Westministenders: Up Shit Creek without Wifi.

[RedToothBrush]

Theresa May is being held hostage.

There is mounting evidence that all is not as it seems at CCHQ. It makes you don your tin foil hat and ask who is in charge.

Theresa May was a Remainer. She suddenly abandoned that when she became leader. Her proclamation of what would follow next seems directly at odds with her actions. This is not her fault. This is her plea for help and way of telling the outside world that she is a prisoner of Brexit.

At first it seemed like perhaps she had been locked up with Brexiteers for too long. She seemed to be developing a survival strategy which seemed totally irrational to outsiders. The signs of intimidation everywhere though. Instead of criticising those who did this, May joined in with them or was complicit in her silence.

Things are now taking a sinister turn. After repeatedly saying ‘No Election’, May crumbled and called one. She has now not been seen in public since. Instead she is being wheeled out at closed events to the party faithful. They are being dressed as mixing with the people but they are no such thing. The plebs in attendance are set to ‘mute’ or locked out completely.

Behold the coming of the May-Bot. She seeks to ‘prevent tourism’ in Wales. She now no longer knows which town she is currently in. (Much less have a plan for Brexit). She accuses an organisation set up to use its numbers to get better deals, of doing what it is supposed to, except she calls this ‘ganging up’.

May is not transported in a bus. Oh no. Instead she travels by the Bond Villian’s choice of transport; the helicopter.

More worrying still is the mantra ‘Strong and Stable’ repeated as many times as possible. It is almost as if, if she says it enough she might start believing it. She certainly has got her party members brainwashed and acting as if they were Zombies. Who needs ‘Spice’ when you are a Conservative? They ‘Believe’…

The ploy is to hoodwink people into voting for May instead of the Tories. CCHQ have removed Conservative branding from literature and campaigning in the North. The party are still too toxic, but May apparently scores well especially against Corbyn. Ironically however negatively I think of Corbyn he does display something May increasingly seems incapable of: humanity.

Many people might think of May as some sort of dictator figure. Its true. Every vote for her strengthens her hand. But not for Brexit negotiations. Mainly because Brexit is without merit or reward. Not unless you hold power. This is part 2 of the grab for it.

This is May’s power paradox. SHE is not powerful. She isn’t persuasive. She isn’t a healer of divides. She relies on authoritarian measures to get her way. This isn’t a sign of her personal power, but a sign of her personal weakness. She is sly and sneaky in her methods rather than compelling others to come along with her. They are doing so more because they dislike the alternative in Corbyn less.

She is not stable. She has lurched from one drama to the next, and has repeatedly been forced to back down from what she wanted. Nothing says ‘stability’ and ‘good leadership’ like appointing Boris Johnson Foreign Secretary. The lady is not so much for turning and leading, but is already staggering around dizzy whilst blindfolded playing pin the tail on the donkey. And Christ she’s got a lot of them in her Government. Including the numpty who decided to do a live event and broadcast it in an area with no wi-fi. Mind you, that is soon to be the entire country. Or what’s left of it.

She had said she had a mandate for Brexit and did not need this to be approved by the country as she was getting on with the job. This is why we are having a General Election to give her a mandate…

Not only that, but there is a lurking question here that should not be forgotten. Who is pulling May’s strings and making her dance as her actions are not natural? Every puppet show has puppet masters behind the scenes of the stage, hiding in the shadows.

They will dispense with their toy once she has outlived her usefulness like every good baddie.

Is she the one we should be most fearful of?

Hold on tight this is going to be a very bumpy ride over the next two years. Just how many casualties will be sacrificed on the altar of Brexit?

On a different note, this is an interesting article about the labour media plan. They are becoming very selective about who they invite along to things. On the one hand I worry it is rather close to May's dismissal of the media and public, on the other I can see their point about the Sun and the Mail.

The Labour Leader Has Ditched Newspaper Journalists On The Campaign Trail
If you're up against a hostile print media, why not just leave them behind and take heavily regulated TV crews instead?
www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/jeremy-corbyn-has-ditched-newspaper-journalists-on-the?utm_term=.hr8KvWe05k#.loG5mX9rQO

"Adjusting for this habit, one analysis for the charity Age UK predicts that over half of parliamentary seats might have a “grey majority” (more than half of those voting being over 55) by 2025."

One would think the elderly population need good social- and healthcare provisioning. How might they all fare once the NHS has crumbled? Turkeys and Christmas.

I believe well over 10,000 women have put themselves forward to stand for public office

Trump's succeeded in illustrating fascism costs more to women. Abandoning Obamacare means childbirth costs have exploded, and what about those who can'r afford the Caesarian they need? Up 425% to £17k .

The treatment already received for infertility, and childbirth under the NHS is pretty problematic: loads of threads on it:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2920102-AIBU-to-think-that-all-mothers-should-have-food-and-water-on-postnatal-wards

When being a woman becomes a 'pre existing condition' here too, and women have to pay for childbirth, breast cancer treatment, we'll be organising, too.

Delurking to say that these threads are a wonderful dose of reasoning, within the bonkersness of turkeys voting for Xmas, so thank you.

