Mrs May strikes again!

[Guest]

The portfolio of Home Secretary is sometimes seen as a career-ender. Many are chosen but few go on to better things.

This week we were told that current Home Secretary Mrs Theresa May gave a barn-storming speech to the Tory faithful, warning would-be and real terrorists of what awaited them in Blighty.

This is the same Home Secretary whose efforts to send radical preacher Abu Qatada back to Jordan to await trial on plotting terrorism failed so often on technicic al grounds to do with the Human Rights Act. Eventually extradition was achieved and The Daily Mail & one or two members here stood around cheering Mrs May to the echo.

Sad to relate then that last week Abu Qatada was acquitted for lack of evidence.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/abu-qatada-to-walk-free-after-being-cleared-of-terrorism-plot-charges-by-jordan-court-9752346.html

Oh dear!

And then today Moazzam Begg, after years in Guatanamo Bay without charges being brought and then in Belmarsh prison awaiting trial on terrorism charges, has been set free

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29442623

Speaking from outside prison after his release, he said: "Not once but twice in my case this government has been involved either in directly detaining me or indirectly detaining me and on both occasions it's been unlawful."

Mr Begg also said handling of his case "shows a knee jerk reaction", adding: "It shows little has changed since the beginning of the early days in the war on terror. There isn't an appetite, there isn't a desire to try to really understand what's taking place."

Meanwhile on The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4 last eveving Caroline Wyatt and a colleague rattled on about Mrs May's reputatuioon for having "a safe pair of hands", and speculated on this speech being part of her bid for the leadership of the Tory Party.

If this is the work of a safe pair of hands, lord help us if a butterfingers gets the job anytime soon.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29442623

[Serial_Apologist]

Interesting though, if not altogether inexplicable, that it is a member of the trash tabloids-supporting Tory Right, David Davis, leading opposition to Ms May for infringing human rights, freedom of speech etc.

[amateur51]

Interesting though, if not altogether inexplicable, that it is a member of the trash tabloids-supporting Tory Right, David Davis, leading opposition to Ms May for infringing human rights, freedom of speech etc.

Davis has been on this trail for quite a while. Perhaps the word for it is 'maverick'. To think he might have been Tory leader had not Cameron memorised his speech and delivered it 'on the wing'!

[MrGongGong]

'on the wing'!

On the snout more like

I love this image

http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/2014-09/30/15/enhanced/webdr09/enhanced-buzz-wide-20110-1412105435-29.jpg

"Let's invade Poland" ?

A Bitter Future indeed

[Serial_Apologist]

Davis has been on this trail for quite a while. Perhaps the word for it is 'maverick'. To think he might have been Tory leader had not Cameron memorised his speech and delivered it 'on the wing'!

I'm figuring that DD supports free speech in this context because it reads across to the right-wing tabloids whose right to spout venom could maybe get caught in Theresa May's net when it comes to matters of blocking extremist propaganda. Perhaps I'm being a bit over-dramatic.

[ardcarp]

I am always amused by the way politicians in the ascendant are 'groomed' in the arts of public oratory. Do the same people work for both parties? It isn't just the hand-gestures and the slow, rhetorical delivery, but voice production too. Does anyone remember how Mrs May's voice used to fly up like the breaking voice of an adolescent boy? Now it is firmly anchored in the tenor register, giving it the gravitas appropriate to high office. I think they've had a go at Mr Milliband's too, in his case to make it more open and less adenoidal...though maybe with limited success?

[P. G. Tipps]

I am always amused by the way politicians in the ascendant are 'groomed' in the arts of public oratory. Do the same people work for both parties? It isn't just the hand-gestures and the slow, rhetorical delivery, but voice production too. Does anyone remember how Mrs May's voice used to fly up like the breaking voice of an adolescent boy? Now it is firmly anchored in the tenor register, giving it the gravitas appropriate to high office. I think they've had a go at Mr Milliband's too, in his case to make it more open and less adenoidal...though maybe with limited success?

That's a most interesting point. I feel sure you are correct. Those old enough (if only just!) will remember Harold Wilson developing a speaking style which ended up sounding suspiciously like that of Winston Churchill!

I also remember the strange case of John Hutton a minister in Tony Blair's cabinet. Not only did his voice end up like his leader's but his bodily movements appeared to as well. He even suddenly developed Blair's "two forefingers raised" hand gesture whilst making a point ... I assume this was meant to signify some sort of loyalty and devotion to the Dear Leader?

Political speeches these days certainly sound more 'wooden' and boringly similar and 'on message'. If I hear the phrases 'hard-working people' and 'our long-term economic plan' yet again from a Tory politician I might well throw my beloved tea-mug at the TV screen.

