Monday 17-06-26 Achievements and Challenges

To record my achievements today, I have read #5 and #6 of the current Daredevil series. It's good to see the writers address the big challenges first; already The Hand and Elektra have appeared. Elektra's story arc has just started in #6, but I am looking forward to it.

I'm also nearly up to date on the current Private Eye, which is supposed to cover up to 29th June or so.

The challenges I want to record are not mine, they are the challenges facing the current Conservative government. I am not sure that any government has faced the number of challenges that the current government is facing. To enumerate those challenges, they are:

1. A minority government. Totally self-inflicted this one, they will need to (and have) guaranteed the support of the DUP. As a result of this, challenge #2 is


2. Keeping the Scots and the Welsh onside. By handing out large sums to N. Ireland, the current govt. have opened the doors to the "provinces" to request extra funding. Not to mention


3. The Good Friday Agreement. By bringing the DUP into a "confidence and supply" (I'm not too sure either, but stay with me) agreement, they have upset Sinn Fein, the Nationalist / Catholic faction in Northern Ireland. Currently DUP and Sinn Fein are supposed to be sharing power in Northern Ireland, but due to a bit of posturing - in my opinion - the power-sharing agreement collapsed in March or so and is still inactive. Possibly we may have to reimpose direct rule on Northern Ireland, which would be a step backwards. The British Government is supposed to act as a neutral arbiter, and that would seem to be difficult when the DUP are supporting the British Government and giving them legitimacy in Westminster.


4. Brexit. The first item for discussion has been the status of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU. The UK offering seems to be that EU citizens will be treated the same as non-EU citizens, i.e., the individual will need to build up five years' worth of residency before they are seen as equivalent to UK citizens. In my view, if the offer to the EU is not different to the offer to non-EU countries, we may as well revert to WTO terms now. From this particular issue, if you extrapolate attitudes, it would seem that the negotiation teams are adopting a "hard Brexit" approach.


5. The Corbyn Surge. In the recent General Election (GE), Corbyn & Labour did very well versus expectations. I think that because "the Nation" has seen that Labour were "successful" in this GE, if there is another one then more voters will be persuaded to vote for Labour. In my part of the world, I think that the campaign for school funding (Save Our Schools) certainly had an impact on voting patterns - although, as a corollary, the Conservative vote in my area also increased.


6. Fallback to Conservative support. In the recent GE approx. 40% voted Conservative and 40% voted Labour. There have been a number of articles written about how we as a Nation have reverted to a two party system. The result of the GE was a Hung Parliament, and as a result Theresa May reached out to a more "conservative" party for support rather than one of the "progressive" parties, such as the Greens (one individual), or the LibDems, or the SNP. By reverting to socially conservative support, I think Theresa May and the Conservative party open themselves to accusations of non-inclusiveness.


7. Lame duck leadership. Theresa May went into the GE stating that she wanted to cement her mandate for Brexit; instead, she lost her majority and so we are left with a hung parliament. As a result, she is seen as a "caretaker PM" at best and at worst other candidates are being suggested as a "stalking horse" or a "caretaker PM" (e.g., Hammond). Johnson is of course being touted as a successor, albeit a divisive one, and it was even suggested on Robert Peston's show that Priti Patel might throw her hat into the ring. From my outsider perspective, I can't see that there is any definite replacement for May.

Jeez, did we get up to seven? Like I said, Theresa May faces challenges on a number of different fronts. On The Last Leg they tried to demonstrate this by having a Theresa May lookalike juggle a number of balls. It was a good visual demonstration of the challenges she faces. However,  these challenges may fade, it may be that these will resolve themselves.

 

As a footnote, I'm not a Labour party member. I voted for the Labour party in 1997, but I am probably a natural LibDem supporter. I thought David Cameron was a good thing for the Tory party when he took the leadership, but he became a bit dismissive towards the end of his premiership. I'd like to think that I have an even view over the political landscape, but I would take the fair accusation that I have less time to entertain right-wing arguments. I respect rightwingers such as Tim Montgomerie, Dan Hannan, and Douglas Carswell, they fully believe what they are arguing; I just think that they are arguing from the wrong starting point. But that is a personal perspective, and of course it is open to challenge.

 

TTFN