What is The Westminster Bear?

The Bear is a blog and newsletter focussing on British Politics, with the occasional foray into topics that go beyond our borders. As for what makes The Bear what it is, it subscribes to the EJN's Five Core Principals and tries to make things at least a little bit witty, but it's fundamental Raison d'être is it's focus on Empathy.

Why the focus on empathy?

empathy n. the ability to imagine and understand the thoughts, perspective, and emotions of another person.Oxford Reference

Oft cited as one of the great threats to politics is it’s growing polarisation. The dreaded populism that has gained traction across the world in recent years has thrived on the creation of an "Us" and a "Them", and this has done great damage in driving us apart. With this comes an inability to find effective solutions and good compromise and we are left to concede good policy for the sake of ideology.

If we want society to move in the opposite direction, towards unity rather than division, we must act with great empathy, as it is the very lack of empathy that is the root cause of this problem. Empathy has the power to instantly break down walls, it by definition removes the separation between you and your opponent, and from this position you can work towards what is truly the best solution to whatever problem you face. Now empathy certainly does not mean always agreeing with everyone you meet, nor does it mean you cannot have any passionate views, but it allows you to remove the emotional barriers that would otherwise prevent you from achieving what is right.

And even if at the end two sides are still diametrically opposed, empathy allows them to disagree agreeably rather than, well this.

Why a bear?

Bears give hugs, hugs are a symbol of empathy.

Who writes The Bear?

The Bear is written by a university student, based in London, studying Bioengineering - not what you'd expect right. They will remain anonymous for now.

What is the format?

As I am sure you can imagine, students don't have timetables conducive to producing journalism whenever the world's events require, as such regularity and consistency of publishing can be expected to be a bit sub par. However, with the best intensions, The Bear aims to write a few longer pieces a week which are featured on the website, with the newsletter consisting of these, supplemented with some shorter notes exclusive to the weekly email.

How can I get in touch?

All correspondence to editor@westminsterbear.com