Even if politically unsympathetic, one maybe does yearn for the good old days of Labour Party Conferences when individuality (and even chaos) on the platform reigned, yet the total lack of outside control and the genuineness of the speakers were always apparent and never in any doubt.

[visualnickmos]

. . . If I hear the phrases 'hard-working people' and 'our long-term economic plan' yet again from a Tory politician I might well throw my beloved tea-mug at the TV screen.

Even if politically unsympathetic, one maybe does yearn for the good old days of Labour Party Conferences when individuality (and even chaos) on the platform reigned, yet the total lack of outside control and the genuineness of the speakers were always apparent and never in any doubt.

I'm on my 7th mug of the coalition, already!

. . . and

I remember seeing some of those on TV as a youngish teenager, and I have to say was mightily impressed with the total "off the cuffness" of it all. It certainly did have an unquestionable feeling of genuineness about it, compared to the crusty staleness and robotic speeches of the tory conferences. Good days, they were....

[amateur51]

I'm on my 7th mug of the coalition, already!

. . . and

I remember seeing some of those on TV as a youngish teenager, and I have to say was mightily impressed with the total "off the cuffness" of it all. It certainly did have an unquestionable feeling of genuineness about it, compared to the crusty staleness and robotic speeches of the tory conferences. Good days, they were....

Agreed! Two words sum that era up for me ... Eric Heffer!

[ahinton]

Agreed! Two words sum that era up for me ... Eric Heffer!

Theresa May - but I and, I suspect, many others, most certainly wouldn't...

"Eric Heffer"? What do we have now? Simon Heffer!...

[Dave2002]

Theresa May - but I and, I suspect, many others, most certainly wouldn't...

"Eric Heffer"? What do we have now? Simon Heffer!...

Eric Heffer -12,000 books. Some of us don't even have that many CDs!

[P. G. Tipps]

I'm on my 7th mug of the coalition, already!

. . . and

I remember seeing some of those on TV as a youngish teenager, and I have to say was mightily impressed with the total "off the cuffness" of it all. It certainly did have an unquestionable feeling of genuineness about it, compared to the crusty staleness and robotic speeches of the tory conferences. Good days, they were....

Yes, I agree, but the modern Labour Party Conferences are even worse, imv.

I mean Ed Moribund 'forgetting' all about the small detail of the huge National Debt in his speech.

Pathetic.

[ardcarp]

Even if politically unsympathetic, one maybe does yearn for the good old days of Labour Party Conferences when individuality (and even chaos) on the platform reigned, yet the total lack of outside control and the genuineness of the speakers were always apparent and never in any doubt.

I wonder if the occasion where Neil Kinnock famously slagged off Derek Hatton was the last of the real party conferences...rather than a staged media event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWLN7rIby9s

[Serial_Apologist]

I wonder if the occasion where Neil Kinnock famously slagged off Derek Hatton was the last of the real party conferences...rather than a staged media event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWLN7rIby9s

It certainly marked the end of the Labour Party being the "broad church" described by Tony Benn. Bully boy tacticians Militant were used as a pretext to throw the bulk of the rest of the far left entrists out, resulting in conference being reduced to a media rally, with inner party debate reduced to focus groups presented with fait accompli policies from the NEC for consultation in place of decisionmaking in the constituencies and branches. With all that happening, out went most of the creative thinking, resulting in the party of yes men and women we see today.

Forget about exemplary moral rectitude and freedom of speech; this is what happens when you smash up inner party democracy. Kinnock was Labour's Joe Stalin.

[ardcarp]

It certainly marked the end of the Labour Party being the "broad church" described by Tony Benn. Bully boy tacticians Militant were used as a pretext to throw the bulk of the rest of the far left entrists out, resulting in conference being reduced to a media rally, with inner party debate reduced to focus groups presented with fait accompli policies from the NEC for consultation in place of decisionmaking in the constituencies and branches. With all that happening, out went most of the creative thinking, resulting in the party of yes men and women we see today.

Yes, but surely this happened to all 3 main parties? It became obvious that, for the simple matter of getting votes from the public, the annual party conference was no place for creative thinking, free and frank exchange of views, and certainly not a place where the rank-and-file could express dissatisfaction with the leadership.

Going back to the Labour Party of yesteryear, Kinnock (the best prime minister we never had IMO) knew perfectly well that the inherently conservative (small 'c') British public would never elect a radical left party into government. Short of a revolution, we'll never have one.....and a revolution would throw up its own Joe Stalin in due course. It's the way of things.