Westministenders: The bookends to a year of political chaos. Just how far have we come?

[RedToothBrush]

The 15th June 2016.

The Thames was filled with a flotilla of boats in a publicity stunt for the Leave campaign to draw attention to fisheries. Nigel Farage and Kate Hoey in their heads thought they were Leonardo and Kate, but the moment was rather more titanic in nature and could not have been more Alan Partridge if they had tried. Coming up behind was Bob Gedolf in a shameful and cringeworthy display of swearing and abuse that really didn’t help the Remain camp in anyway. Largely unnoticed was a small boat with a family following it all unfold…

The next day things went from fiasco to horror.

Farage unveiled the Dog Whistle Poster and Jo Cox was murdered. And the UK seemed set on its course for 7 days later when the world was turned upside down by the referendum itself.

14th June 2017.

Fast forward 365 days later and another tragedy unfolded. This time of a very different nature but with no less political significance.
Grenfell.

A moment of national shame. A symbol of so many things that had come to pass in the previous twelve months.

The election just the previous week had changed the direction of travel we seemed to be headed and left the Prime Minister exposed and looking wildly out of touch. The Maybot was given one more chance.

And the Maybot seems to be failing the test of her party who had the grace to grant her a second chance.

The Queen dressed in the same shade of blue, May delivered her ‘victory speech’ in, ignored the security threat and visited the ranks of the poor and the forgotten. A deliberate message to May not to forget who she serves? A Queen who feels aggrieved and angry by May’s behaviour? Who knows.

As for Brexit. The government looks lost. Adrift. The ‘Fight of the Summer’ over the EU’s plan for talks sounds out the window despite the denials from the Brexit Department. Hard Brexit is still on the cards. Apparently. But what does anyone believe now? May’s and the Brexiteers domination of the agenda is shattered, its power starting to be questioned.

What next?

This evening the anger is building.

Who knows, what will happen. Some of it might be predictable, but the future is far from certain and we have definitely entered a new era. We just don’t know who will lead it, or what its ambition or what the end goal now is.

What we do know, more acutely than ever is that we are all human and the wise words of Jo Cox about having ‘More in Common’ ring though ever more strongly.

Once again we feel ‘on the brink’.

I was struck by TM referring to the result of an election as 'this mess'.

A mess for the country? Or for the Tory party.

The Imam saved his life. There are so many good people in our country

Let's hold onto them and use them as our guides through this mess

"This mess" caused by Tory PMs abusing their power to sort out Tory Party internal problems

Mayor Sadiq Khan:
"While this appears to be an attack on a particular community, like the terrible attacks in Manchester, Westminster and London Bridge
it is also an assault on all our shared values of tolerance, freedom and respect.

"The situation is still unfolding and I urge all Londoners to remain calm and vigilant"

Witness: Delivery driver Mohammed Abdullah, who was on a bike about three cars behind the incident, tells Sky News he saw the van take a sudden left turn.

"I think he done it on purpose.
I was on a ped. He was about three cars in front of me.
He came in a bus lane and took a sharp left.

"He went on top of the people. He actually ran them over.
It was a white van.

"There was three of them. < unconfirmed >
Two of them ran away.
The other was held at the scene until the police came.
Some people wanted to beat him up.

" It was exactly the same time as the prayers finished.
As soon as it finished, this guy came.
I think (the road he took) is a blocked road - It's not even a through road.

"The other two got away.
They must be somewhere around Finsbury Park.
They ran away somewhere."

(about arrested man) "He had a tattoo on his back.
He was not ill. He was not drunk.
He got arrested by five or six police officers"

John Humphries is interviewing Sadiq Khan on Today. He was talking about the driver possibly being a lone wolf and said: "Are we in danger of blowing this up into something it isn't?" It sounded dangerously close to saying: "He can't be a terrorist because he's white." I think it's time for Humphries to be put out to pasture.

Re Humphries, I posted this on another thread:

From the reporting so far, the driver at Finsbury mosque doesn't seem to be aligned to a cause or organisation. Would that make this a hate crime, rather than a terrorist attack? Either way, it is appalling that people have been targeted in this way.

So I think Humphries is correct to be cautious. Caution is not the same as downplaying and it isn't about race - I remember similarly cautious reporting the IRA's mainland attacks.

Met says no one else was in the van

There needs to be equality of classification

There is obv a trend for lone losers to be radicalized by hate & incitement online.

