Mayhem in the UK

Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, May 25th, 2019 - 68 comments
Categories: International, uk politics - Tags: ,

So Theresa May is on the way out.

The Guardian has the details:

Theresa May has given an emotional farewell to “the job that it has been the honour of my life to hold”, pledging to step aside as Conservative leader on 7 June and kicking off a frantic scramble to become Britain’s next prime minister.

Calling time on a turbulent three-year premiership punctuated by revolts and resignations, May said she would leave “with no ill will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love”.

The prime minister will remain in place until a new leader has been chosen by her party: a process senior Conservatives hope will be completed by late July.

Boris Johnson is the frontrunner to succeed May, but he will be one among a crowded field of contenders, with the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, declaring his candidacy on Friday. A host of others are expected to follow.

Johnson was quick out of the blocks after May’s resignation, insisting the UK must leave the EU on 31 October, “deal or no deal”, in an attempt to shore up his appeal to the right of the party.

She will not be remembered fondly.  She almost lost the unlosable election and if Jeremy Corbyn becomes Prime Minister she can be thanked.

The Guardian has prepared this brief video covering the lowlights of her time as PM:

It is fitting that two conservative Prime Ministers have seen their reign ended because of Brexit.  You wonder who will be next.

 

68 comments on “Mayhem in the UK ”

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  1. Dukeofurl 1
    25 May 2019 at 12:32 pm

    Lost the un-loseable election – where have I heard that before.

    In reality the Conservatives vote went up over 5%, just that labour went up more. The biggest losers were the remain supporting SNP who lost 40% of their seats

    • jpwood 1.1
      25 May 2019 at 10:44 pm

      Fact check: The Conservatives' share of the vote increased from 2015 because UKIP's vote collapsed to 1.8% and when had received 12% of the vote in 2015, predominantly in Tory seats (which is why David Cameron proposed the referendumb in the first place).

  2. Morrissey 2
    25 May 2019 at 1:22 pm

    Song in response to Mrs May's allegedly 'heartfelt' resignation statement

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-uecpfaci0

    (Hat tip to Mark Nadim of The Lifeboat News.)

    • Pierre 2.1
      25 May 2019 at 9:15 pm

      I love this song!
      Used to listen to their English Rebel Songs album, sounds like we might hear those songs ringing out before long 🙂

  3. Philg 3
    25 May 2019 at 1:31 pm

    Surprise surprise … hardly news imo. Politics has become a reality show, minus the reality lol.

  4. SPC 4
    25 May 2019 at 1:37 pm

    You wonder who will be next

    Whomever they elect … will enact Brexit with no deal. They will then lose a no confidence motion in the House of Commons and then it will go to an election.

    The EU calls on the next Tory PM to stay in the EU.

    The election will be a new referendum of sorts.

  5. Ad 5
    25 May 2019 at 1:43 pm

    Shifted this from Open Mike as it's better here:

    Next.

    1. Boris Johnson becomes Prime Minister in June, and government continues until 2022.

    2. Brexit with No Deal goes ahead. Immediate trade, pharmaceutical, and grocery supply crisis with trucks at both borders for miles. Brexit together with US-China trade war tips the OECD countries into economic stagnation.

    3. Prime Minister Johnson announces massive and deep deregulation of the British economy to outcompete the EU. Economic growth crashes and unemployment goes from 4% to 7% inside a year.

    4. Scotland votes to join the EU independently.

    5. Wales protests mount, also seeking a referendum to join the EU.

    6. Decline in the City of London as a financial centre compared to Frankfurt, Berlin, and Paris.

    7. Queen dies by 2022. No one knows what happened to the country.

    8. By 2022, India overtakes UK in economic size.

    • OnceWasTim 5.1
      25 May 2019 at 2:48 pm

      Plus a few more steps.

      Like

      9. The number of applications from the Empire for residency (in the hope of eventual dual citizenship) in the former colonies swamp officials.

      etc.

      etc. etc.

      • Anne 5.1.1
        25 May 2019 at 4:00 pm

        You mean British boat people? The Aussies won't be happy with that. We'll have to offer to take them. Can't have our kith or kin (some of us anyway) floating around the oceans with nowhere to go. 😥

        • OnceWasTim 5.1.1.1
          25 May 2019 at 8:19 pm

          No no, the Aussies will be fine with it just so long as they aren't Brown Brits. Officials here will have developed a more efficient and effective demographic spreadsheet (for managing any risk) by then anyway so we needn't worry too much.

