SNP MP Mhairi Black made this speech in parliament yesterday:
https://twitter.com/mhairiblack/status/1526999103615401984?s=21&t=5mxpvylZdZOI-F8OQsCjIA
For those who would rather read her speech, this is from Hansard:
For a party that prides itself on the economy, the Tories have a shocking record of running it. Our economy has the slowest growth in the G7. We have greater regional inequality than almost any other developed nation. Food banks now do the job of Government in providing for families—families that are more often than not in work.
The Government could start solving this crisis by providing solutions, such as closing tax-avoidance loopholes or creating a windfall tax for energy companies. Instead, we get endless Bills paying lip service to a manufactured culture war. The priority is not the economy. It seems to be things like protecting freedom of speech, yet the Tories are the ones who banned schools in England from using sources that are not overtly pro-capitalist. They are cracking down on freedom of assembly and protest. They are privatising Channel 4, when the Culture Secretary did not even know that Channel 4 receives no public money, so the argument is not financial. When we consider, as the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) touched on earlier, that the Culture Secretary was once a key focus of a Channel 4 documentary about the influence that Christian fundamentalism has on UK politics, it becomes even more concerning that this decision is political and personal. It is not professional.
Most terrifying of all, however, is that the Government literally want to get rid of the Human Rights Act. That begs the question: for whom do they think rights have gone too far? Do they know how scary it is to sit at home and wonder if it is you—is it your rights that are up for grabs? We have witnessed Windrush. Our economic strategy is to open our doors to the rest of the world when we need their hard work and then chuck them out 50 years later without a word's notice. We tell our own citizens that their safety cannot be guaranteed in Rwanda, but we are perfectly happy to ship asylum seekers, people fleeing war and persecution, over to Rwanda as though they are cattle to be dealt with by someone else and despite knowing that the plan costs more than it will ever save.
This is just little England elites drunk on the memory of a British empire that no longer exists. We have the lowest pensions in Europe and the lowest sick pay. We pretend the minimum wage is a living wage when it is not. We miss our own economic targets time and again. We are happy to break international law. We are turning into a country where words hold no value.
Over the last 12 years, I fear we have been sleepwalking closer and closer to the F word. I know everyone is scared to say it for fear of sounding over the top or being accused of going too far, but I say this with all sincerity. When I say the F word, I am talking about fascism—fascism wrapped in red, white and blue. You may mock and you may disagree, but fascism does not come in with intentional evil plans or the introduction of leather jackboots. It does not happen like that. It happens subtly. It happens when we see Governments making decisions based on self-preservation, based on cronyism, based on anything that will keep them in power, when we see the concentration of power while avoiding any of the scrutiny or responsibility that comes with that power. It arrives under the guise of respectability and pride, which will then be refused to anyone who is deemed different. It arrives through the othering of people and the normalisation of human cruelty. I do not know how far down that road we are. Time will tell, but the things we do in the name of economic growth—the warning signs are there for everyone else to see, whether they admit it or not.
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A great speech – but I am afraid that it will make not a blind bit of difference to the tory-s &, furthermore, I doub’t if Lie-bore if/when it gets into power, will repeal some of the more grotesque laws that the tory-s have brought in. Whilst break-up might provide a way out for Scotland, where does it leave England? (or Wales – unwillingly/unhappily attached to England). This summer if it is long and hot may deliver some “interesting” events.
Was this a maiden speech?
It’s excellent.
There is hope. I hope the SNP member believes in a Scottish poond. She would be an asset.
There is nothing wrong with the speech in my view.
And she mentions Dorries.
I dipped into the Nick Robinson interview with Dorries.
It was interesting listen, given that she tells us she comes from a working class background in Liverpool.
I have no issue with people who make their fortune and being better off than me, but I do object to it if they then get involved in public life and use their wealth as leverage to make our lives harder or to make us feel inadequate.
But the most objectionable thing about Dorries are her personal religious beliefs and how she uses her public role as a platform for them. I find that disgusting and particularly troubling.
And on the same level is her identity politics persona – to me she is obviously teeming with all sorts of resentments and feels hard done by and lets it all hang out in parliament. In another era she would have self-destructed and been of no use to anyone and her political career with its ups and downs would have been over.
I think that she is one of the biggest engines of identity politics in the country too – a real problem. Because rather than going into public service for the right reasons, she’s gone into it totally for herself – personally chosen by God of course.
Boris knows how to saddle the warped personalities in his party and give them the chance others would not to get his dirty work done. Dorries is loyal to Boris because of that – like a good working class girl she knows better than to bite the hand that feeds her.
And this Channel 4 business is all about revenge and nothing more. There is nothing more to say is there on that. It’s as obvious daylight. And typically fascist too – because the fascist mindset NEVER forgets a slight.
