Wednesday, October 04, 2023
Politics on the edge
Where do we start with the ongoing car crash that is the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester?
Do we highlight the endless lies and distortions they are putting out about 15 minute cities, Labour's meat tax and councils forcing people to have seven bins, or should we look to signs of a more fundamental shift to right wing authoritarianism with gay bashing and the racist rhetoric that would have made Enoch Powell blush, and by the daughter of immigrants at that?
For me the most disturbing aspect so far is the way that the Tories are starting to mirror Trump and his hard right shock troops in the US Republican party, appealing to the sort of macho nationalism that mirrors the National Socialist Party's rise to power in Germany in the early 1930s. The Mirror has two examples.
The paper reports that a senior London Tory has been thrown out of Suella Braverman's Tory Conference speech after accusing the Home Secretary of launching a "homophobic rant".
.
They say that Braverman was interrupted 20 minutes into her diatribe by London Assembly member Andrew Boff. He branded her speech a "homophobic rant" and accused Ms Braverman of making the Tories seem "transphobic and homophobic":
Mr Boff, who has been a Tory for over 50 years, reacted to a segment of Ms Braverman's address in which she claimed the UK "would go properly woke" under Keir Starmer. She ranted: "Highly controversial ideas are presented to workforces and the public as if they are motherhood and apple pie.
"Gender ideology. White privilege. Anti-British history."
Mr Boff - who described himself as a "loyal Tory" - told reporters that Ms Braverman had been speaking "trash". He said: "It's making our Conservative Party look transphobic and homophobic. This isn't what our Conservative Party is all about."
He was removed from the conference centre, but Ms Braverman later said: "Andrew Boff’s heckles were silly but I think he should be forgiven and let back into conference." The Home Secretary appeared unphased by the heckling and lapped up applause as she warned "millions" of migrants could be heading to the UK. She also claimed that London mayoral candidate Susan Hall - who sparked a backlash by claiming the capital's Jewish community is fearful of Sadiq Khan - was victim of a "character assassination".
And then there is the Tory cabinet minister who boasted she'd blocked tighter restrictions on shotgun ownership in the aftermath of a mass shooting.
The paper says that Environment Secretary Therese Coffey told a fringe meeting at Tory Party conference there'd been 'a potential reaction that would have made it much harder for you to have shotguns' She went on to say that she stopped that:
In August 2021, 22-year-old Jake Davison from Plymouth, shot and killed five people, including his mother, and injured two others before fatally shooting himself. The Government launched a consultation into tightening up gun licensing laws in the wake of the shooting.
But in June the Government announced changes would not go ahead because "the vast majority of licensed firearms holders are law abiding and cause no concern." And Policing minister Chris Philp said "additional controls on shotguns are unnecessary and would have a negative impact on their legitimate use.”
The Plymouth Herald reported local MP Luke Pollard had demanded an apology from Ms Coffey, who made the remarks - first reported by the Guardian - at a conference lunch sponsored by the British Association of Shooting and Conservation (BASC).
He said: “I am stunned and disappointed that the former Deputy Prime Minister would boast about obstructing gun law reform after the Plymouth tragedy. We have long suspected that there were Conservative Ministers siding with the shooting lobby behind closed doors to prevent change. Now we know who. Therese Coffey must apologise to the victims' families and to Plymouth, both for her remarks today and for her actions to sink reform."
Earlier this year, following an intense five-week inquest into the shootings, Plymouth's senior coroner Ian Arrow laid down a series of recommendations in his Prevention of Future Deaths report. He warned that there was "a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken" adding that he had concerns - voiced by a number of witnesses at the inquest, including senior police officers - that the Firearms Act of 1968 "requires root and branch reform" to achieve this.
The real worry is not that so-called mainstream politicians said any of these things, but that their views are becoming mainstream within the government.
For me the most disturbing aspect so far is the way that the Tories are starting to mirror Trump and his hard right shock troops in the US Republican party, appealing to the sort of macho nationalism that mirrors the National Socialist Party's rise to power in Germany in the early 1930s. The Mirror has two examples.
The paper reports that a senior London Tory has been thrown out of Suella Braverman's Tory Conference speech after accusing the Home Secretary of launching a "homophobic rant".
.
They say that Braverman was interrupted 20 minutes into her diatribe by London Assembly member Andrew Boff. He branded her speech a "homophobic rant" and accused Ms Braverman of making the Tories seem "transphobic and homophobic":
Mr Boff, who has been a Tory for over 50 years, reacted to a segment of Ms Braverman's address in which she claimed the UK "would go properly woke" under Keir Starmer. She ranted: "Highly controversial ideas are presented to workforces and the public as if they are motherhood and apple pie.
"Gender ideology. White privilege. Anti-British history."
Mr Boff - who described himself as a "loyal Tory" - told reporters that Ms Braverman had been speaking "trash". He said: "It's making our Conservative Party look transphobic and homophobic. This isn't what our Conservative Party is all about."
He was removed from the conference centre, but Ms Braverman later said: "Andrew Boff’s heckles were silly but I think he should be forgiven and let back into conference." The Home Secretary appeared unphased by the heckling and lapped up applause as she warned "millions" of migrants could be heading to the UK. She also claimed that London mayoral candidate Susan Hall - who sparked a backlash by claiming the capital's Jewish community is fearful of Sadiq Khan - was victim of a "character assassination".
And then there is the Tory cabinet minister who boasted she'd blocked tighter restrictions on shotgun ownership in the aftermath of a mass shooting.
The paper says that Environment Secretary Therese Coffey told a fringe meeting at Tory Party conference there'd been 'a potential reaction that would have made it much harder for you to have shotguns' She went on to say that she stopped that:
In August 2021, 22-year-old Jake Davison from Plymouth, shot and killed five people, including his mother, and injured two others before fatally shooting himself. The Government launched a consultation into tightening up gun licensing laws in the wake of the shooting.
But in June the Government announced changes would not go ahead because "the vast majority of licensed firearms holders are law abiding and cause no concern." And Policing minister Chris Philp said "additional controls on shotguns are unnecessary and would have a negative impact on their legitimate use.”
The Plymouth Herald reported local MP Luke Pollard had demanded an apology from Ms Coffey, who made the remarks - first reported by the Guardian - at a conference lunch sponsored by the British Association of Shooting and Conservation (BASC).
He said: “I am stunned and disappointed that the former Deputy Prime Minister would boast about obstructing gun law reform after the Plymouth tragedy. We have long suspected that there were Conservative Ministers siding with the shooting lobby behind closed doors to prevent change. Now we know who. Therese Coffey must apologise to the victims' families and to Plymouth, both for her remarks today and for her actions to sink reform."
Earlier this year, following an intense five-week inquest into the shootings, Plymouth's senior coroner Ian Arrow laid down a series of recommendations in his Prevention of Future Deaths report. He warned that there was "a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken" adding that he had concerns - voiced by a number of witnesses at the inquest, including senior police officers - that the Firearms Act of 1968 "requires root and branch reform" to achieve this.
The real worry is not that so-called mainstream politicians said any of these things, but that their views are becoming mainstream within the government.
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