These crimes must consistently be called the same, whether by the white far right or by (usually) non-white Islamofascists

Cailleach1 Thanks for explaining that - I do see now how it is different.

The EU's chief negotiator addressed both houses of the Irish Parliament in Dublin last month to provide support and assurances: "I will work with you to avoid a hard boarder".

Meanwhile, our British PM accuses the EU of meddling and then lines up some arrangement with the DUP to cling on to power.

May bangs on about 'doing what's right' but she hasn't the faintest idea what that is, on any political, ethical or human scale.

There is obv a trend for lone losers to be radicalized by hate & incitement online.

I am sure this will become clear as the Police & security services investigate.

Would that make this a hate crime, rather than a terrorist attack?
Like the Westminster attack? Skin colour matters apparently.

Dammit, dodgy copying and pasting meant I missed
From the reporting so far, the driver at Finsbury mosque doesn't seem to be aligned to a cause or organisation.
Off, which was the more pertinent point

There is obv a trend for lone losers to be radicalized by hate & incitement online.

So the screaming in the Mail, Express and Torygraph has nothing to do with radicalising right wing terrorists/long losers?

Oh yes, double standards all right.

lone not long!

Met calling it a terrorist incident not a hate crime

I'd include the continual hate peddling by the rightwing tabloids - and the telegraph - as helping to incite rightwing terrorists as well as leading to a hostile atmosphere recruiting for Islamofascist terrorists.
That's accessed online and as paper.

btw, The Telegraph has always been rightwing, but was not a hate outlet until the Brexit Ultras there took over.

In March 2017, after NS had called for IndyRef2, a Telegraph article was calling for her beheading for treason:
*
"Nicola Sturgeon is a liar and a traitor - off with her head!"*

They changed the title after widespread condemnation, but the URL shows the original:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/nicola-sturgeon-liar-traitor-head/

Imagine reaction if a well known Labour or Liberal figure - especially a Muslim one - called for May to be beheaded !

When I did hear the Layor of London on the radio this am, I just thought
'YES. He is right. That sort of act is just as bad as any other done by 'terrorists'.
I think we need to be VERY careful here about the vocabulary we are using.
What this man did is just as bad, he used the SAME TECHNIQUES as ISIS terrorists. He might have been a 'lone wolf' but then so was the Westminster terrorist. And so have been a few other attackers in France (last one being the one who attacked a policeman in front of Notre Dame de Paris).

There is no reason not to use the same vocabulary.

And yes the propaganda from the DM and co also needs to be put into focus. We do not want to end up in a country where two sets of extremists have decided that they can have a go at people like this. We do not want to be the country who is screaming at one type of terror attack but is closing their eyes to another because they have the right skin colour/religion.
What we want is to be like the people who yet again have pulled together, regardless of race and religion to support each other.

BigChoc I really like that expression islamofacists. It conveys what ISIS is about better than any other expression. And it removes the link to Islam as a religion. We desperately need that TBH.

Met calling it a terrorist incident not a hate crime

YY to that.

Do you think that the measures TM wants (wanted?) to take re terrorism with her hunting on any incitation to terrorism and violence could extend to that sort of terrorist incident? And to any incitation to violence found in mainstream newspapers?
Not holding my breath there....

Pink George W coined the word "Islamofacist" when he was POTUS - the only clever thing he ever said and which I use.
Almost certainly one of his aides (witha 3-digit IQ) coined the word for him

Faisal Islam @ faisalislam
Why has Foreign Secretary rung in to Today prog to give "my view" on Brexit negotiation, ten minutes after Cabinet colleague Gove on same?

Pathetic isn't it?

After the Manchester bombing I saw my DH's very elderly grandfather. He shook his head and said we need to "round 'em all up, stick 'em on a boat and send 'em 'ome." He's 93 and gets his news from red tops. I didn't engage because it didn't feel right.

I wonder what this attack will do to the "bloody Muslims" narrative. Or if people will try excuse it as a mad man, while all the other (real) terrorists are, to some, symptomatic of a different problem. The way the msm has othered Muslims in the past 10 years is hateful, and we're seeing the results of this now.

Like a PP I always thought I was just damn lucky to be born British. I'm not at all patriotic but I do recognise that we have had it pretty damn good for a long time. I had every chance of being born in a country torn apart by famine, war, disease or corruption, but I'm lucky.

I worry for my children. This country has become something other than that which I've always known.