Westminster: Brexit is the hard right's weapon of mass distraction

[BigChocFrenzy]

The fervour and divisions over Brexit have suspended normal party politics.

The staggering incompetence & unsuitability of Corbyn as a leader, together with the resulting impotence of Labour has removed the normal checks & balances in UK politics.
There is a vaccum where the Official Opposition should be, so Theresa May is under pressure only from her right.

I fear Thereas May and the Tory rightwing are taking advantage of Brexit to complete the destruction of the post-WW2 social contract and the welfare state.

Meanwhile, the constraints of civilised discourse have been loosened and those with racist or social Darwinist views now feel free to spout their poison openly.

Putin is pouring petrol on all the fires and Arron Banks is lurking < sinister emoticons required >

Zoe Williams:
"Behind a smokescreen of bogus patriotism, ideologically driven cuts to the NHS and all our public services are unpicking the bonds of nationhood"

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/05/brexit-theresa-may-falklands-war-nhs-cuts

"We should be marching against the crisis in adult social care, the closure of care homes, the systematic exploitation of carers, the £4.6bn cut from social care budgets this decade.
We should be .... asking:

“What exactly is the plan, if we’ve decided we can no longer afford to care for the elderly and the disabled?
What do we do with them instead?”

"We should be marching against cuts in education funding"

"Every morning we wake up to someone on the radio explaining, despairingly, that you can’t fix the hospital bed crisis until social care is fixed, and you can’t fix that until council tax brings in more, and it can’t bring in more because wages are too low."

"But when everything breaks at the same time, that is not a coincidence: it is a plan.

As surely as Margaret Thatcher had an economic plan on employment, rights, industry and wages,
this century’s Conservatives have a plan on public services, which is to smash them beyond all recognition."

Hashi actually that wouldn't surprise me.
I have been wondering if, in some ways, she hasn't had her hands tied in by the press banging on Brexit is Brexit and all the rest of it so she had no other choice than showing her full commitment to that idea, even to an excess.
So she might well be happy with MPs stopping her so it's not her fault iyswim.

I personally think he is there as a PM for her own interest so what will happen is more likely to be whatever is going to give her more chance to be properly elected at the next GE.

I thought it most likely Redpoll was on US Central Time, hence my afternoon tea comment which he didn't get, obviously, along with the irony, and so will not be waking up for at least a couple of hours, and his shift probably won't start for another five. Let's see......

I was a bit about whether there was proper trolling but Redpoll isn't even remotely clever about it..... Honestly they must think Mumsnet is just a load of stupid women but we deserve better!

tiggy I was wondering that myself too. Labour in too much disarray. With the dissenters away from the Tory Rosette and little time to form anything coherent she may just pull it off.

whatwouldrondo I have a feeling they have been told to tidy their rooms and do their homework

A remain coalition could storm it, if there was an election now. (especially if brainy old SF would give them some top tips!)

I think this is her Gordon Brown moment, he bottled it in autumn 2009?, when he could have won a landslide.

Our talk about Jo Cox, bless her, is so pertinent to the coming vote. MPs who vote it down fear the same fate. It is not a free vote at all.

gruffalo I fear bigchoc that some of your pals are very unreasonable.

This is where it is just silly and tribal, and ironic when you are levelling the accusation that Remainers are stereotyping you, as racists or whatever. I do agree with all that Big Choc has said today but I am sure I don't agree with everything she believes. I certainly do not agree with Math on a lot of topics not least the cluster bombing of civilians in Syria but I also resent the hours I won't get back arguing about education too. We are not tribes. We just ticked different boxes on a voting form in June, if we had that opportunity, for a myriad of different reasons.

I agree with Big Choc it is dangerous to brand everyone with the racist brand because we need to address the racist forces that are at work in our society, and that is a far more nuanced issue. It is not just the rabid racists of the far right. It is understanding and addressing why people like my parents who throughout their lives as a teacher and, ultimately, employer, were anything but racist but are now coming out with racist rhetoric lifted straight from the Daily Mail that has taken hold in the circles they move in. Why the word "Paki" has now become an acceptable term in everyday usage in parts of the North. This is a shift in the British consciousness that has happened as a result of the referendum campaign, and not understanding that there are different degrees of it is to not address it .

Woman...agree re GE
She would win and so would GB if he hadn't bottled it

Shit Ron your parents are turning in to racists?

Or... were they always racist and now they just feel like they can say it.

Whichever it is I can see why you are very concerned. I don't really read tabloids. The fail and the guardian are as bad as each other but at different ends of the spectrum.

Not Corbyn!!! We want Chuka!

You're probably right tiggytape

However if, like the parties could sort themselves out like in Richmond, maybe?

