I know enough about paranoia to not use the term lightly. For a genuine sufferer it is a ghastly and disabling condition. And there's no sign that Theresa May is paranoid even if she does like to give the impression that everyone is out to get her.
She's not paranoid because that's true: opposition political parties are opposing her.
And the EU is determined that the UK should pay a high price for Brexit.
In both cases that their job. It is what they are required to do.
What is afflicting May is something much more significant. I guess it's best called mendacity. What she, quite inappropriately, believes is that these people are sabotaging her, and the UK, when all they have done is disagree with her.
She is suffering a delusion that her interests and those of the UK are the same.
Worse, she has extended that to the idea, propagated (I am sure without coincidence) in the Mail, that to oppose her is to sabotage Britain. It is as if to be something other than a Tory is to now be treacherous.
A week or two ago I was willing to believe that this was not the real line and more just an uncomfortable passing suggestion. But it is is now obvious that is not the case. The contempt for everyone who does not share her view is what now defines May. And it's deeply dangerous.
She's already come for immigrants, of course: that happened when she was in the Home Office.
Now she's coming for the EU and it's people.
And she is headed for parliament, where in her opinion her version of Brexit must be passed unopposed, whatever the cost to parliamentary democracy.
The march on the universities was, of course, already begun under Cameron, but we can be sure it will continue apace.
And we can also be sure that a large Tory majority will be used to decimate employee and trade union rights whilst free speech, already at risk, will take another kicking.
For all practical purposes May is intent on using Brexit to build what will, as far as she can make it, be a one party state. And most of the media are complicit in the act.
A weak and unco-ordinated left helps her, of course. I won't pretend otherwise. But I don't think that's the big issue. That big issue is her willingness to use the powers of the state to deny choice. That's not just deeply illiberal, it directly confronts human rights and belief in democracy.
I thought May was talking nonsense when she said this was the most important election in our lifetime. Now I think she is right. This is an election where the future of British democracy will be decided, and it's not looking good.
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Well – flowing out of you this morning. I find May terrifying; dishonesty, contempt and arrogance seems to seep out of her every pore. Am I alone in feeling like throwing up every time she speaks? Her embraecment of right-wing populism is chilling as indeed is the sycophantic support of the right wing press. The similarities with 1930s Germany get stronger by the day.
She is picking a fight with the EU which she can’t win; totally outgunned and outclassed. She is also therefore deluded and apparently only listens to others who agree with her warped vision.
I wondered if I could dislike any PM more than Thatcher. She has at least answered that with a resounding yes.
Northern Ireland and Scotland will be collateral damage – at least NI has a get out clause.
Agree with all that
If it is the case of picking the lesser of two evils, will the left leaning press get behind Jeremy Corbyn?
@Sean. To know where this is going I note Bertrand Russell’s view “[woman/man] has some desires which are, so to speak, infinite” … “Four in particular are “acquisitiveness, rivalry, vanity, and love of power”.” Without opposition Mother Theresa’s ambition is infinite – I thought Thatcher recognised some boundaries, but TM scares me with her robotic lingua and arrogance. Actually in a recent bid to win alliances in the GE my Blairite local Labour MP, keen to garner Green votes, stated we are heading to fascism [with May].
I know the feeling Sean, she really is a contemptible individual. Her U turn from voting to stay in the EU to aggressive right wing nationalism is appalling, and going to have very severe consequences for the country on whose behalf she claims to be acting.
Not that she cares, its quite obvious now that the only principle she recognises is power for its own sake. Hence this pointless election, hence the ridiculous accusations against the EU, hence the accusations of sabotage against internal dissent. When presented with problems at home, conjure up imaginary enemies, both abroad and at home.
One of the worst aspects of this, is the way decent, ordinary but frightened, people will line up behind the very people who will repress them.
So true
For the last 30 years I have provided an analysis/synthesis service to the Japanese state and assorted companies. It has covered both the IT sector and the energy sector. Most of the time I have got it right – i.e. what I predicted, the trends I identified turned out to be correct. Sure, the client did not always follow the analysis – not my fault. I made a living out of it – which suggest the clients liked what they were given and there must have been some element of truth (whatever that means) in what I said.
Applying the “tools” developed over 30 years to the UK situation I see a slo-mo disaster implemented by dogmatic incompetent ideologues. This will lead to the emergence of a UK fascist state – most of the elements are already in place (e.g. the UK the most heavily videoed place on the planet) it is only a matter of time for events to work themselves out. I won’t post the link (again) of May in a one to one with one of her Tory constituents – but it is a good indicator of what the rest of the pop’ can expect. If things continue as is – in 20 years time Ingerland will be the biggest open air prison in Europe.
You also mean England is on course to become the North Korea of the West.
Mike, I agree but i would say we are already there and I would also extend that to the EU that is brewing up its own fascism due to the ghastly crew in Brussels who are all sleepwalkers. We know that Macron will likely be a pedestal for the election of Le Pen as the situation worsens in France, I can’t see any other outcome. The UK has become a socio-economic desert with no future for many of our young, greedy rapacious landlordism, social care that leaves you floundering due to privatisation and an energy policy that will see income streams going abroad for decades just as PFI is set to siphon hundreds of billions over a 30 year period. England has been sold by the Pound.
