Theresa May is a keen collaborator, not an appeaser

A giddy prime minister visited both USA and Turkey last week on a mini tour of despots.

The Turkey visit was strictly business.  A deal was agreed that British military aircraft would be sold to the Turkish government.  A financial cost to both British and Turkish tax-payers, and a greater cost to Syrian and Kurdish people.  The beneficiaries, of course, are the recipients of the welfare system for the arms industry.  Theresa May had no qualms about being the vendor of military hardware to a government that has crushed free press and free speech, arrested thousands of teachers and other public sector workers and has detained opposition political leaders and activists.  She does not see such behaviour as problematic at all.

The earlier visit to the USA was not about any particular business deals.  The British government, casting itself adrift senselessly from its biggest trade partner – the EU, is not in an equal negotiating position with the USA.  Indeed, at the meeting, Trump and May’s respective assurances to each other would have been almost entirely in one direction: Trump and May assurances.  

The meeting with Trump was intended as a strong unequivocal gesture of support by the Tory government.  May wanted to assure the president that the party she leads is wholly in favour of his political stance and of his actions.  Last year’s Tory party conference was a succession of xenophobic speeches of senior ministers, including May, each attempting to whip up anti-foreigner anger and fear.  The only difference between those and a Trump speech is his lack of eloquence.  

Below are examples of recent actions by the Tory government of which far-right extremist Steve Bannon would be very proud

• An attempt to force business to create registers of their foreign workers
• Harassment of foreign workers at their workplaces by Border Agency
• Harassment based on racial and faith profiling and misrepresentation of the law by Border Agency in public places
• Illegal use of Schedule 7 of Terrorism Act at airports to harass activists, particularly those who have visited Palestine
• Proscription of pro-Kurdish political groups, including jailing of their members
• Financial contribution to walls alongside a road in France near to Channel Tunnel access to prevent refugees from travelling to Britain
• Forcing a national newspaper, (Guardian), to destroy computers on which data revealing illegal government activity was stored
• Instructing health workers to pass on patients’ details to non-health government agencies, including Border Agency and DWP
• Instructing schools to collect data on the ethnicity and national backgrounds of pupils and their parents without informing the parents that providing such data is optional
• Plentiful use of the Prevent system to harass young Muslims

Theresa May is not appeasing, she is agreeing

As a response to her visit to the USA, and following the executive order that Trump issued soon after to ban Muslims from entering the country, the prime minister has received a lot of deserved criticism.  However, it is interesting to note that most of the criticism from politicians and from the media has made a point of depicting May as someone who has “abandoned principles” or “appeased” Trump.  Said politicians and media hacks affected an air of disappointment with her as if they expected her to be opposed to the general thrust of Trump’s ideology.  Some chose to call her “complacent” or “pragmatic”, even “naive.”  Such descriptions, whether they are issued dishonestly or else in vain hope, allow May to be distanced slightly from Trump’s extremism; that is, they help her to pretend she isn’t as bad as he is.

It is true that May would have abandoned any humane principles to acquire a vague promise of a trade deal if she had any such principles, but there were none to abandon.  Her political vision is similar to Trump’s transposed to a different country with a different political system and different political opposition.  

It is not appeasement.  Theresa May and her party agree with Trump.  

May’s partnership with Trump is collaboration.

 

 

 

Trump and May: Summit January 2017

This week, UK prime minister Theresa May is visiting Donald Trump.  Prior to meeting both participants spouted the old garbage about the ‘special relationship.’  This relationship has always focussed on arms deals and enabling financial gangsters to dodge tax and, of course, the USA have always been in the stronger position in negotiations.  

At their meetings both leaders will get assurances as part of the ‘special relationship.’

Trump will get the following assurances from May

• Continued flow of British tax-payers’ money to support the US arms industry
• Unlimited flushing of British tax payers’ money down the toilet to pay for the useless Trident missile system
• Unrestricted avoidance of tax in UK for the US financial industry
• Removal of any obstacles for US media to acquire British media 
• Full support for US businesses to take control of British public services in health, education, security and transport, including assistance with tax avoidance
• Unequivocal UK support at UN and at NATO for all aggressive US military acts
• Full support for US government use of torture
• Full support for US government use of sanctions against other countries
• Full support for anti-Islam denial of visas to refugees
• No criticism of racist voter suppression in USA
• No criticism of restrictions on domestic and foreign media when operating in USA
• No criticism of the destruction of national parks and wildernesses in the USA
• No criticism of US government denial of the existence of man-made climate change
• No criticism of unconstitutional restriction and denial of access to abortion in USA
• Assistance with unconstitutional restriction and denial of access to abortion in other countries via the ‘global gag.’
• Assistance for all Trump’s ‘businesses’ in the UK including help with planning permission, tax avoidance, land acquisition, etc. 

In return May will receive the following assurances from Trump

• Trump will make some vague unreliable comments about future ‘trade deals’

Theresa May will then return to the UK with a false triumphant air and declare that Brexit will be great because there will be lots of deals with the USA.  The media will blame Jeremy Corbyn.

Trump: Summary

Donald Trump became the president of the U.S.A. today.

When a young man, Trump was given a million dollars, (a lot of money back then), by his father, a notorious racist slum landlord.  Trump wasn’t given any grounding in morality or ethical behaviour.  

Throughout his “business” life, Trump has accrued wealth via dodgy deals, refusal to pay bills, dodging billions of federal taxes and blatant fraud, the last most notably with the fake Trump “university.”  

International capitalist is intrinsically dishonest and it is also designed to be exhaustively exploitative.  Thus, Trump’s ingrained dishonesty and his abject lack of morals, ethics and self-analysis have meant he has been able to operate without restraint; the mechanics of the international capitalist system allowed him to operate as he has.  

Of course, financially, Trump has not been a success.  His business career is littered with bankruptcies, that he used as a tactic to dodge tax, and he has amassed billions of dollars of debt around the world.  His net worth is less than zero.  But that doesn’t matter to exploitative capitalists: Their debt is someone else’s problem.  

Trump is the personification of financial gangster capitalist exploitation: A stupid, selfish, unethical, immoral gangster.

Trump’s government

The single objective of Trump as president is to enhance the capabilities of financial gangsters to exploit the majority of the population.  He has appointed to senior government positions a mob of like-minded charlatans who have similar attitudes to honesty, fraud and exploitation as Trump.  He knows that none of his appointees will ever worry that their decisions are harmful, unconstitutional or fraudulent.   

As he and his gang destroy society and divert public money into the hands of crooks, Trump is aware enough to know he will need to both distract and appease his support base with extreme bigotry.  Anti-abortion, racist, anti-Islam, anti-Mexican and anti gay rhetoric and accompanying policy decisions will be used and will be very harmful.  Some of his appointees will revel in these enactments of bigotry and prejudice.

Trump is the embodiment of a system that is opposed to humanity and to progress.  Fellow exploiters, in USA and elsewhere, whatever they make think of Trump personally, have been falling over themselves to get to kiss his backside.  Let them expose themselves.  Let them show how rancid the system they support is.

 

EU departure: Tories are deluded and couldn’t care less

Yesterday Theresa May declared the Tories’ strategy for the process of leaving the EU.  The outline of this strategy, Plan for Britain, includes twelve ‘objectives’ listed below, followed by brief analysis of each.

1. Certainty: whenever we can, we will provide it. And we can confirm today that the Government will put the final deal that is agreed between the UK and EU to a vote in both Houses of Parliament.

The first sentence means the government has neither the knowledge nor the inclination to provide any certainty whatsoever.  Only the ‘final deal’ will be subject to a parliamentary vote.  Thus, however gormless that deal may be, MPs will be given only a binary choice on it.  Of course, there may never be a ‘final deal.’

2. Control of our own laws: we will bring an end to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in Britain. Because we will not have truly left the European Union if we are not in control of our own laws.

In the first sentence, “we” refers to the government.  In the second, does “we” refer to the government or to all British people?  Clearly, complete control of British law in the hands of the Tories is extremely worrying for justice and fairness.

3. Strengthen the Union: we must strengthen the precious Union between the four nations of the United Kingdom. We will work very carefully to ensure that – as powers are repatriated back to Britain – the right powers are returned to Westminster and the right powers are passed to the devolved administrations. We will make sure that no new barriers to living and doing business within our Union are created.

Leaving the EU and the future of the UK are two separate issues, but the Tories have chosen to conflate them.  This third objective is nothing to do with the EU, it is a pathetic attempt to pick a fight with the SNP. 

4. Maintain the Common Travel Area with Ireland: we will work to deliver a practical solution that allows the maintenance of the Common Travel Area with the Republic of Ireland, while protecting the integrity of the United Kingdom’s immigration system.

Does this mean border controls in Ireland or not?  Does the Tory plan for leaving the EU conflict with the Good Friday Agreement?  Will people from the Republic of Ireland be able to travel to Northern Ireland but not be able to work, live or attend school there?  “We will work to deliver” is a long-winded way of saying “we just haven’t got a clue what to do.”

