On this day before Trump’s inauguration, and in the wake of Theresa May’s January 16 announcement that the UK will leave the single market, the temptation to dress in black is overwhelming. I’d really like to curl up into a ball and fast forward to a better time.

Looking for inspiration, I see people out there who are speaking up and making a difference. Geoff Harvey, a new Liberal Democrat member who wrote to Francois Hollande on the day after the Referendum to express his British commitment to the humanity of a wider European community, posted a letter he’d just written to our MP, Heidi Allen: He asked for her leadership now, at the moment when our Prime Minister has signalled a dishonest and catastrophic path out of the European Union for you, me, our children and our country – and which will do nothing to help a fragile continent that needs to hang together, not separately.

Someone else posted on Facebook: Given the appalling state of national politics in the US and the UK, it is up to civil society to rise up and lead the way.

My neighbour John, in his seventies and able to afford nice holidays, is doing just that: he regularly stays overnight in a homeless shelter, offering what he can to those in need, no matter what country they come from.

Our retired health visitor, Bridget, has taken into her home a pregnant Albanian woman who was trafficked and raped.

People who’ve never been involved in politics before realize that, in a democracy, it’s up to us: if we don’t like who’s in charge, we must work to vote in people who will do a better job representing our interests – and the national interest. I desperately want my MP to provide brave and bold leadership in this unprecedented time.

Being a good constituency MP is always welcome. It should be the norm for an MP and the staff we pay to help them to look after our case work and help solve our problems. But we elect MPs to lead us on national issues. That’s their primary job. At a time of national crisis, there can be no doubt about that. It means putting up their hand and casting their vote not in their personal interest, but in the public interest – for the people who put them in the House of Commons to be their representative.

Geoff Harvey quoted Theresa May’s flagrant lie, when she stated so disingenuously on January 16: ‘Both sides in the Referendum Campaign made it clear that a vote to leave the EU would be a vote to leave the single market.’

That’s why the Oxford English Dictionary was so right in coining new vocabulary for this new world: Post Truth. What synonyms does the dictionary offer to describe Theresa May’s statement?

Disingenuous – synonyms: dishonest · deceitful · underhand · underhanded · duplicitous · double-dealing · two-faced · dissembling · insincere · false · lying · untruthful · mendacious · not candid · not frank · not entirely truthful · artful · cunning · crafty · wily · sly · sneaky · tricky · scheming · calculating · designing · devious · unscrupulous · shifty · foxy · economical with the truth · terminologically inexact · subtle · hollow-hearted · false-hearted · double-faced · truthless ·

Geoff Harvey got a letter back from Francois Hollande. What does our MP have to say about Theresa May’s deceitful leadership in this ominous week? So far, the silence has been deafening.

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