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Government Watch - 2

(967 Posts)
whitewave Wed 26-Jul-17 13:27:27

Very much needed.

First happy thing to report.

Unison have won their case making it illegal to charge employees for employment litigation. Introduced by the Tories in 2013.

The judges quite rightly said it was wrong to make it difficult/impossible for anyone to resort to law.

Those who paid will be reimbursed.

whitewave Thu 05-Oct-17 09:08:49

gg I watched the entire excruciating thing.

Well from memory

Fuel price cap
Student fee freeze
Small amount of money for housing
I can’t think of anything else.

The rest of the speech was taken up with “haven’t we done well” and a-hem cough!cough!

That’s what I am saying -this was supposed to be the big relaunch and if you take away the car crash bit there was nothing but meaningless sound bites, Maybot trying but failing to sound human and stuff filched from Labour
It was dreadful.

GracesGranMK2 Thu 05-Oct-17 09:08:48

Organ donation to be assumed - I missed that out.

GracesGranMK2 Thu 05-Oct-17 09:02:41

So was there more in the speech than £2 billion for social rented housing and an energy cap?

whitewave Thu 05-Oct-17 08:49:48

To be perfectly truthful I think that Maybot is an irrelevance, she remains where she is because of the Tories fear of another election, there is also a dearth if anyone suitable to (a) take her place and (b) to unite a party which is more divided that it has ever been in its entire history, and that is really saying something.
One of other her biggest problems -amongst a few-is indicative in her nickname - she has no emotional intelligence, and it is clear that try as she might never will have.

I think that she appears a decent woman, with a stable and happy marriage but our country needs more than what you would find in the average high street, we need a leader with vision and qualities that May so sadly lacks.

GracesGranMK2 Thu 05-Oct-17 08:48:28

Back to May's speech.

It is difficult to know at this point what effect it will have on the Conservative Party and its future but the pundits are reporting this morning that, although their seems to be no leadership challenge emerging there is a movement within the party to get the men in grey suits to ask her to consider resigning.

I felt the speech was of real importance in one way if she continues but what will the Conservatives take forward if she goes?

Just to take out the rhetoric (do we actually have a British dream?) and find the bones in the speech it seems she has offered £2 billion to build houses for 'social rent', i.e., council houses. It does not seem she is allowing councils to borrow in order to build.

She also offered a cap on how energy pricing works which creates (as I understand it) a link between the 'offer' price to 'new' customers (who are not new but moving) and the price those who stay with a company.

Did anyone pick up on anything else?

durhamjen Thu 05-Oct-17 08:42:00

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-04/may-flunked-leadership-test-as-rivals-emerge-battle-scarred-too

durhamjen Thu 05-Oct-17 08:40:30

336 words on Brexit in that speech. It's as if she's scared to mention it in front of her cabinet.

loopyloo Thu 05-Oct-17 08:31:31

DB and Annie, I too had thought about the rise of that dictator . The vicious oppression and suppression of any disagreement together with the encouragement of adoration of the personality involved. I had often wondered how he rose to power in a civilised society. Also he improved some things, giving some hope after years of austerity. Be warned.

lemongrove Thu 05-Oct-17 08:21:32

Well,I would hope so whitewave otherwise it just becomes an echo chamber.?

whitewave Thu 05-Oct-17 08:19:38

Always room for the alternative view on GN grin

lemongrove Thu 05-Oct-17 08:14:18

Several things here, one, anybody can have a coughing fit when talking, probably results from too many speeches in too short a time, she could have cut short the speech but decided not to.The ‘comedian’ handing a P45 hardly bothered her at all, and I thought he was walked out of the hall in a considerate way ( not dragged out) although I do remember a disabled heckler being dragged out of a Labour Conference a few years ago, and he was a Labour voter!
I wouldn't have called the prankster in this case ‘ a lad’ either, unless he is really 17 and just looks 40.
The speech itself wasn’t going to impress the electorate, but wasn’t meant to, it was aimed at the Conference, May said that she was sorry about the awful election campaign and listed why she was in politics and what she would like to do.
The election is years away, so plenty of time for fireworks in speeches.
It’s up to the Conservative Party if she stays or not, but going on yesterday I think she will stay for a while at least.
Boris Johnson is a liability though, and always has been, but probably a good idea to keep an eye on him within the Cabinet.