          /sarc (just in case)

    • Wensleydale 5.2
      25 May 2019 at 3:07 pm

      God forbid Boris Johnson becomes PM. It'll be like Trump has had himself cloned and installed in Number 10. Boris always reminded me of Harry Enfield's comedic creation, Tim 'Nice But Dim'.

      https://youtu.be/l1f8UOWF4RY

    • Anne 5.3
      25 May 2019 at 3:56 pm

      OMG Ad you are a bearer of bad news.angry

    • mickysavage 5.4
      25 May 2019 at 7:48 pm

      That's pretty good. The one thing I would look forward to is Northern Ireland deciding to reintegrate with Eire because the alternative was so crazy …

      And the really disturbing thing is there are a bunch of venture capitalists waiting for the chaos because they think it is an opportunity for profit …

    • Katipo 5.5
      25 May 2019 at 9:59 pm

      6. Not so sure about the decline of The City of London. Some argue that they and the super rich would love a Brexit especially a hard one, as it would mean no need to abide by all those recent pesky EU attempts to clamp down on tax evaders and money launderers. Probably explains why Farage seems to be attracting some big donnonations from the likes of Arron Banks.

      • George 5.5.1
        27 May 2019 at 8:27 am

        The toff's…them what thinks they're entitled to more than the rabble (rabble being what the toff's were yesterday before they scammed a bunch of people of their hard earned) want a better defined class system so they can be noticed as toffs more often and be given the deference they deserve as c"entrepreneur types". Brexit will create the environment for this.

    • Pierre 5.6
      25 May 2019 at 9:59 pm
      1. General election is called, the Party of Labour sweeps into government along with the trade unions and the social movements.
      2. Brexit with no deal goes ahead. British people regain popular sovereignty as well as the legal ability to control capital flows. John McDonnell initiates wide-reaching social transformation outlined in the 2017 manifesto.
      3. Facing resistance from the monopolies and the oligarchs, the country enters crisis. After years of deep suspicion about the British state, the Labour Party falls back on an empowered and politically-conscious activist base, who set about steadily dismantling capitalist power structures. Britain pulls out of NATO, removes US military bases, and establishes friendly ties with non-aligned countries.
      4. The Scottish working class rejects reactionary nationalism and joins with their English, Welsh, and Cornish counterparts to create a federal Britain. British troops withdraw from the north of Ireland, ending the occupation and paving the way for the reunification of Ireland.
      5. Decline in the City of London as a financial centre compared to Frankfurt, Berlin, and Paris. The glass towers are turned over to social housing, meanwhile the seat of capitalist central planning – the London Stock exchange – is placed under popular and democratic control. Market imperatives are replaced by social imperatives.
      6. Queen dies by 2022. The people constitute themselves as a Republic and the institution of the monarchy is abolished. Citizen Charles is put in a municipal retirement home.
      • greywarshark 5.6.1
        25 May 2019 at 10:33 pm

        Pierre – C’est un miracle que personne n’ait été tué.

        It sounds interesting and totally impossible. Citoyen Charles can live with Camilla where he likes – good bloke who has been through difficult times.

        • Pierre 5.6.1.1
          25 May 2019 at 11:49 pm

          Greywarshark, je peux plutôt rêver… devant les faillites de la droite, la République avance.

      • mike 5.6.2
        26 May 2019 at 5:28 pm

        scotland will go this time

    • George 5.7
      27 May 2019 at 8:22 am

      @Ad ..yup. And Russian money is laundered through Britain and outwardly from there through Europe with no controls.

  7. Sabine 7
    25 May 2019 at 2:18 pm

    Brexit for thee but not for mee

    🙂

    https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/top-north-east-candidate-for-brexit-party-lives-in-france/24/05/?fbclid=IwAR1JmRKOMZz2xIPU58NcuAjLS71eIzk6uSQ5lrW_5VpXpPGTMbujIZiJeCc

    Voters in the North East came in for a shock yesterday after discovering the Brexit party’s main candidate lists his primary residence in France.

    but don't call him immigrant, he is of course an expat.

    • greywarshark 8.1
      25 May 2019 at 3:50 pm

      Thanks Mosa While I don't expect even 95% for candidates standing for prominence in anything, that is based on normal, expected human values.

      These ones seems to be trending below zero.

  9. Gosman 9
    25 May 2019 at 3:38 pm

    The trouble for the left in the UK is Brexit is as bad for Labour as it is for the Tory's

    • Sam 9.1
      25 May 2019 at 3:45 pm

      So the Tories are gone burger? Glorious.

