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’.

Tory plans for NHS go back a long way

Very revealing interview in 2014 after Ken Clark left the cabinet:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/19/kenneth-clarke-views-no-10

^His first challenge at health was heading off
Thatcher, who^ "wanted to go to the American system",

"I had ferocious rows with her about it.
She wanted compulsory insurance,
with the state paying the premiums for the less well-off.

I thought that was a disaster.
The American system is hopeless … dreadful."

< So it's untrue to say the Tories never wanted to scrap the NHS for private healthcare

We can reasonably assume many rightwing Tories still want to - e.g. Brexiter Daniel Hannon has spoken of his wishes >

Placemark

sostenueto You sound very kind-hearted (much kinder to May than she would be if you needed something)
No need to duck Different opinions about politicians are welcome

We only rarely get cross, say when someone trots in and starts blaming immigrants or poor people, for wrongdoing by the powerful

Here you go, sost, Owen Jones on why you shouldn't feel sorry for Theresa may

I hope May has a peaceful retirement in the obscurity she deserves.

Oops try again www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/14/theresa-may-must-go-election-campaign

Owen Jones is making the comparison much better than I did before:
The Tories resemble the US rightwing, not the European Christian Democrats with whom, tbh, I feel quite happy in Germany.

The Tories are totally different to the One Nation party of McMillan

Yup...she's over. Whatever anyone voted for, I think it's fair to suggest she is not respected as the Prime Minister any more.

Impossible to turn around. It reminds me of that well used phrase along the lines of "when people look back, they may not remember exactly what you said or exactly what you did. But they will always remember the way you made them feel"

During her time both as Home Secretary and Prime Minister, she has made too many people feel humiliated, frightened, ignored, despised. She has accused half people of betraying this country for not supporting her destructive, insisted, racist, undemocratic brexit agenda.

And the tipping point has been reached. I'm sad it has taken this long, and that so much pain and suffering has been intrinsic to the journey. But at least now she is more widely acknowledged as the lying, vindictive, inhumane, power hungry careerist she is.

Bigchocfrenzy thank you and I'm sure you all have big hearts too! I can't use imogees cos they aren't working on fone but flowers and bottle of wine for all xx thanks lotisblue yes really damning. We are all different.
I have now had to turn off news because of all the children that have perished, I cannot take anymore I keep crying about it. I shall concentrate on brexit, no brexit and say ' you know nothing Theresa May!'.

Although I do not feel sorry for her, May must be under immense pressure.

Also, to pick up a couple of points. I voted for Corbyn in his first leadership election (via my Trade Union) because he was saying something that sounded very different. The other three were trotting out the same old empty, meaningless phrases. Can't tell the difference between them and it's same old same old. And even when I hear the naysayers and try to dislike him, or when momentum say/do stuff I don't like, then I listen to him and hear the authenticity, and realise I agree with a lot of what he says.

Also, did you know health and safety legislation really started with Charles Dickens and the Factory Act.

Owen Jones @ owenjones84
Why is Theresa May giving more insulting robotic interviews rather than announcing her immediate resignation?

Tim Shipman @ shippersunbound
Because the Tories are genuinely fearful of a Corbyn government to a degree that goes far beyond usual opposition to Labour. Simple.

Owen Jones @ owenjones84
Is Theresa May essentially being held prisoner in Number 10 by her party

Tim Shipman @ shippersunbound
In my view, yes.

She's not being allowed to resign now, because they fear that if they do they will lose power.

Instead we have no leader in the meantime in time of crisis.

View from Germany (Der Spiegel)**

*Brexit Is Dead
A Wave of Anger Crashes over Britain
*
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/death-of-brexit-at-the-hands-of-theresa-may-a-1152330.html?utmsource=dlvr.it&utmm_medium=twitter#ref=rss
*
"*under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, the Tories filled all of Europe with trepidation:

French President François Mitterrand complained to his psychologist that he was plagued by nightmares caused by the British leader
and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, as unclassified British documents revealed in late 2016,
once preferred to chow down on a cream pie in Salzburg than meet with the British prime minister."

Now, "The country looks ridiculous,"
the party of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher has turned into a gaggle of high rollers and unwitting clowns.

Stumbling to the Starting Line
Brexit Talks Set to Begin amid Chaos in London

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/british-prime-minister-may-stumbles-into-brexit-talks-a-1152469.html

Britain's crippled Prime Minister Theresa May is stumbling into Brexit negotiations, which are set to finally begin next week.

She is doing all she can to cling to power, but recent elections mean it isn't even clear what kind of Brexit Britain wants.

Strangely, the history of the trades union movement and its essential part in creating the health and safety legislation we used to have, has disappeared from google. Women like Annie Bessant who led the match girls' strike in the 1880s were the heroes who made workplaces safer for us.

