In every Tory leadership election since Thatcher, the bookies’ favourite has lost. And while you cannot easily discern where the winner would come from on the economic left/right scale, the authoritarian/libertarian scale is absolutely significant. In every single case the winner has been the Tory of the most authoritarian views, and the losers – think Ted Heath, David Davies, Ken Clarke, Michael Portillo – have been on the socially liberal side of conservatism.
Our political “journalists” only think left/right. So Cameron’s victory was a Tory move to the “left”. In fact it was not about that at all. David Davies, the favourite defeated by Cameron, has described the new Tory anti-trade union bill as “Francoist”. He opposed control orders, stop and search, detention without trial and the banning of protest from around Westminster. That is why he lost – the Tories have a dog whistle reaction to follow authoritarian figures. Cameron’s Old Etonian patrician authoritarianism is what they wanted.
That is why Theresa May is going today to give a bloodcurdling speech attempting to stir up racism against immigrants by saying they are making us poor and making our society less cohesive. She will even pander to the ludicrous notion that an economy is of a fixed size no matter how many people are in it, with a fixed number of jobs, so “they” are taking “our” jobs. Doubtless she will also outline yet more definitions of thought crime and new reasons to lock up young Muslims.
She may be vicious and dangerous to our society, but she is not stupid. It is the way to become Tory leader.
Nobody ever lost money overestimating the viciousness of the Tories. In fact the arms and security industries and the bankers, the private health companies, the hedge funds and the private agencies enforcing government policy make fortunes out of it every day.
“press should be obliged (=forced) to “write the truth”.”
God how I missed the Pravda. Truth, truth and nothing but the truth.
Accidently, two things have happened in Russia (apart from Ukrainians and now also Syrians killings) is that 1. Putin has sign off the requirement for Schools and Universities to bring back (Gotov k Trudu i Oborone) Ready for work and defence exercise which was popular in post-revolutionary Russia and 2. Russian Duma has agreed to ban publication of income by government officials including deputies (Duma MPs).
Je
This is the headline and first para from the Jewish Chronicle:
“Special report: Team Cameron’s big Jewish backers
Prominent members of the Jewish community are playing a major role in financing David Cameron’s bid for power, a JC investigation can reveal.”
You wrote as follows as follows:
“Of course “Team Cameron’s Big Jewish Backers” helped. (That sounds racist-conspiracist but its the Jewish Chronicle speaking…)”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why the “Of course” ?
++++++++++++++++++++
For the rest, re-read my post. Do you have a particular problem with “the Israeli lobby” (the JC article refers to prominent British Jews, but never mind) funding the Conservatives or re you against any lobby funding them?
If the former, why?
If the latter, how would you do about it? How do you think parties should be funded (in some detail, please).
Uzbek
If you hadn’t guessed, it was Mr Goss who came out with that delicious bit about forcing the press to print the truth (the truth according to Mr Goss and his ilk, no doubt).
Wonderful product of Russian Propaganda machine
http://v-n-zb.livejournal.com/8638137.html
Please PAY ATTENTION to the picture number 6 which describes victorious comrades who fought Nazis. And there please PAY ATTENTION to the comrade in the left bottom corner.
Simply Fascinating indeed. And also very truly describe who is today’s Russia with.
The truth is a bendy thing. There is no absolute truth anywhere in the world, not even in Bible or Quran or Torah. However; it had not prevented from billions of people being (many still) fooled by this notion.
Is Teres May a racist? At a personal level I think she is able to master both her thoughts and appearances to be acceptable to her audience.She would never utter a word that might be termed racism.
Deepgreenpuddock- I think your assessment of May is correct. Of course her motives for the conference speech (one might say this applies to the motivation of all rostrum speakers at party political conferences) include playing to the gallery and manouvereing for personal advantage. To that extent Craig was right to call her out for dubious motives.
Having seen the media response to her speech in the lunchtime bulletins however it appears that she could have ‘misfired’. If the franchise for the next Tory leadership election were as wide as that used to elect Jeremy Corbyn to the Labour equivalent, May could have gained an edge over the other candidates via her tub thumping. As it is, with the franchise restricted to MPs only, she’s probably lengthened her odds on winning the prize.
Before Thatcher, and Milton Friedman, and the Chicago School of Economics, I think the Tories were more conservators, and not shall we say wreckers.
David Cameron now has gone much further than Thatcher, which can be seen with the likely break up of the UK, in the near future.
The British way of life, or working life anyway, has changed beyond all comparison with Zero-hour contracts, and the virtual death of 9 to 5 working hours.
Robert Reich who worked in the Carter and Clinton administrations, said the USA, went the same way in the 70’s from dad out working and mom house keeping, to both parents working to make ends meet.
Big business had effectively sold out the American working man, by sending his job overseas. The same has happened in the UK under Tory rule, for most, Britain is now a low wage, part-time or Zero Hour contract economy.
It is of course morally wrong what the Conservative government has in store for the sick, poor and disabled, of the UK.