    • woodart 9.2
      25 May 2019 at 11:07 pm

      trying to find a spark of glory in a sea of shit gosman? there's no winners in this, but the right will wear this disaster for all time, so far has cost two tory p.m. there reputations and place in history.may has been desperate to try and pin some of the shit onto british labour ,but they mostly have kept out of it.

      • Wayne 9.2.1
        26 May 2019 at 7:41 am

        You can't assume that is all going to be disaster for the Conservatives. Johnson (assuming it is him) is just as likely to do a ScoMo as lose.

        Everyone here seems to think a No deal Brexit, which is now more likely than before, will prove a complete disaster. It is not obvious why that will be the case.

        Britain can still trade with the EU on WTO terms, just like the US and China. But there will be a lot of pressure within the EU to do art least a Canadian style FTA. The UK is a large market for them.

        Anyway we will see.

        • Sam 9.2.1.1
          26 May 2019 at 7:57 am

          May resigning is just another headline for talking heads to come out and justify the stupidity and things will get better. You've been talking about this for a couple years, Wayne. It hasn't gotten better. The pound has been falling against its partners for the whole 2 years so if anyone is sitting outside of the U.K. Thinking they're going to make bucket loads of money out of it think again. UK industry is already a wasteland so its up to UK business to make better products and come up with new ones.

        • lprent 9.2.1.2
          26 May 2019 at 10:01 pm

          I'd say that a early no-deal brexit is by far the most likely. Not because that is what any (apart from artisans of strange economics) want, but simply because there are too many political factions to unable to agree.

          Problem for the UK is that the supply chains have essentially been integrated into Europe and into the long-haul trucking and trains. It cause a pretty massive productivity hit in the short to medium term on the UK side because all of their costs will rise as they transition through tariffs and extra customs regulations.

          There will be a hit on the EU side. But it is likely to be way less. Apart from anything else, simply because businesses will relocate so they aren't on an island and are in the market that they were originally located to serve. It has been about 40 years after all.

          If they do a Canada type FTA, then I can't see it as being achieved before the UK economy has had its short-term doubling in general unemployment and massive loss of high paying jobs.

          As I said, we shall see. However I'd advise that we should be looking at tightening up on migration rules again. While I don't care about immigration that much apart from overall volumes (still too high for infrastructural growth), I do care about having dominating groups, and the UK are already our largest source and has been for far too long.

          • Sam 9.2.1.2.1
            26 May 2019 at 11:22 pm

            Whats an early no-BREXIT deal? The U.K. has gone 2 months over the deadline and are asking for more extensions, good sir. They'll need massive ECB stimulus to inflate there way out.

      • Pierre 9.2.2
        26 May 2019 at 8:57 pm

        Back in 2015 the main Tory angle was that a Miliband-led Labour government would lead to inevitable chaos, the breakup of the Kingdom, the dreaded 'death tax.' So, people voted for a 'strong and stable' government, and look where that got us. Chaos with Ed Miliband is looking better by the day.

        Chaos with Ed Miliband

  10. Rae 10
    25 May 2019 at 3:50 pm

    I have a grudging respect for May. She was handed the hell hospital pass of hospital passes and quite honestly, she was on a hiding to nothing from there.

    The whole stupidity started with the referendum in the first place, Cameron should have had the foresight to put a higher threshold than 51% on it, they should have nutted out some of the very sticky issues, such as the Irish border and not every UK country going for the leave, among them, and presented them along with the vote.

    Now we have the prospect of the preening Johnson thinking he can come in like the big boy and stick it those Europeans and that'll teach them. What makes him think the EU is going to cower at the sight of him.

    What a ballsup

  11. Cantabrian 11
    25 May 2019 at 4:03 pm

    May wanted the job. She put party above country. Her record as PM and Home Secretary are equally appalling. Good riddance I say.

  12. greywarshark 12
    25 May 2019 at 5:14 pm

    It came to me that May and Thatcher might have things in common that could give us a picture of the UK Conservative Woman Leader's Template.

    So have gathered some info on them reasonably comparative from Wikipedia.

    Margaret Thatcher background:
    Alfred Roberts [father] was an alderman and a Methodist local preacher,[7] and brought up his daughter as a strict Wesleyan Methodist,[8] attending the Finkin Street Methodist Church.[9] He came from a Liberal family but stood (as was then customary in local government) as an Independent. He served as Mayor of Grantham in 1945–46 and lost his position as alderman in 1952 after the Labour Party won its first majority on Grantham Council in 1950.

