Owen Jones - Britain's Conservatives: the party of chaos and disorder sells 'stability' and 'national interest'. Sounds familiar
when Teresa
May was home secretary gay refugees felt obliged to film
themselves having sex to prove to her officials – following her orders
– that they were indeed gay, to avoid being deported to countries that would
imprison, injure or murder them...she sent those vans
emblazoned with “Go home” into ethnically mixed areas. Go home: a
phrase that haunts the childhoods of many minority British citizens; a callous
act designed to whip up bigotry...The Tories have presided over the longest squeeze in wages since the Napoleonic wars. Of the industrialised nations, only devastated Greece has suffered a worse decline. Figures this week show that real wages are once again falling. Meanwhile, the richest thousand Britons have enjoyed a doubling in wealth during one of the worst economic crises in modern British history. The Tories have promoted deregulation for big business, but imposed the most draconian legislation on Britain’s trade union movement in the western world
NB: A comment beneath this article notes: 'At last it seems people are realising the Tories are fighting a class war.. but we seem to be waking up.' Under the banner of 'national pride' the Sangh Parivar are also fighting a class war. All their orchestrated lynchings and communal propaganda are meant to deliver one message: Hate Muslims and Love Corporates. What a way to run a country - DS
Let us note the woes of Theresa May. But don’t waste time feeling sorry for her. Focus instead on the Conservative party, and ask yourself: does it have the capacity for shame? The Tories have spent the past two and a half years claiming that they are the only force that can save Britain from the chaos and disorder represented by the Labour party. But look at where we are. Britain has spent over a year embroiled in the worst political turmoil since the end of the war – and all because of this incompetent party and its partisan ruses. David Cameron offered a referendum on EU membership not because he believed it to be in the national interest, but because it would defuse the threat to his party from Ukip. The Tories then ran a tone-deaf remain campaign based on threats of economic calamity, having spent years stirring up resentment about immigration, thereby gifting the initiative to those who campaigned to leave.
In the political
upheaval that followed, I suggested that Cameron – who, true to this arrogant
type, now offers
his successor advice – was the worst
prime minister on his own terms since Neville Chamberlain. Historians
reprimanded me: Chamberlain, after all, had presided over prewar re-armament. I
actually had to go back to Lord North who, in the late 18th century, was prime
minister when the American colonies were lost. But May may yet prove worse than
him. This arrogance, this
recklessness, seems rooted in the DNA of the Conservative party. They are not
like, say, the Christian Democrats of Germany and other European countries;
they are more like the US Republican right. They share the same viciousness,
the same sense of entitlement, the same equation of dissent with treason and
lack of patriotism, the same determination to smear opponents as dangerous
extremists, the same demonisation of groups lacking power – whether immigrants
or benefit claimants – for political gain.
Always have in mind
what the Tory party is. It is the political
wing of the vested interests that fund it: a way to protect their economic
interests in a democratic system where everyone has the vote. That is why such
suggestions as the idea from the Harlow Tory MP Robert Halfon that it should rebrand
as the Workers’ party gain no traction. It would be no more than yet
another deceitful ruse. And what of Halfon? May just demoted him. The Tories have
presided over the longest
squeeze in wages since the Napoleonic wars. Of the industrialised nations,
only devastated Greece has suffered a worse decline. Figures this week show
that real wages are once again falling. Meanwhile, the richest
thousand Britons have enjoyed a doubling in wealth during one of the
worst economic crises in modern British history. The Tories have promoted
deregulation for big business, but imposed the most draconian legislation on
Britain’s trade union movement in the western world... read more:
