Joined: Nov 20 2011 Posts: 1183 Location: Australia
Cronus wrote: For decades any criticism of immigration was shouted down as racism and xenophobia. That refusal to listen to people's genuine concerns built into a palpable anger and resentment that contributed enormously to the growth of UKIP and ultimately the Brexit vote. Indeed, only when UKIP exploded in popularity did the main parties start to even utter the word immigration. Yet here we still are, the slightest opportunity to seize on someone's colour of skin and the left draw the race card.
I had just left England when, in 1968, Enoch Powell kicked off an immigration debate with his so-called "Rivers of Blood" speech. I was living in London before then and immigration concerns were rapidly surfacing. The last time I voted before leaving was at a by-election in early 1965 in a 'safe' Labour seat in Leyton and contested by a guy who as a Labour candidate had been beaten in the 1964 General Election won by Labour.
At Smethwick in that 1964 GE the Conservatives ran a successful racist campaign using an extremely racist slogan. In Leyton pamphlets, posters and banners were distributed widely displaying the same slogan. A swing of over 8% gave the Conservative candidate a narrow win.
The slogan- "If you want a N*gger for a neighbour vote Labour." Labour candidate was the late Baron Patrick Gordon-Walker.
Tory MP's have triggered no confidence vote in Mrs May, Merry Christmas, Teresa. She was only there as a caretaker but, it will be interesting which way the Tories move (probably to the right and a "harder Brexit", assuming that the current arrangements can be modified.
It looks like pandering to Mr Farages wishes, far from preventing a split in the Tories, has utterly destroyed them. Strong and stable, strong and stable, strong and stable
Back on topic, it really does look like Mrs "strong and stable" May, is determined to hang on to the last, offering to resign before the next General Election. Part of being a good leader is knowing when your time is up but, nobody seems to have told her. Hopefully she'll be gone by the morning BUT, the Brexit mess will remain. Our crdibility on the world stage must be like the value of the pound, at its lowest ever value.
Charlie Sheen wrote:Of course she'll win the vote, nobody in their right mind would want the job.
Indeed and when you look at the potential replacements Johnson, Gove etc there isn't much competition.
Having said that, she's an awful leader and is paying the price for not choosing a side, which has hacked off much of her own party and the majority of the electorate. The phrase aboput pleaseing some people all of the time and everyone some of the time springs to mind.
Whatever happened to the Norway ++ deal that seemed to be the idea post rthe referendum result, we seem miles away.
Joined: Jun 01 2007 Posts: 12647 Location: Leicestershire.
So the three choices, realistically, are still:
No brexit, with a crisis of democratic legitimacy No deal brexit, with significant economic dislocation May’s deal which nobody likes
I’m increasingly ‘attracted’ to the third. If we need to unite the country, the opportunity is there to do so in a feeling of disappointment. Just get the misery over and done with. I’m sure Farage and Rees-Mogg will spend their dotages raving about betrayal, but some people want the moon on a stick - that can’t be helped.
'Thus I am tormented by my curiosity and humbled by my ignorance.' from History of an Old Bramin, The New York Mirror (A Weekly Journal Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts), February 16th 1833.
Joined: Dec 22 2001 Posts: 17146 Location: Olicana - Home of 'Vark Slayer
At least our leader is chosen by the people.
“At last, a real, Tory budget,” Daily Mail 24/9/22 "It may be that the honourable gentleman doesn't like mixing with his own side … but we on this side have a more convivial, fraternal spirit." Jacob Rees-Mogg 21/10/21
A member of the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati.
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