Definitely nit a maiden speech
It wad in the Queen’s Speech debate, supposedly on the economy
The maiden speech she gave in parliament was very impressive as well. And, then there was the ‘you talk sh**e, hen’ comment aimed at Theresa May – when asked whether she said that, her reply was ‘everything I say in there is factually correct’ or something like that.
Craig
Maiden speech? She has been an MP for seven years! She was elected in May 2015, while she was still at university, a few months before her 21st birthday, winning her seat from Douglas Alexander. She was the first MP elected under 21 since the minimum age was reduced to 18 in 2006.
I’ve didn’t know NR had interviewed Dorries. I might catch up with it on BBC Sounds; although on second thoughts hearing the loathsome self-pitying idiot might be very bad for my mental health.
I dodn’t know about her religious beliefs ,but it doesn’t surprise me in the least she is a fundamentalist. And your point about her attack on C4 on this is absolutely correct. I remember reading how both Hitler and Stalin bore grudges (usually for no reason of course) , and always took good care to be revenged on those who’d ‘wronged’ them. That’s a fascist characteristic alright.
Stupid, vicious, self-pitying, self-righteous and sycophantic to the biggest enemies of the working class she claims to be one of.
And who appointed her? Johnson, the leader of all this rotteness. Why? Precisely because she possesses all those qulities.
With virtually no MPs in the chamber ! so much for the importance given by MPs about the state of the economy. Really, what do the majority of MPs actually do for their salary, expenses and subsidised lifestyle other than turn up to vote when they have been whipped to do so.
In fairness, the work load of a committed MP is enormous and only a small part is in the Chamber
Having read Kuper’s book ‘Chums’ I’m less likely to be so understanding of their workload.
We are in a bad place with parliament. It is not functioning as it should and all too often really good debating issues are poorly attended in the chamber.
What passes as debate too often is just filibustering and using up time.
The whole thing needs to be taken by the scruff of the neck and managed properly – and not like the blasted Oxford Union.
I spend too much time talking to Caroline Lucas….
IMHO Dr. Caroline Lucas is one of the most impressive members of the House of Commons.
Mine too
But I am biased
I have known her for a long time now
The chamber is rarely full. If you only watch PMQs it gives a very distorted view of MPs attendance; tune in 10 minutes before or after and you’ll find the chamber practically empty.
The real parliamentary work is mostly done in Committee. Though this government mostly ignores Committees’ findings..
Recently Tory journalist and writer of histories Max Hastings opined that comparisons of our current crop of Tories to Fascists, or comparisons of Johnson to Churchill are so wide of the mark that anybody making the argument immediately loses all intellectual credibility.
On both counts it is hard to imagine how Max Hastings could be more wrong
When the Tory party was led by the World War 2 generation of Ted Heath comparing the Tories to Fascists might have been untrue. However from the first day they were replaced by Tories who started going round the country referring to their fellow Britons as the “enemy within” it became key to understanding Tory behaviour.
The comparison of Johnson to Churchill is equally revealing.
Both had/have lives utterly dependent on class privilege.
Both had/have very dodgy personal finances.
Both had/have a history of ratting on allies and friends.
Both believed they were destined to lead their country.
In any position of power both had a record of disastrous government by wheezes that cost billions of pounds and killed many of their countrymen.
However the major difference is truly illuminating.
Churchill came to power by opposing the powerful strain of fascism that had a firm grip on the 1930s Tory party. At one time there was even a faction of Tory MPs who openly described themselves as Fascists.
Johnson by total contrast came to power by sucking up to the neo-fascists who describe themselves as “Euro-sceptics”, exactly the same kind of people that Churchill had opposed.
If this is not an intellectually respectable comparison then I will eat my hat.
Compared to Churchill, Johnson is a political pygmy. Despite Churchill being an arch imperialist, if it wasn’t for him Britain would have been defeated in WW2. Johnson came to power with a series of lies and deceptions and Dominic Cummings superior organisational skills over the Brexit campaign. Churchill had some regard for democracy and freedom but Johnson lacks any vision or sense of righteousness whatsoever.
I beg to differ (not with respect to Mendacious Fatberg vs Churchill). The difference that Churchill made in WW2 was the decision to fight on in June 1940. The existential threat to the UK posed by German bomber fleets August through to end Sept 1940 was defeated by the actions & brains of a quite different set of people, one of whom was fired very shortly after the Battle of Britain (sound familiar?).
Churchill had minimal regard for Uk serfs – and there are endless examples of his use of violence to supress UK workers. I will pass over in silence his actions and those of his confederates in what was then the colonies and “protectorates”. Suffice to say that he was a mix of Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein with a dash of Stalin. Odious does not even begin to describe the man. Regard for democracy & freedom? – yes – his own and that of his class – Mendacious fatberg and Churchill – different sides of the same coin.
Downing, I presume?