One of parliament's better moments:
I applaud David Lammy for this.
And I note his comment that 'when you lie down with dogs you get fleas'. He is so right. The Tories have played with fire when collaborating with the far right on the issue of race.
And, if I might say so, neoliberalism has a not dissimilar economic impact. It is also intended to isolate and alienate communities. And it does.
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Theresa Mays policies catching up with her.
I agree the true cost of fleas though is more than irritation. Of course those involved could all learn to “talk Jamaican” as suggested by the HO website. The insults just keep coming.
That one day s racist in itself
Good Speech.
Not immigrants; British citizens.
Theresa May wants to re-invigorate the Commonwealth as the foundation of our trading block post-Brexit. ?
Really ?
Leopards ? Spots ? Hmmm…..
‘British citizens’ – exactly.
When one part of the government is merrily touting Empire 2.0 and deals with the Commonwealth as a replacement for EU trade, and the other part is busy insulting the Commonwealth, one runs out of words to describe them. Incompetence and stupidity are not enough.
It does feel like the last days of the Thatcher/Major Tory era. Destruction to the country’s public services, economy, social cohesion and reputation. And yet they are neck and neck with Labour. Awful though they are, its more than just the media….
I also despair
And like you, at so many levels
Robin Stafford says:
” And yet they {the Tories] are neck and neck with Labour. ”
Not after this afternoon they aren’t.
Corbyn just bowled May a dolly on Syria. And she put it out of the close into the long grass.
Opposition ? Don’t make me laugh. Maybe the SNP should stand for English constituencies. Has to be legal doesn’t it? SNP is not, monster, raving or loony and they get to stand.
David Lammy is definitely one of my favorite politicians and excellently said. The whole episode has been a disgraceful mixture of callousness and incompetence. The most worrying thing perhaps is that the government seemed to only move after the Daily Mail came out in favour of the Windrush Generation. Peter May has discussed this in some detail at http://www.progressivepulse.org/brexit/bbc-shame where he also notes the increasing BBC bias.
Good work by Peter
And Simon Wren-Lewis
I’ve tweeted it.
“……government seemed to only move after the Daily Mail….”
It’s going some when the Daily Mail is getting twitchy about the right wing leanings of government.
Peter Orborne was very critical of the Syria response the other day in an interview.
If I was in the government I’d be wondering what has shifted. Me ? or them ?
That is a brilliantly articulated and thoroughly warranted bit of invective. If David Lammy were to lead the Labour party it would capture votes from many who will never vote for Corbyn. I have seen sneering reaction on Twitter, to the effect that neither he nor the issue resonates, or ever will do, outside London.
I hope that Brexit will be exposed for the attempted populist coup I think it is and that we’ll see an historically important govt, like Labour’s after the war, begin to repair the damage neoliberalism has wrought. If it happens I expect it will cost me a lot, but the alternative will cost us all a lot more. Maybe things will have to get worse first?
I’ve met, and shared dinner with, David Lammy
I like the man in person as well as liking him as a politician
Thats good to know as its not always the case. I see Jess Phillips in a similar light. Both independent spirits but grounded in hard, real life experience
David Lammy has also been outstanding on Grenfell, refusing to let it be forgotten as the government would clearly like it to be
Paul says:
re David Lammy ” I have seen sneering reaction on Twitter, to the effect that neither he nor the issue resonates, or ever will do, outside London.”
Oh! But it does.
How would the chattering classes of London know what resonates and where it resounds ?
I think you might find that much of the sneering came from outside London. In areas that have remarkably few expatriates/British citizens. But which are not too happy about the ones they do have.
Like Cumbria where I was brought up.
Robin Stafford says:
“I think you might find that much of the sneering came from outside London. In areas that have remarkably few expatriates/British citizens. But which are not too happy about the ones they do have.
Like Cumbria where I was brought up.”
Well that’s one view of Cumbria. A curious one given the number of Cumbria’s denizens who are non-native. As in, from other parts of the UK. West Cumbria is not the Lake District; neither are Barrow and Millom, nor the old West Coast sea ports nor Carlisle. Not a homogeneous county by any stretch of the imagination.
If the people involved were from the EEA there would have been no problem.