    Margaret Roberts attended Huntingtower Road Primary School and won a scholarship to Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School, a grammar school.[4][10] Her school reports showed hard work and continual improvement; her extracurricular activities included the piano, field hockey, poetry recitals, swimming and walking.[11] She was head girl in 1942–43…[Her boyfriend while at Oxford Tony Bray described her parents] Bray later met Roberts' parents and described them as "slightly austere" and "very proper".

    Thatcher did not devote herself entirely to studying chemistry as she only intended to be a chemist for a short period of time. Even while working on the subject, she was already thinking towards law and politics….She was reportedly prouder of becoming the first Prime Minister with a science degree than becoming the first woman…

    Roberts became President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946.[22] She was influenced at university by political works such as Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (1944),[23] which condemned economic intervention by government as a precursor to an authoritarian state.

    Theresa May background:
    Only child. Her father was a Church of England clergyman (and an Anglo-Catholic… May's mother was a supporter of the Conservative Party.[19] Her father died in 1981, from injuries sustained in a car accident, and her mother of multiple sclerosis the following year…

    May attended the University of Oxford, read geography at St Hugh's College, and graduated with a second class BA degree in 1977.[27] She worked in a bakery on Saturdays to earn pocket money, and was a "tall, fashion-conscious young woman who from an early age spoke of her ambition to be the first woman prime minister," according those who knew her.[28] A university friend, Pat Frankland, said: "I cannot remember a time when she did not have political ambitions. I well remember, at the time, she was quite irritated when Margaret Thatcher got there first."…

    Between 1977 and 1983, May worked at the Bank of England, and from 1985 to 1997, at the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS), as a financial consultant. She served as Head of the European Affairs Unit from 1989 to 1996 and Senior Adviser on International Affairs from 1996 to 1997 in the organisation.[

    (She talked the talk about better conditions but)…After she became Prime Minister, May's first speech espoused the left, with a promise to combat the "burning injustice" in British society and to create a union "between all of our citizens" and promising to be an advocate for the "ordinary working-class family" and not for the affluent in the UK. "The government I lead will be driven not by the interests of the privileged few but by yours. We will do everything we can to give you more control over your lives … When we take the big calls, we’ll think not of the powerful, but you. When we pass new laws we’ll listen not to the mighty, but to you. When it comes to taxes we’ll prioritise not the wealthy but you."…

    May aimed to put workers' and consumers' representatives on boards to make them more accountable….Workers' representatives it appeared, would have made UK companies more like those in Germany and France.[276] May was accused of backtracking in November 2016 when she said that firms would not be forced to adopt the proposal, saying "there are a number of ways in which that can be achieved".

    So there are connections between the two. Parents both with strong religious backgrounds and political interests, able to step forward and take public office. Margaret Thatcher had one older sister. Theresa May was an only child and was on her own after her second parent died in 1982, when May was 26 years.

    Both girls were willing to study, gain advancement, went to University, were studious and gained degrees. Both interested in politics and ambitious from an early age. Both from middle class, Thatcher's father owned grocery shops and was a lay clergyman; May's father was a clergyman, and she worked as a shop assistant at a bakery for pocket money.

    Thatcher was influenced by Austrian economist Hayek whose ideas led to neo-liberalism. She was scientific minded studied and worked in the chemistry field, but was really fixed on politics. Being the first scientist as PM was more important than being the first woman. She had twins, a boy and girl.

    Note that Thatcher wrote in her book Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World 2003 :…the European Union (EU) was a "fundamentally unreformable", "classic utopian project, a monument to the vanity of intellectuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure". She argued that Britain should renegotiate its terms of membership or else leave the EU and join the North American Free Trade Area.

    May gained a geography degree, then went into finance and then into the international side of that. She was in local politics first from 1986 to 1994 in Education and Housing, then stood in a long-held Labour seat in 1994 and received a low vote, tried again in 1997 in Maidenhead seat and won. She is married to an investment relationship manager and couldn't have children.

    It sounds like hard work, ambition, discipline, not much time for enjoyment or mixing with a range of people, or humour, not extended family life; May and husband go tramping in Switzerland.

    And ultimately it seems that the Conservatives, have left May carrying the weight of the Iron Lady's dictum on her shoulders; a heavy legacy remaining despite the Lady's death in 2013.