Wouldn't it be powerful if women decided to go, every day, to our children's schools or our hospitals, and protest, all over the UK? I can't decide whether it's more powerful to do that, or have city centre sit ins every day. I want to do SOMETHING though.

We could emigrate to Germany or Sweden with my DHs work, but rely a lot on our families who live nearby for support, and I don't want to take DD away from them.

More fundamentally, this is OUR country. Why should we leave? I can't bring myself to run away from fascism, unless there is truly no other option. I'm worried that if we do that, we are abandoning those who can't leave to their fate, and teaching DD to run, not fight for others or what she believes in. But by God, it's going to be hard!

Sorry, bit of a lengthy post. As you were

Grommit I have sent you a PM, I hope that's ok.

The results coming in so far from the local elections look as though the Tories, as expected, have been the beneficiaries of the collapse of UKIP.

Wouldn't it be powerful if women decided to go, every day, to our children's schools or our hospitals, and protest, all over the UK? I can't decide whether it's more powerful to do that, or have city centre sit ins every day. I want to do SOMETHING though

Yes with bells on .

I

The British people wanting this and May doing a diplomatic crash (for electioneering purposes) in defence of the British people makes me think that any disaster will be laid on the shoulders of the British people and the Con's were just doing what they were told. Maybe by voting to leave the EU, 'the British people' also wanted May to leave the ECHR. Well the gov't will spin it like that.

It is a little bit like a chess game and the gov't are in check. It is their move and they have nothing. They don't want to do the money. They don't want to do the rights thing in any meaningful way. And they don't want to do the NI thing. They don't even have the prep work done. Their idea is a slap dash plaster, if at all. They were happily creating an atmosphere where of course their wishes were the only reasonable ones. Then they trigger article 50 and the de facto world intervenes. Decisions made to which they were the willing party (and sometimes the most active cheerleader, like the expansion of EU) and the costs arising from the last EU budget may be viewed as legally binding obligations if referred to the International court of justice of some such. Everything is not going to be torn up to accommodate an approach wanted for one party. I imagine the gov't is going classify everyone who doesn't go along with their demands as a bully of the British people. if they don't think British wishes should turn into kisses.

'You have to honour your commitments'! 'Bullying Bastards'

It will all be laid on the British people if it goes belly up. The gov't have removed themselves as actors already.

If you look at the EU budget, the divorce money is not huge. The EU owe some back to the UK (15 billion) anyway and they could just keep it in lieu to offset nonpayment a little. If it is distributed over a transition period and further on, it wouldn't be too onerous. It is the other things that will sting. What will add up is the amount the UK will lose in revenue per annum. From companies/orgs relocating. As much as it was ignored, for businesses locating here being able to access the EU market was a pull factor. And home grown business benefitted from this too. Jobs, money into the economy, tax, even knock on effects in other services. The EU could and probably will make sure the benefits of being in the EU stay within the countries of the EU. Imagine! The unreasonable bast*rds won't function primarily for the benefit of non EU countries.

Bigly Oh I am still fighting. Luckily I live in one of those places where I feel sure we can pull off a Libdem win and I have already reported for duty and cleared my diary so I can stuff envelopes. It feels good to be turning the supertanker a fraction of a degree but it isn't just that we want to go, I should have made clear that DH's employer is planning for him to go...

I wish women would rise up and do something. Sadly, so many I know are nice enough but just don't question. I can't see what would shake them out of their apathy/complacency or a just "I don't care about the rest of the world" attitude.

As has been said, it only takes a few to start a movement.

As much as it was ignored, for businesses locating here being able to access the EU market was a pull factor.

That plus the English language. This is also on offer in Ireland. Science and Tech firms in Germany, Netherlands and Scandinavia often work in English, so they are not necessarily disadvantaged.

I'd love there to be an opposition. We need one. Desperately

“grey majority” (more than half of those voting being over 55) by 2025."

That's me, but I dye mine.

Went to a boxing class, admitted my age as I went in. The teacher (male) said:
"Don't give me numbers, put on the gloves."
Best thing I've heard in years.
Boxing's great, btw.

Peaceful protest is what works though and tactics.

Time to put on those political boxing gloves.

Coming up:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-convention-tickets-32402527833

It is just that when you are in countries that are focused and optimistic about the future, and where you can feel there is progress coming back to a country that is intent on becoming more divided and going backwards in the grip of illusions of superiority and entitlement is frankly just depressing.

Agreed, ron - the whole universe must be dazzled by our sheer awesomeness and bend over backwards to give us anything we desire. Yet simultaneously we have the mutually exclusive narrative that this country is also the weak, helpless victim of international bullying and oppression. Like, whaaaaat? .

From a career POV, we could probably leave whenever, and within reason go pretty much anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, we have DH family (in particular his DParents) to consider - it was only last year that we uprooted ourselves to move jobs and house and everything, to be closer to them, because they're not getting any younger.

But in the last year, MiL has been deteriorating steadily (we fear it is dementia) so although in theory we would like to make our plans to leave (in fact we had always intended to spend some years elsewhere in the world, just developed a sense of urgency after last June), I think DH will feel obliged to stay. The worry is that by the time he feels we can leave, it will be too late to get out.

