining Gary in your postcode.

He’s just fine.

I think.

And a quick glance at latest official statistics shows it’s still nowhere near the top 100 boys’ names in England and Wales.

If only there were a way to rekindle the Gary flame…

What we need is a saviour, someone to hoist a flag (no, not that type) for the greyed-out Garys and ghosted Gazs.

And in a world intent on tipping itself upside down on a daily basis, who better to right things and cut through the technicolour swirl of life and its political, economic and cultural strokes with black-and-white clarity than a Gary?

It would make even Lazarus envious.

But who to play the protagonist, the purveyor of this plotline, you ask?

How about an ex-footballer (no, not that one), someone who knows all about the blood, sweat and tears needed to succeed?

Someone who isn’t afraid to tell it like it is, who will stand up and do what’s right for the great and good of our land and its people?

I refer, of course, to Gary Neville and his run-in with Britain’s new legion of standard bearers.

When the full-back-turned-pundit-turned-podcaster-turned-football-club-owner-turned-property-developer took down a union flag from one of his building sites – calling on ‘angry white middle-aged men’ to give it a rest – it stirred up a storm akin to one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s infamous hairdryer rants he experienced during his days in the Manchester United changing room.

In seconds, Neville was pilloried, panned and patronised across social media, the patriots of his fire returning with a blaze of their own.

Now, Neville is no paragon of virtue.

He’s happily promoted – and continues to endorse – a footballing world that includes clubs and competitions backed by owners and regimes whose human rights records make – at best – for uncomfortable reading.

He is a contradiction; a dissonant figure; a paradox.

He is an angry white, middle-aged man.

His singling of ‘angry white middle-aged men’ was sweeping, and he should have contextualised it with censure of acts and attitudes across the whole political spectrum.

But he was on to something with this.

Don’t mix politics with sport, goes the old phrase, usually uttered by people who chant politically-motivated songs on the terraces for 90 minutes every Saturday afternoon, and then cheer on England surrounded by flags that celebrate the division caused by military triumph.

It’s where we find ourselves today.

For too long, a swell has risen – predominantly caused by a social media cesspit – that anyone is allowed an opinion.

As long as it’s the same as the person whistling the tune.

And as long as division is allowed to run unchecked across the country, and the definition of a so-called ‘true patriot’ continues to be skewed, we will remain all the more poorer for it.

Neville is far from perfect, and his outburst means he won’t be bringing Gary back to the top of the baby name list any time soon.

But his point – that a nation riven by pettiness, grievance and tribalism is no nation at all – came from a place of good.

True patriotism isn’t about cable-tying a union flag to a lamppost, or spraying the St George’s Cross on a pavement telephony cabinet.

It’s about listening and standing up for what unites, rather than what divides.

Chart a course for shipping success.

Back to the drawing board, then.

Just when it seemed the world was set for a landmark deal to cut shipping emissions, Donald Trump did what Donald Trump does, and swiped the blueprint in a tariff-fuelled tantrum.

Now, you might think it was just another power trip by a megalomaniac keen to maintain his crusade on the ongoing ‘wokening’ of society.

And, of course, it was.

But the abandonment of moves to make shipping the world’s first industry to adopt internationally-mandated emissions targets meant something else, something far more important to the North East than Trump’s posturing.

We are an island nation, and our region’s coastline was born – and continues to be nourished by – overseas trade.

Our ports, from Teesside up to Northumberland, are crucial cogs in the global trade wheel, supporting the transportation of goods that shape our every day.

They are also hubs for industry, not least the drive towards greater sustainability, providing safe havens to plan, project manage and progress the offshore wind farms and greener alternatives set to power our tomorrow.

Our region too is home to NorthStandard, the Newcastle-headquartered global marine insurer that protects nearly one in five of the world’s ocean-going vessels.

The waves caused by Trump’s infantile stamping will reverberate here, all while the need for further sustainability measures swells ever higher.

To wait another year – as was indicated as N magazine went to print – would be too long.

The uncertainty, the cost and the risk will only continue to add up.

And those sums won’t be abstract numbers on a global ledger; there is more than a danger they will represent potential jobs paused and investments stalled.

Our ports, businesses and people are ready to chart a sustainable course.

But they need political will to truly set sail.