BROKEN. Our politics is fractured.

Our nations are divided and we ourselves are feeling the stress and the pain of this.

No-one ever said divorce is easy.

When one partner wants to stay in the relationship and the other wants out, people hurt, often ending up focused on looking at the divisions between them as opposed to the things that they still have in common.

For three years since our nation polarised.

Half the country have been saying get out of Europe, deal or no deal, while the other half have been fighting the case to remain.

When we retreat into our respective camps, believing our truths, it becomes a conflict of two sides, however unless we all reach out across to those who don’t share our opinions, we can never move forward.

It was Jo Cox MP who said: “We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us”.

Let us suppose that people who voted to Remain, wanted to see significant reform in our politics, as did I, and all those, who wanted to Leave, also wanted to see significant reform in our politics, then we have a basis to build.

What is the reform we want to see and why?

The debate over Europe has become transactional – about being in or out of different institutions, but not transformational – about changing how politics works.

It has been austerity which has divided our country the most significantly.

Our public services are not getting the funding they need, 14 million people are now living in poverty, 4 million of them pensioners and nearly 2 million children.

Jobs are insecure, and we only ever see luxury, unaffordable housing being built, while council housing is being sold and not replaced.

It is the depth of unfairness that has caused all of us to recognise that our country is not what it should be, which is breaking that post-war consensus and challenging our identity.

So we need to pause, and ask some searching questions, no matter where you stand on the Europe question.

How are we going to make our country fair again.

I have consistently been challenging the City of York Council leadership over its priorities for local people in the light of the unfairness I see, and in Westminster am relentless in highlighting the change needed to address inequality.

We must come together, listen to one another and work together to move forward.