  14. mosa 14
    25 May 2019 at 7:13 pm

    " A bitter future indeed "

  15. mosa 15
    25 May 2019 at 7:19 pm

    Boris Johnson is a shallow, narcissistic, womanising liar

    Boris and Donald will make a superb team should he get the keys to number 10

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/brian-reade-boris-johnson-shallow-16196976

  16. mosa 16
    25 May 2019 at 7:32 pm

    Oh god not Boris.

    • greywarshark 16.1
      25 May 2019 at 8:05 pm

      Now I feel sorry for May. By the time screwed up hackers and manipulators finish with you you won't know yourself and no-one else will either.

  17. Stuart Munro. 17
    26 May 2019 at 10:33 am

    The Tories are, as in NZ, irrelevant. They've been philosophically bankrupt for half a century. But Corbyn's opportunity to lead England hinges on the SNP, who rightly pivoted away from Blairism early. The Tories only hope is fratricidal competition between Labour and the SNP, which saved them last time, or the recrudescence of a Faragian deceit party. The former is likely, the latter, not so much.

    • mike 17.1
      26 May 2019 at 5:45 pm

      scotland is on a different path to england the first minster has already out lined the road ahead and it isnt part of the uk

  18. Obtrectator 18
    26 May 2019 at 11:23 am

    Another victim of the "glass cliff". (Anyone remember Kim Campbell in Canada, in 1993?) One doubts if any of the wannabees now savagely elbowing each other could have done any better.

    I hadn't realised TM had lost both parents comparatively early, or that she has so little in the way of family. Can't be good for the psyche. And don't forget she's diabetic. That can have an insidious effect too.

    All in all I think she can be allowed a wee show of vulnerability right at the end.

  22. Sabine 22
    27 May 2019 at 8:39 am

    England too will be made great again. One bullied migrant a time (never mind that they may be born englanders) and one hungry and homless one.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/edl-sikh-manchester-homeless-abuse-volunteers-feeding-english-defence-league-racist-a7787241.html?fbclid=IwAR2XOH97YuKgMYfh9XrxEZCcQwYv-Mmr7RuG0BXEbbLpf7EpFg90QRWxeHg

    the elite fucks up malevolently and intentionally to steer government funds away from he people to themselves and the mates that hire them and this shit is gonna happen eventually and then well, maybe this is the intended outcome.

  23. cleangreen 23
    27 May 2019 at 11:05 am

    Britain has always weathered the pressure from Europe through the middle ages to now.

    Britian has flourished when they produced the 'british empire' whom the sun never set apon, so we need to return to this 'Island nation' again 'dogedly independant' from the overpowering influence from France and Germany as 'self appionted master powers of the EU.'

    "There will always be an England"

  24. Gosman 24
    27 May 2019 at 11:24 am

    As predicted the Tories AND Labour have suffered appalling losses at this election. The Conservatives are likely 5th placed and Labour is a distant 3rd at this stage. Both parties have a lot of soul searching to do.

  25. Siobhan 25
    27 May 2019 at 12:36 pm

    Well.. all the MSM and centrist political bloggers who have pushed the narrative about how the Brits who voted 'leave' regret voting for Brexit…how we should have a second 'correct' referendum, how the voters 'didn't understand'…then UKIP slam dunk win the eu elections..Ha..looking forward to the 'spin'..

    • Gosman 25.1
      27 May 2019 at 12:41 pm

      Ummm…. UKIP lost badly. I think you mean the Brexit party.

      • Siobhan 25.1.1
        27 May 2019 at 1:16 pm

        oh heck and bother..after 25 years with him at the helm..I see Farage and my brain always says UKIP. But indeed you are right. Thats what I meant.

  26. Sanctuary 26
    27 May 2019 at 12:47 pm

    The logic of the first past the post means if in any electorate Labour's vote drops to 26%, the Tories get 25%, Brexit Party 25% and the Greens 24% Labour would still win the seat.

    In other words, if Labour and the Tories both lose votes, but the Tory vote collapses totally, then Labour will win in a landslide.

      • Sanctuary 26.1.1
        27 May 2019 at 1:20 pm

        On what turnout?

        Having said that, my take on the EU elections is that within an utterly polarised electorate hard line middle class remainers are now prepared to say "fuck you" to the poor and the NHS and everything else that needs fixing in the UK in their ever more hysterical tantrum at not getting their own way in the 2016 referendum. It is quite clear that the remain subset of the UK middle class is prepared to destroy everything – the UK Labour party, even UK democracy – in order to re-assert their poltical control of the political narrative and shore up their position as the dominant managerial enablers of the neoliberal economic order.