That’s freedom of movement – preference of one group of immigrants (European ones) over another group (those from the rest of the world). Are Europeans better people? More deserving? Why?
Discriminatory, unfair, bad for the country.
It was one of the better speeches I have seen in the HoC – watching Mrs Dudd squirm having inherited Teflon-Teresa’s mess.
It must take a unique type of tory incompetence to generate this amount of bad publicity for themselves – while at the same time (under T-Ts watch as home sec) failing to use any of the EU legislation that could have controlled EU immigration –
details here: http://outsidethebubble.net/2016/12/06/massive-negligence-by-theresa-may-when-home-secretary/
This is the paradox
They yelled about migration and actually did nothing to control those parts that might have nipped UKIP well and truly in the bud (wherever that might have been located)
So was it all just rather nasty (as TM said her own party was) after all?
Mike Parr says:
“It was one of the better speeches I have seen in the HoC ….”
Poor David Lammy. Damned with faint praise.
An outstanding speech by one of our very best MPs
In that phrase he has captured the Brexit campaign and May’s policies in a nutshell. A vote for a Brexit that was driven by a nakedly racist campaign (which led to the murder of an MP, lest we forget) was at best collusion with racism. Unless you feel that the end justified the means
That old phrase about ‘all it needs for evil to triumph…’
Indeed
Richard – any idea where David Lammy stands on the economy i.e. spend and tax? Or was it not that kind of dinner?
Not well enough informed is, I think, my summary
I wonder what it now takes for a Home Secretary to resign. When Charles Clarke was forced to resign in 2006 by the Tories the reason they gave was that it was his lack of leadership in not knowing what his department was up to. Amber Rudd should resign either because she knew what they were doing or that she did not.
Malcolm Hitchens says:
“I wonder what it now takes for a Home Secretary to resign.”
Why would she resign ? She’s implementing government policy. Why would Jeremy Hunt feel the need to resign for breaking up the NHS ?
Why would Liam Fox resign for selling the country to the US ?
Why would Boris Johnson resign for being an incompetent and clueless foreign secretary.
This is the government we re-elected. (Well nearly re-elected.) Steady as she goes. Cameron and Osborne set the course – it hasn’t changed.
Amber Rudd’s position is, or should be, absolutely untenable:
If she did not know what was going on she is too stupid to be Home Secretary
If she did know what was going on she is too wicked to be Home Secretary.
Thomas Sutcliffe says:
“If she did not know what was going on she is too stupid to be Home Secretary
If she did know what was going on she is too wicked to be Home Secretary.”
So what sets her apart from the rest of the cabinet in their respective roles, and collectively ?
Aside from the magnificent, controlled fury of David Lammy’s speech, what is equally telling from the video is the look on Amber Rudd’s face as she vacantly assesses her untenable situation. How long before we see the heads of civil servants rolling to protect the real culprits – the current and previous Home Secretaries?
Oh yes Colin, as a civil servant myself (though thankfully not in the Home Office), what can I say except to repeat this quote from the Guardian about this issue:
”The Home Office has a culture of enforcement and disbelief which runs deep into the walls, but it is politically led. It’s a culture from the top, and it has been a bit rich for the home secretary, Amber Rudd, to blame civil servants. When you’ve had a Conservative home secretary that long, you cannot moan when civil servants deliver those policies.”
This, remember, from the party that says it believes in personal responsibility. Actually, I think I’ve found the anthem, or theme tune, of the modern Tory party. So, all together now, to the tune of 3 blind mice:
“It’s not my fault,
it’s not my fault,
it’s not my fault,
it’s not my fault,
it’s always somebody else’s fault,
it’s always somebody else’s fault
it’s not my fault.”
Repeat, ad nauseam, to explain all the disasters this wretched government IS actually responsible for.
Very good
Thanks Richard. The fact that I even have to say this is appalling though. I was out in central London last night (Leicester Square area) and the number of homeless people was greater than ever.
Utterly disgusting. I see, true to my little ditty, that May tried to shift the blame for the Windrush fiasco onto the last Labour government. Conveniently ignoring the fact that the it was her implementation of hardline anti immigrant policies that caused the fact people didn’t have their documents to matter at all.