As nothing is as it was now, I'm wondering if there could be extraordinary measures for extraordinary times. There have been no polls recently giving leave a 51.9% lead, it is very definitely a minority view and needs to some how be reflected in the way MPs vote, or the way parliament is made up.

I could see a temporary 'coalition' party going down very well. Though I think they'd be better positioning themselves on the soft exit without immigration being their main focus. Tory-lite if you will.

As it is International Women's Day I would just like to put Brexit and our first world problems in perspective. Today a confidant young woman posted in celebration of International Women's Day on her Facebook page. 12 years ago she was collecting rubbish on a tip on the outskirts of her city to help her parent's make ends meet. She would have been vulnerable to a horrific sex trade that prices a young girls virginity at $600 because of a culture that believes that having sex with a young virgin strengthens the life forces of old men (including those in government, but of course there is no shortage of westerners who turn up to the market ). As a result of an NGO instead she is now at university, and is achieving her potential as a funny clever confidant young woman embarking on a career encouraging Tourism of an ethical variety, and she is volunteering with an organisation, partly funded by the EU, that is clearing the remains of cluster bombs and land mines in her country. THAT is what International Women's Day is all about.

In fact, that must be why the breitbart children are so vocal, it is very definitely a minority view now, and losing its value.

Most people think brexit has already happened and aren't interested, and the numbers are slipping away. UKIP doesn't exist, and the tories are starting to splinter.

gruffalo No they were not racists, they worked in an immigrant community with children and employees that were immigrants from Easter Europe as well as Pakistan and India. We grew up socialising with immigrant families, they fostered in us the respect for other cultures and to value what set us apart as well as what we have in common.

However now they have moved to the country they no longer live close to any immigrant communities. However when it comes to Eastern Europeans taking all the doctor's appointments and school places hundreds of miles away in Lincolnshire, or the prisons that are half full of all those immigrant criminals they are letting in or they are as angry as anyone.

www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/brexit-sp-uk-momentum-a7617566.html

"I would just like to put Brexit and our first world problems in perspective"

I am probably misreading / misunderstanding this but painting Brexit as a fist world problem is really not helpful. Once the UK and Europe are destabilised as a result of Brexit, people in low-and middle-income countries are likely to be worse off too. For example, as the UK will be poorer once we loose access to the single market, British people will donate less to NGOs and it is Tori policy to reduce Aid abroad.

As a result of Brexit people in the UK will be worse off and it will be women and children in this country who will bear the grunt of it. Be that because of poverty resulting in increased domestic abuse, child exploitation or more mainstream because of a lack of investment in education and increased unemployment and reduction of maternity rights. Brexit is a feminist issue too. As for EU citizen's right to remain it is EU-born women who have the greatest difficulties fulfilling the criteria for ILR. Sorry I don't mean for this to sound harsh .

As an aside....

Anyone find it interesting that trump never mentions God in his rants speeches?

Just watching the west wing it's women's day sod the housework! and the speeches all end with thanking God and God bless America...I don't think trump has ever done that?

Maybe they are not racists, but do not support the levels of immigration at the moment and the potental pressures on public services by continuing high levels of immigration?

Or..

Perhaps they have seen farages bursting at the seams poster and have found inspiration to become fanatical racists lol...

Good luck with your parents they sound like the sort of horrible racists that make friends with immigrants and instil tolerant values in their childeren!!!

There will be an equal number of fools falling for the crap they read in the guardian.

May cannot be sure that comparable strong Remain areas will not follow Richmond. An election would no doubt result in fewer Labour MPs but it may also result in an increase of strongly pro EU LDs.

And she would have to lay out hard Brexit in a manifesto, when we all know she doesn't have a plan, she's not even managed to scrape together a passable white paper. So much of Brexit terms depend on the EU.

What would the NI manifesto be for example?

badders It was pointed out that he didn't thank god in his initial speech after the election and has rarely mentioned God since. I don't really have an issue with a leader not mentioning God - unless they're the Pope obviously! - but it is very interesting given Trump's core support and the normal lie of the land in American politics.

Absolutely Ninon good point on manifesto.
Badders123
Anyone find it interesting that trump never mentions God you know why! [grin}

I would just like to put Brexit and our first world problems in perspective

This makes it sound like Brexit is a minor inconvenience. The way it's looking (a hard Brexit with no trade deal), it will have a massive impact on the lives of millions of people in this country, including millions of children who will likely grow up in poverty. Even the most optimistic Brexiteers say that we can expect at least a decade of economic slowdown. This isn't just an abstract notion, it has real life impacts on real people. Especially on women and children, who suffer the most in recessions.

He would have to give thanks to the dark side.