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’.

Whatwould we had those books in my school too! My only memory of any Latin is similar to yours 'canis est in via'. That dog must have stuck with us for some reason

I don't really think that Theresa May is a victim. Not like knowing that you are homeless and friends and family died a horrible death.
An apology that 'sorry I badly misjudged this' would have done a lot of good.

I'm really behind on the thread. But I just heard David Davis quoting from Churchill

He sounded really smug - I hate him, I want the whole thing to go away

< stomps off and has s childish trantrum >

lh Libya seems a diversion
I'd expect relatives of Catholics murdered by Loyalists to be very bitter if compensation is only for victims where Libya supplied the weapons.
If there is compensation, it would be very difficult to avoid paying to all victims of terrorism

Expensive though and I'm fairly sure victims already received compensation a long hike ago.
iirc RUC & UDR officers & families received pretty high compensation.

However, those Catholic victims where the security forces collided, e.g. Finucane, have not received the punitive damages that would normally be awarded when the state has been caught committing particularly egregious acts

I'm expecting the DUP will obtain full immunity from prosecution and civil damages for all "Legacy" crimes committed by security force personnel.

May will be happy to have the excuse, so she can apply that also to all British soldiers in that situation, including those facing charges for Bloody Sunday.
It would be unfair to give immunity to NI personnel only

I can understand some people feeling sorry for May's fall from grace, even though many of us think it deserved.

However, I find it ridiculous when some fanatical Tories compare her embarrassment - caused by her own failings - to that of Grenfell victims

Hate to say it in some ways but other ways not. I think TM response to Finsbury Park (good thank you TM) and DD pretending to be reasonable I think they've pulled it off.

For the time being...ie till the autumn

David Davis- what a twat.

I'm sure I heard embarrassed laughs when he quoted Churchill...that may have been me though.

I just can't see how, whatever the deal, anything formal with the DUP doesn't spell disaster for the GFA and Stormont negotiations. Anything around retrospective immunity, or one sided compensation will have SF in absolute uproar. I can hardly imagine Gerry Adams sitting back quietly and being understanding about the Tory predicament.

If Grenfell had been in isolation then you could perhaps say she has been unfairly treated, but combined with events of past 3 months it's not. Also disgusting of Tories to even compare the two.

metro.co.uk/2017/06/19/finsbury-park-suspect-named-as-father-of-four-darren-osborne-6720145/
Finsbury Park suspect named as father-of-four DarrenOsborne

Another neighbour said: ‘He had lived on the estate for a few years. He’s always been a complete c* but this is really surprising.’

Brilliant quote from the surprised neighbour - so much better than the euphemistic ' he kept himself to himself'.

Red love it!

TM like a victim of Grenfell? IMO that's a pretty damn revolting thing to say.

Calling TM another victim of Grenfell? Satire surely? (Sadly, I know its not).

www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/they-might-have-upset-me-says-may-20170616129681

A public figure in a position of power being held accountable/suffering a fall in popularity following an avoidable tragedy is not a "victim". Whether the public criticism of her handling of it is fair or not, it is completely to be expected - if she can't cope with public scrutiny*, she is not up to the job.

*I don't mean death threats or abuse, obviously - that should never condoned, no matter who the politician is.

He’s always been a complete c* but this is really surprising

Amazing

Yeah, I just read that neighbour quote to DH and he was too.

"He has always been a complete c* but this is really surprising"

Hope that goes viral. Accurate for many folk who go on to commit this sort of crime. It rarely comes out of the blue, sadly.

Can't we simply call ALL people who use terror as a weapon Terrorists (lone or organised) and incite hate, Hatecists? (whether preachers, newspaper owners, or nutters in the pub?)

I sincerely hope TM is not contemplating acquiescence with any DUP suggestions wrt compensation of victims based on the Libyan aid principle.

No matter whether there is a formal or informal agreement with the DUP, I suspect the GFA cannot survive - if informal, all nationalist parties in NI will be constantly watching for further demands from the DUP and the threat of running to the PM every time there is a a conflict in the Assembly will always exist. (That is if the Assembly ever sits again). If there is a formal agreement, there is a very clear conflict of interest on the part of the government.

The rumours that are constantly swirling around about the demands of the DUP only serve to grossly inflame the situation.

The upcoming marching season will be a tense one.

Meanwhile, the Fine Gael government on Dublin is a minority one, and it may well come under pressure from Fianna Fail to adopt a tone that overtly supports the nationalist community in NI. FF is itself afraid of being outflanked by SF wrt policy on NI.

At this point, I am beginning to foresee a return to troops on the streets in NI.

I posted a couple of days ago about absentee owners of empty Kensington properties allowing homeless Grenfell victims to live in them for a while.
It seems JC agrees with me.
However Andrew Lilico does not. I caught an interview on the Today programme (at 49:13) where he said the idea was 'immoral, ill-focussed and would have disastrous consequences.'
He thought it was not immoral for fire victims to be homeless when there are empty houses in the neighbourhood. The bit at 52:00 really made my blood boil. Who is this Lilico?

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08tvj7f

I looked him up the other day, he is a senior academic.

At the core of conservatism is the sanctity of property. Tbh most people have some sort of red line about their own stuff and their own self. It is bloody difficult though when a rare commodity tips over into structural shortage, and some people are rich enough to hoard it, increasing the already desperate lack of access for everyone else. Hoarding food was socially despised and illegal in the war (but a lot of people still did it).

I frankly think that taking empty housing is not a great idea, though at least it brings the hoarding to light. However, it should cost 100x usual council tax to keep a property empty or deliberately unusable for any length of time.

However, it should cost 100x usual council tax to keep a property empty or deliberately unusable for any length of time.

And we should introduce rules to make it difficult for non-residents to buy up properties to keep empty. As other countries do.

I think it does matter (for many reasons, including how the perpetrators are treated by the criminal justice system) whether an act is terrorist related or hate crime (or something else, like criminal damage, GBH etc). Broadly, terrorism is driven by a political ideology - it's presumably too soon to tell whether this was the case at Finsbury Park, but I would wager that the police are too nervous not to call it terrorism, in case they get accused of being Islamophobes

Two thoughts struck me looking at the photo of DD and the rest of the UK negotiating team sitting down to start talks:

1. All white, only one woman, middle aged negotiators... Surely we can do better than this?

2. The longer TM clings on, the surer her position becomes unless there is a further disaster. She can point to the fact that talks have actually started on her watch, as she promised that they would - that's more than anyone else can claim (whether this is a good or bad thing depends entirely on your outlook...). Being a newly elected PM with a slender majority is a bit like being a new born baby: the first few days are the most important, and if you can survive those, you are exponentially more likely to still be standing in the weeks and months to come

Summary of Day 1 of Brexit Talks:

Robert Peston‏ @Peston
Pretty clear @DavidDavisMP and UK have caved on sequencing of talks, with trade now not being discussed till money, Ireland, migrants sorted

Faisal Islam @faisalislam
The "row of the summer" as suggested by DD one month ago, did not last even the first day of negotiations

David Allen Green on the significance of this:
jackofkent.com/2017/06/the-significance-of-the-uks-climb-down-today-on-brexit-sequencing/

(Basically no cards in our hand, Government were being daft and are woefully unprepared).

Going well. I wonder what Leavers will make of it.