whitewave Thu 05-Oct-17 07:45:09

Ignoring the car crash, if you pick over the bones of the speech, there was nothing in the content that was likely to ignite the voters that she was trying to begin to reach.

So really the fact that it was a disaster made no difference to her failure to connect with the voter.

suzied Thu 05-Oct-17 06:26:54

Nuremberg rallies weren't mass hysteria. They were huge well orchestrated and rehearsed propaganda with uniformed show of military strength pledging allegiance to the party and its leader. A bunch of students/ activists singing hardly comparable , more like a happy football crowd. What about the Tory faithful giving Teresa May a standing ovation for drinking a glass of water? What could we compare that to?

Anniebach Thu 05-Oct-17 05:22:05

I did not compare Corbyn with Hitler, I did compare the mass hysteria of the rallies.

Similar to the Trump hysteria

suzied Thu 05-Oct-17 01:49:19

I want one of those Frieda Kalho bracelets ( well known Mexican communist) that May was wearing. I bet they will be a sellout.

suzied Thu 05-Oct-17 01:46:00

I would think most people felt a bit sorry for May in her cringeworthy speech. Her claiming that free market capitalism was the only system that worked, but then oops! The housing market isn't working, ditto the energy market. We value nurses so they don't need a pay rise etc. I kept expecting to hear the Benny Hill theme tune. The writing is on the wall for May- but the writing is falling off! It would be hilarious if it wasn't the country that is going down the pan.

GracesGranMK2 Wed 04-Oct-17 23:46:42

Apparently he was released without charge "after it emerged he had legitimate accreditation for the conference" Jen.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/lee-nelson-p45-theresa-may-13716274

durhamjen Wed 04-Oct-17 23:37:36

Does anyone know what crime the lad who handed her the P45 committed? He was arrested and driven away in a police van.

durhamjen Wed 04-Oct-17 23:27:09

Perhaps May was coughing all the time at the thought that she was repeating so much of Miliband's speech.
Even the British dream came from him as well as the energy price caps.
Corbyn's housing policy was borrowed, without giving him any kudos for it.

GracesGranMK2 Wed 04-Oct-17 23:24:33

I think the words 'don't feed' come to mind

maryeliza54 Wed 04-Oct-17 23:21:02

The Holocaust was NOT denied at the Labour fringe meeting. And I am not easily shocked, but am by the comparison you made - you were at the Nuremberg rallies I assume and the Labour Conference? I take the evils of Nazism ( and its resurgence) very seriously indeed - as would anyone with any sense and understanding of it.

dbDB77 Wed 04-Oct-17 23:14:44

Maryeliza54 - I don't dislike JC - I commented on his speech and the reaction to it - the constant chanting & cheering (no matter what he said) & fists in the air - it reminded me of those Nuremberg rallies - and if you're shocked by my comment then I think you must be easily shocked.
I was shocked that at the Labour Party conference fringe they decided it's OK to deny the holocaust.

durhamjen Wed 04-Oct-17 23:12:40

I agree, maryeliza.

maryeliza54 Wed 04-Oct-17 23:08:38

No I didn't watch it dj but you could imagine that people with family connections to this period of history ( and I know quite a few) would find it utterly sickening and vile the comparisons made on this thread between Nazism and Corbyn.

durhamjen Wed 04-Oct-17 23:00:59

Maryeliza, did you watch Who do You Think You Are tonight, with Ruby Wax?
She never knew anything about her family, even her parents escaping from Austria. Her mother never told her she was still in Vienna at Kristallnacht.