Andindigo check your inbox

Election Data‏*@election*_data

There are bigger factors at play here. Differential turnout is still hurting Labour, which is one reason I've been asking for less policy and more emotion in Labour's approach. We're still believing that voters must be rational actors. "Our policies are POPULAR" isn't anywhere near enough when it comes to moving people to vote. Labour doesn't do a good enough job of appending emotion to policy. Notwithstanding the obvious problems with the leader. Secondly, we are seeing a "sorting" of the Labour vote. It's retreating into very urban areas and giving up ground to the Conservatives as it retreats. There are underlying demographic reasons to explain this retreat, and Labour has thus far failed to hold the ground it has given up because it doesn't have anything to say to those voters in suburban areas

The Con's were after the UKIP vote. May's speech on the 3rd was the designed for that. They are outkipping the Kippers!

I think the problem with the dinner was that it was probably all slogan and rhetoric from May. That was the worrying bit if you want an actual negotiation to lead to solutions to problems. That is why it only needed a cat's lick from the Con's side to deal with Citizens rights. It was just going to be some sort of quick hotchpotch. For the courts to be dealing with afterwards, at leisure.

Woman12345 - I would have gone to that, but live near Leeds, not London. If you ever hear of anything up here, please would you post it I'd really appreciate it.

Love the boxing guy's comments, too

Another long-time lurker (and very occasional poster) coming on to say that these threads have become one of the last vestiges of sanity in an increasingly mad and broken world. Thanks Red et al. I feel utterly despondent at the direction our country is heading, and while I've tried to get involved by joining and campaigning for the Lib Dems, going on marches, donating what I can etc, I'm feeling increasingly despondent at the amount of apathy (and, frequently, the utter disregard for wider society's needs) that I've encountered. People just don't care unless things hit them directly in the pocket.

DP agrees with me, but is more pragmatic and less of a risk-taker than I am, so less inclined to emigrate (although we're increasingly discussing it lately). We're better placed than most - I speak two European languages and we're both studying a third, and DP's skills in particular are highly sought after. But we're deeply connected to the UK and don't want to have to leave.

Agree that women especially need to wake up and stop being complacent - my friends are all highly educated, often more so than their husbands and partners, and yet they still seem to view politics as a men's realm and don't hold any strong opinions - at least not in public. It often strikes me how the vast majority of callers to political phone ins/letter writers to newspapers/commenters on political articles seem to be male. And yet it's women who will be disproportionately affected by cuts and any future erosion of rights. Where are all the women?

The UK brought other things as well, though, while still having EU access. Great universities, research sector, open economy, cosmopolitan. Big economy. All while accessing a 500million population with no tariff and little non tariff barriers.

I suppose now we will find out how advantageous the EU underpinning was. Or maybe we will see some interesting diversification. A lot of people are depending on this gov't actually coming up with more than rhetoric. As they pull one rug, what are they going to replace it with?

TempsPerdu I completely agree. If we became involved in local politics, would that enable us to organise women's marches? I don't know. I'm thinking of doing a masters in politics, though, to try to gain an increased knowledge of it all.

"Where are all the women?"

I think that for many women, its not so much apathy as a lack of self confidence - whether that's calling in to political phone ins/letter writing etc, or even putting themselves forward in local politics. Some women think "My opinion isn't worth sharing" even when they feel very strongly about something, or wait for someone else to speak up not because they are lazy, but because they think someone else can articulate it more clearly. It is a massive shame though.

In terms of women rising up, I am not sure how much publicity this campaign has received outside London, it hasn't had that much in London, but though it is not gendered it is in the majority led and supported by women, and is a coming together of many local grassroots protest groups from individual estates. It is of course a gross social justice justice that people's Council homes are being bought up by private developers in the name of regeneration and rents hiked up and social housing provision decreased with some tenants offered no alternatives in the areas that they and their families grew up in. It should not require such a fundamental impact on lives but when family life is so fundamentally threatened then women will and do organise . www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/dch/

I don't necessarily think you have to get involved in local politics, although I have done. As far as I recall, the original Greenham Common women were a group of friends who decided to march to Greenham and then stayed on and formed the camp.

I think as squishy says - for many women it's a lack of confidence, but I think the miners strike of 84' empowered a lot of miners' wives - Anne Scargill in particular, and I think some of the leading lights of the Hillsborough Campaign were women. Get out there and do it.

I think that for many women, its not so much apathy as a lack of self confidence - whether that's calling in to political phone ins/letter writing etc, or even putting themselves forward in local politics. Some women think "My opinion isn't worth sharing" even when they feel very strongly about something, or wait for someone else to speak up not because they are lazy, but because they think someone else can articulate it more clearly. It is a massive shame though.

This. Plus if they are by default responsible for child care, how do they attend meetings etc. They are usually evenings. Its often not compatible with family life. Its one of the (many) reasons why if women do get involved in local politics they tend to be older.

Fergus Hewison‏*@BBCFHewison*
Northumberland council election. Last seat decided with a straw draw! Really. lib Dem win denies Conservatives majority.

twitter.com/BBCFHewison/status/860414616425439232
Some luck for the LDs.