The UK is nothing more than an asset -meter for the wealth-siphoners and the public are given the usual bread and circuses: a serotonin reuptake inhibitor wave of a Union Jack with the EU as Falklands 2 and the power-dressed, vacuous May as another Brittania whilst the public are zombified and oblivious to the enema and catheter that will drain them further in the coming years as they struggle with mill-stone mortgage, credit card catastrophe and student debt peonange.
I agree.
Creating chaos is the modus operandi of neo-libs posing as Tories. You can also see it as a classical ‘shock doctrine’ exercise too. Create fear etc., and then you have manufactured consent to do some really bad things.
It does not look good, but there maybe surprises in store yet. The Tories are human too and they will make mistakes. You could argue that they are making enemies of their futures even now although I accept that it may not feel like it.
Problem is PSR, we most certainly have years of this ahead, with 12 Billion a year being cut on welfare, it will be atrocious. I fear for my son’s future, I fear for the struggle to get social care for my elderly mother, I fear for myself in social housing and the time they will come for me as my house gets sold into financialisation.
Simon
I am with you every inch of the way – I have two children and I work in social housing myself and as a result am an endangered species too.
We are where we are. The Tories have introduced jealousy as a weapon but not rich versus poor but made those of us still clamouring to make a living jealous of each other instead. It is a major coup and as a result a race to the bottom ensues. We reckon we have less than 10 years left in the business if Tories get in.
But let us leave the hand wringing until after the election eh? There maybe surprises yet in store. The Tories will lose their composure at sometime as only the vainglorious can do.
Of course most of the media support her plan for a one-party state. Co-opting different Prime Ministers is cumbersome and likely expensive, I’m sure Murdoch, Dacre and Harmsworth would much prefer having just one party to co-opt to preserve their hegemony.
What’s frightening is how quickly some parts of the UK population seem to support this as well!
You mention the contempt that Theresa May has for those around her and particularly those in Europe. I fear it is a more deep-seated problem than this. Despite media that are particularly intrusive, there is still a remarkable acceptance by many of the middle and lower classes that they should defer to those who are wealthy and powerful. Powerful politicians are seldom made accountable for their decisions. They develop a view that things will happen if they determine they should happen. People with real jobs know that isn’t the way the world works. Politicians, especially right-wing politicians, develop a view which is often contemptuous of the people who elected them.
Despite her relatively humble background (daughter of a vicar), Theresa May’s background in banking and marriage to an investment manager has helped her to become part of the British establishment with the certainty it has of its own entitlement. The English upper classes are traditionally even more contemptuous of foreigners with their funny accents and strange ways. They are confident that foreigners will soon understand that the English view of the matter is fundamentally correct and, with a firm hand, they will bow to the authority of the English.
It is the arrogance of entitlement that makes her contemptuous of those who criticise or disagree with her. The politicians that drove the Leave campaign probably believed at some level the claims that they made for example about access to the single market or the money that would be saved by leaving the EU. Their role in this madness will soon be forgotten and the nation will be left with an entrenched right-wing government led by Kim Jong-Teresa.
Our economy will suffer and our reputation will be diminished. For a nation with the tradition of the UK for balanced and reasonable discussion we will become a laughing stock internationally.
I’m beginning to understand what depression really feels like. Worse, I can’t see any sign of it lifting.
What you are talking about is the resurgence of feudalism.
I think you are absolutely right Craig -but remember to keep you OWN spirits up! Don’t let the economic depression become too psychological. This site is a good one to keep hope and a light alive. I think dark times are ahead but we must keep each other informed and keep a candle of hope lit. read,study, learn, share ideas on blogs such as Richards. keep well!
Illegitimi non carborundum!
I voted as I took my two boys to nursery and breakfast club this morning.
My 6 year old was very interested in what I had just done. In the car between drops we had a great chat about democracy and voting and why we do it. He was genuinely interested in it all. Even his 4 year old brother joined in about choosing your favourite people in class to do stuff.
I despair for their future though, as this government has gone out of its way to make their lives so much tougher for them based on the maddening insecurities and resentment of too many easily-led baby boomers. This is without question the most anti-child government in history.
The Tories have deliberately closed Sure Start centrss, then run down their schools, made it exorbitantly expensive to enter higher education, removed the welfare net their grandparents enjoyed, stood idly by as house prices reached ludicrous levels, overseen huge growth in insecure self employment and badged that as some sort of economic success, and now merrily smashes to bits their automatic rights to work in whichever European country they may wish to.
Tory governments: despicable to the last.
Richard I hope you don’t mind me posting a link to Paul Kavanaghs blog (Wee Ginger Dug)
today. It was particularly stirring and on the money today. I think that it might give some of your readers a better idea of why we need independence badly.
https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2017/05/04/the-land-that-we-live-in/#comments
Excellent. Thanks
I am re-reading ‘Treasure Islands’, now updated with a chapter on the Panama Papers. I was struck by the assertion that Brussels is a democracy free zone. I find it curious that the alarm expressed here and in other places can only be characterised as choosing the lesser of two evils.
This morning I read an opinion piece in the NY Times ‘Why my father votes for Marine Le Pen’ https://nyti.ms/2pbf12x
I suspect that until non-tories come up with a convincing narrative which offers an explanation and an alternative route to those feeling oppressed by the current and pre-referendum status quo the neo-libs will carry the day.
You are right
Finding that narrative is the only problem
It’s having someone who can front it up too – we need a communicator.
Unfortunately I suspect that after June 8th, the Labour Party will lurch back to the Centre. Unfortunately that Centre is now roughly where Thatcher was, the way discourse has been dragged to the right.
Zero sum stuff.