If anyone knows any working links on trades union history and health and safety, please could you post them. Thanks.

Since books, libraries and education have been monetised, we need to keep an eye on keeping our history safe.

Starface I think that Charles Dickens is a pretty good writer. He did not a thing for the workers. bless him.

Philip Hammond is on The Andrew Marr Show this Sunday.

Last seen in public when?

red I think you suggested she was a hostage a while back. Now she physically looks like one, and we are the ransom.

I feel for her in that the whole party is pretty much turned against her, no matter what some say in public, and to have hordes of men (obviously there's a few women in there too) basically baying for your blood mustn't be pleasant. Christ knows what they're saying behind closed doors.

But she has kind of engineered herself into this situation and has been unforgivable in so many respects that that's where my sympathy ends.

She must be thinking, if only I'd never gone for PM I could have had a few more years as Home Sec then retired and I could have gone out on a high as longest-serving Home Sec.

I also feel sorry for May. I was so relieved someone half way sensible stood last summer (against BoJo, Gove, Fox and Leadsom).
She has totally messed up the election but I still think she is a better bet than that shower of clowns. And the Tories know it, which is why she's still there. There is noone else to do the job.
I think that's why she also went with "strong and stable" presidential style campaign. Because most of her cabinet are tainted goods that are too easy to attack in an election campaign.
Really the Conservatives are nasty. She was right about that.

Conservative Party Donor Holds Stake in Tower Refurbishment Co.

Tomorrow's papers headline the anger.
So far only the Telegraph leads on "Militants hijack inferno protest"

Hmm. I got that fact from Health and Safety training at work (!). But you are right. Although he did write some non fiction articles about breaches of it apparently, my googling suggests.

Why the residents association were ignored and why we must politicize a tragedy

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2017/06/why-we-must-politicise-tragedy-grenfell-tower

The drip of poison towards council tenants and collectors of benefits has accelerated through the years.

It was a political decision to cast such people as worthless and it was entirely planned.
(They are, after all, largely Labour voters).

To implement austerity in a democracy it is essential to invoke prosperity theology:
to the good everything, to the bad – who cares?

Council house tenants are scroungers.
Fat people and smokers – disproportionately numbered among the poor – should be denied access to the NHS.
Foodbanks are for the greedy.
Disabled people are workshy;
single mothers too.
Health and safety legislation can kill you;
deregulation means prosperity for all.

It was a deliberate strategy to sell the dismantling of the welfare state, and the right-wing media joyfully sang the song.
Poverty, in the words of the government’s media helpmeets, is no longer personal misfortune;
it is a stain on the character for which, when taken to its logical end,
the benefit claimant or council house dweller can be punished.

Now, since the fire, people who previously spoke with loathing claim fellowship, and express pity for
people so betrayed by their new friends’ former politics they threw their children out of windows.

Even as the fire raged, courtier-journalists wrote: "don’t politicise this tragedy. "
You only say this when you have something to hide; or, at best, have sublimated your shame.

finally, poverty of voice segued into mass death in the capital city of the fifth largest economy on earth

– and, it was noted wildly, with seeming incomprehension, it had nothing to do with terrorism.

I saw this description of May on Twitter, from a Times article. It's probably pretty accurate.

She would never have envisaged that her first week post election would see her held in even less esteem than she was during the electoral campaign.

This is one baby the DUP will want put to bed. The proposed electoral boundary changed and the reduction of 650 MP's to 600 MP's will give a different outcome in NI. It is predicted that DUP could lose seats and Sinn Féin will gain some.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/boundary-changes-could-make-sinn-fein-biggest-party-in-northern-ireland-35831665.html

"The redrawing of the electoral map would leave republicans with nine MPs to the DUP's seven, Electoral Calculus has predicted. Any boundary changes must be approved by a vote in Parliament."

"The predictions are based on the results from last week's Westminster poll, the 2014 local government election results, and the most recent census data. That information is applied to the new constituencies proposed in the Boundary Commission's blueprint.

Those proposals, if approved, will come into effect next year. The number of seats in Northern Ireland will fall from 18 to 17 as part of a UK-wide shake-up to reduce House of Commons numbers from 650 to 600."

Interesting. Is the system skewed at the moment to favour the Unionists?

Thanks Red. If you don't do this for a living, you should.

Unstable Mayble is crippled, Boris is a busted flush.

I fear we could have Prime Minister Gove or Raab within weeks.

Although, like someone ^^up there, I have this weird feeling that Brexit will not happen.

...we are equally determined, without fear or favour, to support all those rebuilding lives so horribly affected by injury and loss.

Queen's Birthday Statement