It is also a sign of the Tories intent to infringe on the ability of workers to strike, many of our forefathers fought long and hard and at great cost, to provide us with working rights, that we take for granted today. We must not let the Tories take them away from from us, with the flick of a pen.
So why is it the public, seem to crave an authoritarian leadership style? Are most of us really just a herd of sheep looking for the bloke with a crook? Or is it that our capacity for critical thinking has become atrophied after years of relentless attack from the forces of diversion and distraction.
Perhaps it’s the electorate that needs to grow up to see beyond all the posturing and “presenting” and celebrity nonsense.
Good to see Jeremy out and about on the streets of Manchester actually engaging. It’s his integrity and lack of ego that shines through and puts him head and shoulders above the current bunch of coiffed and tailored wannabees.
Craig you also mention Francoism, Britain recognised Franco’s right wing brutal government, in 1939, as the legitimate government of Spain, ironically, the recognition came under a Tory Prime Minister, a one Neville (Peace in our time) Chamberlin.
It could be of course that there were mitigating circumstances, and Britain and Chamberlin, didn’t want to get on the wrong side of Hitler, something many countries didn’t want to do in 1939. Chamberlin had signed an accord with Hitler the previous year.
Of course Britain wasn’t the only one to appease Franco, and his formidable ally. France and the USA also recognised Franco’s brutal government as legitimate.
Franco went on to declare himself head of state for life,and America, found Franco a safe bet against communism, John Foster Dulles US Secretary of State even visited Franco during the Cold War.
What would Saint Josemaria have made of it? Perhaps the cilice was too tight? But one thing is for sure, unlike a Portillo, Theresa May may never be piced bending down to retrieve a coin in a pied-a-terre. That lack of blackmailability precludes her from any leadership aspiration.
Dtp
Saying that immigrants damage social cohesion is very plainly racism. It is scarcely even disguised or coded.
Well said Rose, the political ineptness is a state of mind that has almost genetic proportions, nature and nurture does not come into it. A lot of pain is required to cut through the thick hide that separates pen and pitchfork, and the Tories are providing it via their cuts.
Its good to see Jeremy keep to his appointments, for once the police gave value for money by protecting both, PM and leader of the opposition, with snipers on the roofs of Manchester.
whatever did they expect to happen, the conference already is taking place behind full armored steel barriers and three rows of police.
The young Tory, egging on the crowd with Thatchers picture, got away with very little, t’was a yolk really….
Another young Norfolk cllr., roughly the same age as the two show offs, claims to have been roughed up by two ‘thugs’ after coming out of the conference building, without his ID tag on, but the story fizzled out very quick, was not allowed to tinge the days reporting.
Why are all these young Tory’s there? showing off their mettle in front of protesters? are they the eager ambitious one’s? getting their faces known before the first hair grows on their rosy cheeks?
what a desperate show that was.
Craig.
I have just come across a man called “Brian Gerrish” on You Tube.
If he is right, I now know how THEY are getting away with it and, how to counteract it.
Mind games!!!
David Davies is the best leader the Tories never had.
He is, of course, of an older generation than Dave and his mates, and I think the older generation were more attuned to the concepts of liberty, possibly because of their closeness to the Second World War.
Some time ago, in what now seems a galaxy very far away, the Prevention of Terrorism Act hsd to be renewed every year. Now its illiberal laws are just accepted as what is right. I cannot remember if it was Howard or Blair who did it, but in any event a total disgrace.
Saying that immigrants damage social cohesion is very plainly racism. It is scarcely even disguised or coded.
Just supposing it were true? Would it (hypothetically, not for an instant suggesting it might be, etc) still be racism? How about saying that some immigrants damage social cohesion? Polish immigrants? Is there a Polish race?
Me, I’m getting rather sick of being told what my opinions should be by equally opinionated people. I’m beginning to see it as a means of social control rather than any kind of sincere attempt at egalitarianism. ‘Racism’, like ‘antisemitism’, is rather too readily deployed by people interested as much in suppressing the ‘racist’s’ aspirations as promoting those of immigrants.
Discuss. And keep the noise down.
Not just Foster Dulles. Eisenhower visited Spain in 1959.
Baal
You are being deliberately obtuse. The “social cohesion” which is being disrupted is plainly a racial construct “damaged” by incomers of another race.
It is interesting to note that the (IFS) Institute of Fiscal Studies, has said that George Osborne’s claim that families would be £2000 better off,is untrue, and infact according to Paul Johnson, director of the (IFS) who said George Osborne’s cuts to Tax Credits would make families worse off.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, added fuel to the fire by claiming, that, cutting Tax Credits was a “Cultural signal” that would make people work harder. Cultural signal indeed, defined as rich and poor.
Hunt also suggested that cutting Tax Credits, would help British workers to become more like Chinese workers, Hunt justified his comparison by adding, my wife is Chinese, as if being Chinese is what one should strive for, no offence intended to our Asian cousins, but many Chinese workers are very low paid, work very long hours, and have no working rights whatsoever. Do we really want to aspire to that?
Strangely Hunt also said in a patronising fashion in my opinion “Dignity isn’t about how much money you’ve got.”
