Maybe May is a Martyr

What if Theresa Chose this path all along?


There was much whispering in the Christmas break at the end of last year, before Article 50 was triggered in March, that the UK Prime Minister told close colleagues and advisors that she didn’t mind looking silly and stupid in the short term when under pressure to release titbits of her Government’s position papers for Brexit. She was, allegedly, sure of where she was and her plan was to release on a need to know. She could take the slagging today for a brighter tomorrow?


Today, does May contribute to be that martyr for the European cause?


‘Hard’ Brexit was inevitable. A ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’ rhetoric was writ large across the UK’s communications.


Now, post election, a weaker position appears to be emerging.


Three months ago, the British prime minister triggered a snap general election to increase her slender majority in parliament. She said that this was necessary in order to be able to negotiate Brexit from a stronger, more resolute position. Instead, today, May stands weaker; her Conservative party lost seats and she now leads a minority government propped up by the ten members of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party.


This weakened position has ‘forced’ her away from the ‘have cake and eat it’ ideal of a ‘hard’ exit of the EU’s single market and customs union, control over how EU citizens are allowed to settle in, freedom from the judgements of the European Court of Justice yet also securing a “bold and ambitious free trade agreement with the European Union”. The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, wouldn’t have tolerated that anyway.


It has also removed the ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’ proposal as the catastrophic prospect of being excluded from access to good, services, personal health programmes and even an ability to fly from the UK to ANY European country (EU Open Skies Programme).


It has, instead, placed a nod towards going so ‘soft’ with the Brexit that the votes in the parliament are there that would carry a proposal to abandon It all and stay in the EU after all. This has been talked up by many MPs privately, and by a few publicly. Sir Vince Cable, almost certain to be the new leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, is one of them. Now, former prime minister Tony Blair has also weighed in.


It wont happen. It can’t it wont receive the universal support of the Parliament that the Prime Minister needs.


What is now likely, as Round 2 of Brexit talks conclude in stalemate of the final amount that the UK will need to give to the EU to settle the ledger upon leaving, is a third option; that the UK leaves the EU with none of the difficult issues resolved, and the two sides agree to keep the current day-to-day arrangements in place for a transitional period. Maybe three years. Possibly as high as five years.


As a result, the UK can abide by the rules of the single market, programmes such as Open Skies, and so on, pending a future final agreement on these issues. This would require the UK to maintain free movement with the rest of the EU and to keep paying into the EU budget.


The Leave Conservative MPs won’t like this and could defy the whip and vote against it. But the ‘Remainers’ will be satisfied. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, the Labour Party could likely either or abstain, because it would mean that for the transitional period, the UK’s relationship with the EU would be almost exactly what Labour proposed for the long term in its recent election manifesto.


So the Prime Minister who ‘doesn’t mind looking funny’ could actually be a martyr for the cause that keeps Britain on the remain side (her original side) of a Brexit and push the short term decisions into the never never — the desire of every modern day politician.

Magdalene

Long ago, before the bank guarantee scheme; and prior to the austere atonement for our fiscal incontenance, we were bankrupt. Ireland was a state devoid of humanity, of goodwill and of 

If there is one part of being Irish that I am 'shameful' for, it is the Irish catholic ethos that, through osmosis became imbedded in the fabric of Irish society; beneath the shadows cast by the stately house on the hill and the bricks of the steeple festered an acceptance that cruelty and lack of forgiveness for those in front of them was the way to please a concept alive in the thoughts and words of a concept. Gods Geatappo marched us through unspeakable acts of cruelty and to this day lack the ability to make an act of contrition that practices what has long been preached from their own literature.

And just as today where the Irish people are finding it difficult to forgive our financial forebarers, we must seek to ask how we can even begin to do so in our clerical community. The example led by Philomena Lee, whose story is portrayed in a recent film baring her name, is a cherished and deeply needed demonstration of faith and spiritualism over religion...of feeling more than rhetoric....being rather than a staged act.

The magdalen laundries are but one aspect where the Irish Catholic Church has purged a proud nation of its dignities. Their male counterparts in the vestries and classrooms of the institution too knocked us to the point where there is no act in this world that ireland are able to cast a stone at. Not yet. Redress is by no means flowing. The notion is still pursing the lips of many a lip. And while, like their monetary brethren, the thoughts and deeds enforced on the youth of a growing nation are not those of the entirety, there are many that are complicit in the knowledge and as guilty as sin for not standing tall. 

I look to the Philomenas of this world, and there are many, and I find solice in their dignity, in their moral compass and in their comfort of not seeking onto others. In return, we must stand by them and not cloak or nurse the sickly cancer riddled through its core. 

The story told in Martin Sexsmiths book, it's subsequent retelling on the silver screen and in the hundreds and hundreds of stories of abuse on every scale act as a necessary nose-rubbing. We may search for forgiveness but we should never forget. 

   

Jacques Lowe and the Camelot Collection

Jazqyws Lowe's favourite image of his collection on JFK, taken on the campaign trail. All original negatives were kept in a safe in the World Trade Center, and were lost on 9/11. All images are now scans from images

THE LONDON EYE - Weather

London's eye is trying desperately to avoid frostbite. Temperatures have been chilly. More than that, they have been below freezing. Temperatures are breaking all form of current records, negatively. 

This has brought with it, the depression of Gardeners, the frustration of fashionistas who have invested in springtime trends and started to cycle their closet towards less bulk and more flimsy

It has brought with it the naysayers the 'I told you so's' in the climate debate. 

