Thursday 6 July 2017

We Are Looking Into The Abyss

The excellent BTL comments around here over the past few days indicate that C@W readers are looking over the rim of the abyss and shrewdly identifying all manner of appalling prospects.  Would that Crass Team May had been equally prescient before so blithely throwing everything away.  The status quo parties and their 'supporters' are hanging on the edge by their fingertips in the hope their grip holds for a full parliamentary term, and that 5 years in politics is time enough.

I am reluctant to share some of my own nightmares for fear of giving the other side ideas: one of our commenters has already pinpointed votes for 16-year olds ...  (You may like to know C@W is on the reading list of Team Corbyn.)   But it has to be said, the Grenfell catastrophe is more pregnant with possibility than almost anything I can remember.  We have already seen 'the community' (led by the usual suspects) demanding, inter alia:
  • the Inquiry to dance to their tunes; 
  • a "properly diverse expert panel with suitable experience of equality, diversity and socila welfare considerations" to sit on the Inquiry  
  • the new leader of K&C to be chosen 'by the community';
  • K&C be taken over by commissioners;  
  • an amnesty for illegals (swiftly granted);  
  • "undocumented survivors to be granted UK citizenship forthwith"
  • everyone be rehoused in a property of their choice ...
  • etc etc
It doesn't take much imagination to come up with a scenario in which tower blocks in every major city become the barricades of McDonnell's revolution.

On 'our side', people are wondering which building firms will profit most from the large-scale remedial works that will be required the length and breadth of the land ...  Oh, and Rupert Murdoch is on manoeuvres, puffing Gove for PM.

I still think there is absolutely everything to play for, both on the domestic front and with Brexit.  But, by Heaven, it will take serious players to bring it home.  I doubt many of us feel confidence in the players we have.

But: as a final note of optimism - there is another historical precedent to add to our list of regimes hanging on in there successfully against all odds.  It is our very own HM the Q.  At the death of the sainted Diana all looked lost there, in the face of apparent mass popular ressentiment and veneration of a cult figure (- any echos?)  And yet, heeding good advice and making a few deft changes, the royal family have made it through another two decades in surprisingly good shape.  Think on, Mrs May.

ND

30 comments:

James Higham said...

Bring forward the boundary review. That should start things happening.

CityUnslicker said...

Not sure the boundary review matters so much now, the 41/40 election result is a bit meh - if anything, it suggests the arithmetic is in the Tories favour this time around?

andrew said...

A couple of small things like Boris admitting he pushed brexit for the lulz and a catchy lab theme like "things can only get better" and we are sunk

At least those are my emotionally based facts (go chilcott)

Anonymous said...

Slightly off topic but why is Blue Eyes no longer listed as a contributor for this fine site?

Didn't always completely agree but appreciated the contributions none the less!

E-K said...

Don't ask me,Anon. I'm just an arse.

Nick Drew said...

His choice! Only volunteers around here

I think we all enjoyed his stuff

(well, probably not 'budgie' ...)

Steven_L said...

I get the impression he thinks we're all swivel-eyed loons.

Thud said...

I was caught wrong footed by the election and I am trying to make provision for future events, definitely planning for the worst and desperately hoping for the best something I'm sure I'm not alone in.

Anonymous said...

The penultimate para says it all - ... it will take serious players ... The problem is that democratic politics degrades the as-delivered capability of the team to that of the slowest members and the slowest system. You should never embark on a big scale project that requires geniuses to make it work, if it won't work with numpties then don't do it at all.

The Brexit project is falling apart before our eyes. The UK parliament will never be able to implement the changes needed to out accellerate the EU whilst being hobbled by even average trade terms. Brexit was a daft idea from the start, sounded pretty but the changes needed to make it work are well beyond parliament's capability, so don't bother.

As for K&C, they were taking the p*&s and got found out, equally the residents and their hangers-on will be taking the p*&s as well, only to be expected. There might be some justice in ensuring K&C is lumbered with a good swathe of poor people forever. At the root is housing policy and the Tories are now too enfeebled to make the necessary changes.

Which leaves the question of how UK is going to make its way in the world from now on. Will it be Sunny Uplands or Rural Romania? Right now we are going backwards with no plan at all. Horse & Cart anyone.

L fairfax said...

16 years old are children legally and so should not be able to vote.
If they are given the vote then the following will happen, they end up being soldiers again, buying tobacco, alcohol etc.

Electro-Kevin said...

To Anon (the one who called me an arse.)

After 24 hours of careful deliberation I've come up with my response on the previous topic - go see my comment.

Electro-Kevin said...

Roger - If we don't do anything to reverse it Brazil is our future, without the weather.

Brexit ? Yes. The one thing I didn't factor in voting Leave was that Remain would be choosing our leaders. May's dire election performance has changed my whole outlook.

We have opted for a catastrophic ending rather than a never ending catastrophe. The EU is a catastrophe but that never gets mentioned. Gary Lineker, for example, never mentions the *positives* of the EU. Never mind the Battle Bus lies - what about Remain's omission to describe the EU's intended destination ?

Thud - The general election has at least bought you some time. Both leading parties are proving to be confiscatory.

Elby the Beserk said...

16 year olds voting.

No representation without taxation.

Electro-Kevin said...

CU - The counter to 'Tories kill Labour voters' is that far more Tories have been killed commuting to London because of London housing policy than Labour voters.

Tory voters are generally too well paid to be gifted Zone 1 accommodation and are too poor to live there.

The truth is that various Labour policies have killed far more Tory voters than the reverse.

The Left view things through a prism which turns reality upside down. It has to be an illness.

Charlie said...