I would suspect very strongly that in the Tory mantra, the amount of money you have, is, directly linked to how dignified you’ll be treated.
No. ‘Social cohesion’ is a term which expresses something I recognise as existing, if you don’t. And I’m surprised you don’t, if that is what you are saying. The independence movement relies on it. And it is just possible that unassimilated minorities from other cultures at least dilute its effects. All I am doing is admitting the possibility. Culture probably being the key word. Maybe I’m a culturist.
“Not just Foster Dulles. Eisenhower visited Spain in 1959.”
____________
Yes Lysais, you are correct, here is Franco and Eisenhower in Madrid, notice the large crowds.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tBUPIAWg1x4
Habbabkuk – yes I’m against any lobby funding politicians. That’s what party membership fees are for.
The Israeli lobby is particularly malevolent. Other lobbies tend just to be about making money. Conversative Friends of Israel got the Tory party almost to a man to vote for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 for “world” (Israeli) security. At the same time as Sharon’s office was providing the fraudulent WMD intelligence:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jul/17/iraq.usa
Cameron’s stance on Israel is the *only* policy that JC article considers. Not a single domestic policy is mentioned.
Trowbridge you are plainly unhinged!
No less than William Shawcross narrates what I wrote. Doubtless that insider won’t have a clue of course, in comparison to your good self that somehow manages to string the blood moon along with Lennon and three mile island thrown in for a bit more spice.
Your October Surprise!!! Which October of what Year, and what surprise? You are just throwing in mims here and there, are you some kind of a counterintelligence goon, trying to muddy the waters, and confuse the issues?
As good as Sorcha Fall and Web Fairy?
Habbabkuk –
And the “Of course” was because I think this is all fairly well known here.
One may ask what spawned this dangerous, vile and authoritarian dictatorship in Britain today; a government quite inimical to a normally sympathetic, understanding and always charitable British public? It appears we stamped the history books sometime after the war with a designation of superiority – history’s choice of democratic capitalism as the final socio-economic political system, immune to International law because we created the rules.
Rule 1 being the the first objective of a foreign policy created to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival i.e. bound up with a mushrooming NATO and a nuclear ‘special relationship’ to boot.
The MAD doctrine would mutate into a pre-emptive first-strike, active attack mode NATO, delivering democracy in a self-righteous overthrow of any ‘rogue’ or refractory governments, ‘war on terrorr’ and a purveyance of misinformation to fool the leftys.
A GOVERNMENT THAT RELIES ON PROPAGANDA CANNOT BE BELIEVED ABOUT ANYTHING.
I have just been to a talk given by local retired hospital physician on the illnesses and diseases that Anthony Eden and JFK had and their influence on the decisions taken in the Suez and Bay of Pigs fiascos. Most interesting. All mostly hidden from their electorates at the time.
Foster Dulles’ name came up ref Suez.
Someone in the audience believed that in the world of today, the press would find out such facts. So much faith expressed in the obeisant MSM and obviously no knowledge of the clamping down from the D Notice Committee!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DA-Notice
See who goes on it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence,_Press_and_Broadcasting_Advisory_Committee
By name http://www.dnotice.org.uk/committee/index.htm#goverment_members
Craig Murray says Britain can take in a billion people, because economies can grow without limit, as resources are limitless: more people = more jobs = more prosperity.
Why educate or care about your own people when you can just take in what you want from abroad – people with better education and more intelligence?
Why care about developing other countries when desperate people will come here and do crap jobs for crap pay. So, let’s keep exploiting Nigeria for its oil cos we’ll need it to keep growing.
Yes, infinite immigration works just fine because Craig Murray is a corporate shill pretending to be a humanitarian, which is why he previously worked for the filthy government promoting corporate interests, spinning it into “a humanitarian mission”.
Endless immigration = good, good, good, however large, whatever it’s character. Immigration, of course, has nothing to do with corporate globalization – it’s a humanitarian mission! Jeeze, and I thought politicians didn’t care!
We got bases from Franco’s Spain. I have been stationed at the naval base in Rota.
Thank you Jon for making contact with Clark and for letting him know our thoughts.
Rose I quite agree with your comment.
Nevermind. I wrote in an e-mail yesterday – ‘There are hundreds of these young male Tory types sitting applauding the likes of Gideon and Fallon. They all look alike and wear the same sort of clothes. Where do they all come from and where do think they are going?
On a different planet to the rest of us.’
Craig Murray fails to mention how immigrants have been used to turn the British against their own people: bloody lazy scroungers, get off your arse and do some work – immigrants find plenty!
The British = biggest bunch of losers on the planet. Those in power have now told us that we need to work like the Chinese – and like Chinese immigrants! That’s the real reason for slashing tax credits, we’re told. No more benefits for anyone, no more entitlements, we have an economy to grow – infinite growth, infinite wealth – WE’LL ALL BE FILTHY RICH, I TELL YOU! – and immigrants will help us, so time to spit on our own people, our own unproductive, uneducated, lazy, good-for-nothing people – it’s all their fault!