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

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

cf line 3 in the OP: "osborne (perversely perhaps I don’t think he has been as damaged as the above)"

the brexalump trap brought down the govt (as well as labour)
other tory traps for labour are currently snapping round hammond's feet

(one* problem for the opposition right now: they are precisely designed for labour to find them hard to use)

*yes there are others

https://twitter.com/chrisshipitv/status/839962030618660864

Regardless of what he said, Cameron's been doing A LOT of comfort eating since June.

xxp tfw you get fucked up by unnecessary traps you laid for a labour party determined to destroy itself without any outside assistance

fat dave is my favourite dave

yeah kinda feel for him under the jackboot of spin doctors forcing him to keep his weight down like Ricky Hatton in the run up to another beating

he's gonna be cyril smith-sized within five years

"The word “Brexit” was not used once — apparently out of fashion among ministers who have been told that it now polls badly. “A new partnership with Europe” is the new preferred phrase, according to a senior government official who has seen the “Brexit Narrative” handbook which instructs staff on how to speak about Britain’s exit from the bloc."

http://www.politico.eu/article/brexit-hole-at-the-heart-of-british-budget-philip-hammond/

A new partnership with Europe means a new partnership with Europe.

Not quite as snappy.

world-historical blunder means world-historical blunder

not that it *is* world-historical, britain hasn't for some time been and will never again be that important