When I was 16, it irked me somewhat that I paid tax and NI (during a good month) but did not have the vote. Probably less of an issue now the threshold has been raised, but still...

I'd advocate taking 16-18 year olds out of income tax rather than giving them the vote. A Tory youth-vote winner. I bet it wouldn't cost much either.

Bill Quango MP said...

I like that idea Charlie.

Though many will not be paying any tax now.

Charlie said...

"Though many will not be paying any tax now."

Many will be paying tax during school holidays when they're working full time, then getting it back as a rebate though, which still stings a little. It would also seed idea that the Tories are the party of lower taxation in the minds of the young. I'm in my mid-30s and a natural Tory and have grown tired (even before Rise Of Corybn) of funding the bribes aimed at the grey vote (I'm looking at you, triple lock and universal winter fuel) vs people of my generation and younger.

Fortunately, there still remain young people who think the answer to the generational wealth gap lies in Capitalism rather than Socialism. The Tories need to give us something to vote FOR rather than Corbyn providing something to vote against.

Electro-Kevin said...

The problem with that idea (16 year old's tax) is that once it's been given it gets taken for granted and you can never reverse it.

Labour hijacks it as a reverse issue in the next election "We will stop the Tories from implementing a tax against you."

It is a card that can only be played by the Tories once - thereafter it becomes Labour's weapon.

As with lifting 4m out of tax under Cameron - that created 4m Labour voters, careless about tax, careful about voting in someone preserving their status.

The key to all this is property ownership and the generational disparities it has caused. This would have countered any BBC/university indoctrination.

One landlord creates umpteen labour voters.

The mass importation of the renter class increases the Labour vote and the desire for confiscatory policies. It isn't just the migrants voting Labour - it is the youth excluded from ever owning a home, quite a lot of them excluded from ever paying tax, or if they do - having to pay 40% before they get anywhere near a mortgageable salary.

Prepare for Corbyn.

It's inevitable.

May blew it. But that was the purpose of putting her in charge of Brexit and leaving the capable Redwoodians on the back benches.

Anonymous said...

The "winter fuel payment" is a red herring. All it consists of is holding back a percentage of the State Pension for 11 months and releasing it in November.

It isn't extra money.

Don Cox

Steven_L said...

The way I see it, since DC and GO left, the tories are looking increasingly shambolic and incompetent. Whereas Labour and Corbyn (albeit starting from a very low threshold indeed) are looking more and more coherent.

The tory strategy of playing the man and not the ball is backfiring. If labour now rally around Corbyn and start to present a united front the polls will move further against the minority government and May will come under massive pressure to go. The tories will be in danger of splitting.

So I reckon labour will consolidate their younger support base now and try to push back into the middle aged and OAP demographics promising candy for all.

And my apologies to ND for starting an sentence with "So".

Nick Drew said...

No probs, SL, given that what you've written seems to me exactly right

it is interesting, though, that the Corbyn/McDonnell machine is pretty consistent for brexit (and you can see why - the EC would put paid to their manifesto in short order: not to mention the views of lots of their northern supporters)

there will come a point where some of their drivelling juvenile metro-supporters start to experience cognitive dissonance

K said...

I almost trust Corbyn more with Brexit than May. Even when he criticises her it seems more like he's doing it because the leader of the opposition has to rather than any fundamental disagreements.

The cognitive dissonance will mean the Corbynista revolution is short lived and they'll get one term at most. If he goes internationalist socialist the north will hate him and if he goes nationalist socialist the south will hate him but these types of contradictions are always ignored while a party is in opposition.

Dick the Prick said...

Sorry about BE - he was a good lad.

As i've mentioned numerous times before, QE, Hinckley C and Trident are all unbelievably expensive when they go wrong. All assumption is based on optimism. For a shit party Corbyn's done well but all this bullshit about Tories being prudent can stop.

I think Osborne has accidentally been proved correct. Horror to say it but his strategic understanding has retrospective merit. I personally don't buy this dead May walking narrative but Tories are cunts. Last night on QT (bringing it back Bill?) Caroline Lucas and the Burgon fella (Lab Lad - thick as gran's gravy) were just roundly ignored.

It's great that this manifestation of socialism is pro Brexit. I think they're gonna get found out. The 16 thing is drivel when all this postal vote fraud is going on but ...look, squirrels!

Electro-Kevin said...

Dick - Osborne is one of those who delivered us the awful May. The prophesy was self fulfilling.

Worse than trident is the supercarriers with no aircraft. Insane. Just totally insane.

Mainly because they don't deliver ANYTHING for the money.

We need a fleet of shore patrolling rubber dinghys and lots of old tankers with flight decks welded on them to fly drones off of to meet our modern needs. All at a fraction of the price.

Electro-Kevin said...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-4676706/Peter-Oborne-Jeremy-Corbyn-Brexit-saviour.html

Peter Oborne "Corbyn good for Brexit."

Elby the Beserk said...

EK - not to mention HS2 and Hinckley, both of which confirm that as far as govts are concerned, we are now no more than ATMs to be plundered at will. Sod the bloody lot of them.

Elby the Beserk said...

Charlie - 16 to 18 years olds have now by law to be in education.

Charlie said...

Sure, but many will have a weekend job and some will work full time while studying for a diploma or some other vocational qual.

Electro-Kevin said...

Elby - My colleague told me this evening "I can't get my parents on care. I pay 50% tax on everything I earn and pay 20% tax on everything I buy and the guvn'ment gives it to despots carried about in chauffeur driven Mercs."

[If I'm posting to much C@W let me know. I'll back off. Odd shifts this week.]

Nick Drew said...

Keep posting, Kev