5. Control of immigration: the message from the public before and during the referendum campaign was clear: Brexit must mean control of the number of people who come to Britain from Europe. We will continue to attract the brightest and the best to work or study in Britain but there must be control. 

No, that was not the clear message from the public.  That was the clear message of the government and its lackeys who wanted to shift blame from the consequences of government policy onto an arbitrary other – immigrants.  

6. Rights for EU nationals in Britain, and British nationals in the EU: we want to guarantee these rights as early as we can. We have told other EU leaders that we can offer EU nationals here this certainty, as long as this is reciprocated for British citizens in EU countries.

No-one is stopping the Tories from “guaranteeing these rights.”  

7. Protect workers’ rights: as we translate the body of European law into our domestic regulations, we will ensure that workers’ rights are fully protected and maintained.

LIARS!  The financial gangsters, for whom the Tories work, are rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of basic workers’ rights being removed following departure from the EU.

8. Free trade with European markets: as a priority we will pursue a bold and ambitious Free Trade Agreement with the European Union. This agreement should allow for the freest possible trade in goods and services between Britain and EU member states. It cannot though mean membership of the EU’s Single Market. That would mean complying with European Court of Justice rulings, free movement and other EU rules and regulations without having a vote on what those rules and regulations are. And because we will no longer be members of the Single Market, we will not be required to contribute huge sums to the EU budget. If we contribute to some specific EU programmes that we wish to participate in, it will be for us to decide. 

Welcome to the Twilight Zone.  The Mandarins at the EU and throughout European governments will be laughing their heads off at this garbled nonsense.  The Tories want their cake and want to eat it, and have someone else’s cake, and eat that too, and not pay for any of the cakes, or abide by health and safety regulations regarding the cakes’ preparation and storage.

9. New trade agreements with other countries: it is time for Britain to become a global trading nation, striking trade agreements around the world. Through the Common Commercial Policy and the Common External Tariff, full Customs Union membership prevents us from doing this – but we do want to have a customs agreement with the EU and have an open mind on how we achieve this end. 

The Tories are being economical with the truth when they claim EU regulations prevent global trade for the UK.  “We have an open mind on how we achieve this end” is another intervention from the ghost of Brian Connolly.  For the Tories, “global trading nation” translates as a tax-haven without workers’ rights, designed for the benefit of an elite gang of exploitative financial gangsters.

10. The best place for science and innovation: we will continue to collaborate with our European partners on major science, research and technology initiatives.

Will the “European partners” want to continue to do so?

11. Co-operation in the fight against crime and terrorism: we want our future relationship with the EU to include practical arrangements on matters of law enforcement and intelligence. 

Surely, any government would want such an arrangement with any other government?

12. A smooth, orderly Brexit: we want to have reached an agreement about our future partnership by the time the two year Article 50 process has concluded. From that point onwards, we expect a phased process of implementation. We will work to avoid a disruptive cliff-edge.

“We want to have reached,” “we expect” and “we will work to avoid” typify the Tories’ hand.  They have nothing.  While the others at the table have potential flushes, straights and fours of a kind, the Tories have an expired library card and Mr. Bun The Baker.

The twelve objectives listed above are a mixture of lies, vacuous Unwinesque nonsense and deliberate petulant provocation.  There is no plan for departure from the EU.  The Tories do not know how negotiations with the EU will proceed and they have no inkling whatsoever of the consequences.  

All the Tories do know is that, when Britain has left the EU, the gangrenous exploitative financial gangster scum are expecting a mighty windfall courtesy of Tories’ aggressive assault on workers’ rights, the denial of access to justice and a plethora of friendly tax-loopholes.  The Tories see Britain as a feeding ground for the gluttonous filth for whom the Tory party has always been the gimp.

Shared Society or Shafted Society

Prime minister Theresa May has thrown a pile of dead cats on the table.  Her marketing team has called it ‘Shared Society.’  The Tories’ Shared Society is, of course, nonsense.  The Tories don’t share anything.  Instead, they systematically channel tax-payers’ money into the grasping hands of offshore made-up businesses that barely pretend to manage schools, prisons, welfare, hospitals and transport.

Society – health, education, housing, pensions, public transport, etc. – is being destroyed, at an ever-increasing rate.  Basic human needs and rights are being erased.  For the paymasters of the Tory government, the public are either there to be fleeced or there to be used as an opportunity to fleece others.