However, the London eye is developing an itch. Is it climate change or is is a meteorological state. Much has been made of the 'chink' in the Gulf Stream, the misalignment that is so severely hampering what have been normal temperatures. weather patterns and,  dare I say it, warmth. Indeed, it is not for one minute believed that it is the placing of a certain rose tint over London's eye that makes its recollections of short sleeved Sundays in march, or sunglasses and heat in Easter. In fact, grass pollen has definitely irritated this eye in the first cut as early as late February in previous years when the pleasant view of crocus bud and the yellow glow of daffodils are gazed upon. 

No, there has been a change alright. This  is climate change - but how permanent or cyclical  is it?

This eye has read many a more learned article on the issue. In fact, so much has been viewed, that the eye almost waters when this issue is dragged out in the media and amongst the dinner tables of soho and the caffes of  Camden. 

THE LONDON EYE- Squeezed middle

The London eye this week is very much trained on austerity. The 1st April bares the brunt of many a new taxation revision that sees, among others, benefit freezes and caps, below inflation tax free allowance,...., cue 'fools day' all iterations in the press!

However, there is also increasing speculation about the suitability about the chancellor, George Osborne - is he the right man for the job? Can he medicate the economy correctly? Has he lost a great inability to understand the plight of the middle class (Sunday telegraphs lead article with an anonymous Tory source. It is the latter that makes the London eye's retina burn. As, while one cornea is focused on London, the other lid is turning and can observe the vista of its nearest neoghbours the Irish, whose reportage could almost amount to a tragic-comedy for 'The Squeezed Middle'. In Europe, there seems to be a believe that it is the middle that is most adversely effected as the lower paid are hit but still buffered while the highest paid are not willing to be lassoed (which too brings a debate in itself about how much you can tax wealth without the wealthy relocating or reconstructing its piles and piles (and vaults!) of hoarded banknotes. London's eye will no doubt cast itself on that issue as Europe and London continue to clash on the issue of bonuses. But right now, it's crossed eyes are askew enough for now, so lets return to 'the middle'.

Is nothing sacred

'All That Fall' is currently enjoying a short run in London's Arts Theatre in the heart of Theatreland. It previously debuted to critical acclaim; another slight of hand of the respected Trevor Nunn.

Although Samuel Beckett's tale of a couple in advanced years, forces to reflect on past pain, and pastiche of Irish rural life circa 1950's is a worthy and gripping one. So too is the story that eventually saw it on stage over 60 years after its first outing on radio.

It is bragged in the production programme that not even Ingrid Bergman or Laurence Olivier could convince the Beckett estate to licence it - such was their determination to retain its nascent purpose, as a radio play. Nunn admits himself that he received several rejections. When Beckett holds such currency, to retain such maintenance of its form and refusal to dilute for anything or anyone is admirable.

The story is a reminder of the value in keeping true to oneself. The production that makes it to the boards is essentially that radio play. There are sound effects played in, minimal physical acting other than what may naturally occur in a recording studio and the actors hold scripts and annunciate with consideration for 1950's style stereo mics that hang from the 'ceiling'; always under the glow of a red 'on-air' light that illuminates at the start of the 75 minute performance.

There are no intervals or devices just strong vocal acting and intense facial expressions. But averting your eyes from the stage intensifies the language, punctuates further the humour and accentuates the ever-changing tone. Some things are best being what they always were. Although remaining true to it, the contamination of the stage does undermine it. The acting is amazing but like the revelation of the appearance of a once disparate radio voice, the visualization is somewhat disappointing.

The Mob Mentality Rules Again, OK?

Watching the clear-up of the debris and the verbal exchanges at press conferences this morning (Sunday 7th August) following Saturday's disturbances in the NorthEast London suburb of Tottenham, one is reminded of how mob rules and news agendas falter once again.

It was only when crowds took to the streets, a bus was torched and a shop was reduced to a crumbling wreck were the news cameras there to witness. There was no story in the alleged police shooting of an individual in the area two days previous; no comments were passed or column inches sullied with the accusations or reasons behind the death of the 29 year old Mark Duggan. This was hushed over until the visual, vocal and violent protests of a discontented crowd were displayed on plasmas and echoed for many miles around.

This is not to insinuate or to question the actions surrounding the events, but the sudden attention given to Tottenham demonstrates that the mob mentality rules if views are to air. There is yet to be any analysis behind the motivations for Saturday's actions in Tottenham.  Light must be shed and this can and never will come from the work of an arsonist. All reason has failed when eyes turn to such actions.

However, what on the outside appears as a legitimate news line, the alleged shooting of an individual in Tottenham by the Metropolitan Police, was not followed until the retaliation was so large that one could not ignore it. Seeking justice cannot condone the actions of those involved but neither can the refusal so far to understand what brought them to these actions.

If the Nick Davies' 'Flat Earth News theory is to be pursued further, Why was the shooting not reported when it occurred? Was it lower on the news agenda that day? Was there a press release that was missed? Or was the filing of a press release missed?  Where were the balanced reporters objectively following events without the requirement of a statement?

Perhaps there is no conspiracy here? Arguably there was motivation and justification for the initial trigger, particularly when borne in mind the contention that the officer was shooting in retaliation to a bullet fired from Duggan's handgun. Perhaps the accusations are initially inaccurate and without clarification, an unknown story is a non-story (a motto that should be followed in more minor stories of tabloid tittle-tattle) But either way questions should not just be asked but answered if we are to see an end to the shortcut route to headline grabbing, the unproductive and unsocial mob mentality dragging disorder and society to its most crude and Neanderthal depths.