theresa may: is her project subtly machiavellian or merely cunning, baldrick-style?

She's unlikely to be too bothered at the moment but it's the sort of thing that becomes embarrassing when British citizens are caught up with it and damaging if and when she basically lets them swing. The political wind can seem to be behind you until suddenly it isn't and there's going to be a huge and ferocious backlash. The question is how far away that actually is and how much damage will be done in the meantime.

May is less stupid than Trump and has introduced her policies in a much quieter way and on the occasions where she has been tone-deaf (eg the Go Van) she's backtracked reasonably quickly. She is acutely conscious of her public perception and I think will get rattled once she loses control of that, even if the entire discourse and direction of travel is basically in her favour right now.

If we weren't at a particularly febrile point in the Brexit process there'd be a few Tory MPs sensing blood, but I doubt many of them would voluntarily step out of line at this stage.

*all* the uk rightwing papers have gleefully gone with "may held tiny hand bcz trump afraid of stairs" btw

the WH never really warmed to greece-to-their-rome as a trope, but this is next-level material

I agreed w/Matt but this is getting bigger than I thought. Labour and LDs both flatly calling for no state visit for Trump while the ban is on; laying it on thick against May. She'll hate this.

May is less stupid than Trump

A proud boast.

it's kinda soothing to watch this petition to the uk government to deny trump a state visit rack up hundreds of signatures a minute: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/171928

i was gonna join that but then realized its premise required some concern for the royal family

yeah, that stuck in my craw a bit too tbh

still signed it using the loophole that brenda will probably be dead by the time of the state visit

I did sign cause why not but yeah funny wording, wgaf if hrh nazisalute is embarrassed

signed it anyway, gotta love a pile-on

https://www.dougsguides.com/sites/default/files/High%20Five.jpg

Think living with Prince Philip for several decades might have inured her to embarrassment tbh.

petition closing on 200,000 signatures, no sign of slowing

May isn't being boxed into appeasing Trump, her entire career to date indicates that her guiding principles are similarly nativist and anti-immigrant. But this is probably the most damaging look for her yet - for all the waffle about the special relationship and Thatcher/Reagan nostalgia there's kneejerk anti-Americanism on the British right as well as left (GWB was never seen as an ally by the Tories iirc?), which might come from a place of anti-vulgarity rather than actual morality but the point is that even jingoistic empire-obsessed Brexiteer racists mostly hate Trump too.

(Maybe they don't like to think about America because even more than the EU it's a reminder of how small and un-great Britain is now.)

GWB was never seen as an ally by the Tories iirc?

No need, New Labour got in there first.

360,000 signatures and counting.

half a mil, not bad

Wonder if it can break a million.

The last petition on Trump, to prevent him from entering the country, reached 550,000 and managed to crash the website - so far so good with this one.

the uk's failing petition site's cyber is weak, can't handle more than a few visitors at a time. sad!

nice

I remember when Bush visited London and the protests and security were off the chart and that's going to be tiny compared to when Trump turns up. I wouldn't be surprised if the government concluded they just couldn't be fucked. But then you remember we've alienated every other country so all bets are off.

There's always Erdogan.

https://twitter.com/wheatles/status/825657230565445632

Approaching three quarters of a million.

britons' fears of dangerous foreigners reaching these shores can v occasionally be justified i guess

the concerns are legitimate

unlike his presidency amirite

Within about about 10 minutes, it'll be the second-most popular petition on there, beating "Give the Meningitis B vaccine to ALL children, not just newborn babies" (823,348). It'll have a while to go to beat "EU Referendum Rules triggering a 2nd EU Referendum", which asked for a recount if there was less than 60% or a turnout less than 75% (4,150,260). That got a debate last September.

i hope this petition can repeat the barmstorming success of those ones

One million.

https://cauldronsandcupcakes.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/1000000_one_million_views_fireworks_turquoise.jpg

will be interesting to see if this is debated, to compare the debate (if so) to the one from last year which was just wall-to-wall zings even from those who thought banning him a silly idea

surely they have to debate it to at least give the appearance that they're paying attention to what people want o god i can't even tell if i'm being sarcastic or not anymore

Looks like the petition is getting 100,000 signatures PER HOUR!

"Theresa The Appeaser" could stick, especially after Bercow rules it's not out of order.

appeasing "a bully" is pretty weak sauce tho, classic 2017 politics

Just got back from a protest in Brighton, way bigger turnout than expected considering it was organised in ~24 hours. Think it's probably still going but I got kettling flashbacks and had to abscond before I turned into a quivering mess of anxiety.

https://twitter.com/trillingual/status/826187205051682818

https://mobile.twitter.com/telescoper/status/826191503399776258

lol

"down with that sort of thing"

monday's hansard is v readable

So is there any point to calling local representatives about this, like what the yanks are doing?

So did the budget mention brexit even once?

Apparently not.

Today, this thread seems appropriate..

Pretty impressive how easily the press can get them to cave even with no realistic prospect of them backing a different party.

And of all the items in the budget to cause contention?? A rise of a percentage point on self-employed taxation seems pretty innocuous compared to the evisceration elsewhere

well, a lot of people who are today counted as "self-employed" are basically unemployed (= zero hour contracts and not getting work): it's a regressive tax affecting a considerable number at the base of the scale (though the noise is coming from people much further up: most journalists are self-employed)

i suspect this was conceived as another osbournian elephant trap for labour, incidentally (as in trapping them into opposing the govt and limiting their own later room for manouevre re raising taxes): but increasingly these traps are actually making the ground unsafe for everyone, and narrowing if not entirely blocking any workable future for the govt also (cf brexit itself, dark lol)

Osborne's devious Machiavellian plan to get himself fired and be able to command fat wages from sinecures at foreign banks