For the Tories,

• A child’s education is an opportunity for public money to be handed to incompetent fraudsters masquerading as academies
• An ill or injured person is an opportunity for public money to be handed to catastrophically inept private healthcare services
• An old person in need of assistance is an opportunity for public money to be handed to unqualified, uncaring private companies
• An unemployed person is an opportunity for public money to be handed to vicious invented businesses that are bonus-enabled to inflict misery and hardship
• A disabled person is an opportunity for public money to be handed to various corrupt agencies who have nether the will nor the ability to provide the assistance needed

None of the above saves any public money at all; ensuing costs for the tax-payer are higher.  None provides a better service; all the public services decline in quality rapidly, often leading to destitution and death.

Other Tory policies that attack society include

• Deliberate cuts to benefits to force people to move out of social housing so that it can be handed to rip-off property developers
• Relentless attacks on workers’ rights in order to enable systematic exploitation
• Deliberate reduction and removal of access to justice in order to deny legal challenge; for example, denial of access to legal aid and higher costs for industrial tribunals
• Introduction of ID requirements to be able to vote

Shared Society
Yesterday Theresa May published a statement that presented her Shared Society vision.

Share?

Therein she lists some problems that people are facing.  Almost all of said problems are direct consequences of Tory policy and ideology but May talks as if they appeared magically and she suggests that “we” should attempt to solve them.  It is analogous to a thug punching someone in the face repeatedly while asking the victim how the pain from the punches can be alleviated.  

Below are a few examples of scenarios that May claims she wants to address that are direct consequences of Tory policy but she pretends they have happened randomly.

May: “It is vital that we tackle the shorter life expectancy for those born poor.”
FACT: The Tories are deliberately destroying healthcare access for those with least income.

May: “It is vital that we tackle the lower chances of white working-class boys going to university.”
FACT: The Tories have removed financial support for ‘A’-level studies and have raised cost of university education. (Also, why does she emphasise “white” and “boys?”)

May: “It is vital that we tackle the despicable stigma and inadequate help for those with mental health conditions.”
FACT: The Tories have made many people with mental health issues homeless and destitute via vicious benefit sanctions.

May: “You just about manage but worry about the cost of living and getting your children into a good school; you put in long hours – working to live and living to work – but your wages have stagnated and there is little left over at the end of the month.”
FACT: The Tories constantly attack trades’ unions who try to improve workers’ wages and conditions.

May: “Tackling the increasing lack of affordability in housing.”
FACT: The Tories have removed people from social housing and given the houses to property developers who do not provide any affordable housing.

The overriding theme is that Theresa May is lying when she claims the Tory government intends to tackle injustices and inequality.  The Shared Society statement is just a succession of sound bites that she, her MPs and their friends in the media can spout as non sequiturs in speeches and interviews.  It has no meaning and no positive intent.

A pointer to the impending uselessness of this Shared Society declaration is the fact that May congratulates her party on its achievement in “social reform” and in “social mobility:” 

“We will move beyond the narrow focus on social justice – where we help the very poorest – and social mobility – where we help the brightest among the poor.“

The reality is that the “social reform,” developed by the disgusting Centre For Social Justice, has caused homelessness, destitution and death, and “social mobility” has been severely restricted due to lack of financial support for ‘A’-level studies and the very high costs of university courses.  If those are successes for May then, clearly, her hopes for Shared Society are entirely fraudulent.

The Tories’ do have some plans

“We will engage in a more wide-ranging process of social reform so that those who feel that the system is stacked against them – those just above the threshold that typically attracts the government’s focus today yet who are by no means rich or well off – are also given the support they need.“

The above quote is an alarm that further horrendous assaults on absolutely necessary welfare support are planned while the Tories try to drive a wedge between the worse off and those “just above the threshold.”

There is some interesting use of language within the Shared Society statement.  May expresses concern for the plight of “ordinary working class families.”  In what sense does she mean “ordinary?”  Has she just borrowed the phrase from Breitbart?  The words “citizenship” or “citizen” appear three times.  Does she mean “citizenship” as a positive description of someone with social responsibility or does she mean it in the legal sense with respect to nationality?  The statement was written carefully by May and her team of professional PR people; they would not have included the words “ordinary” and “citizenship” without definite intent.

Shafted Society
Everything the Tories do is a scam to provide for a small minority, who sit bloated and idle in their tax havens.  The Tory society is the antithesis of a shared society.  It is a shafted society.

Shaft?

Theresa May has no intention of changing what has always been the ethos of the Conservative Party.  The Shared Society proposal is simultaneously hollow and full of lies.