Tag Archives: theresa may

Gransthread on Kenneth Clarke’s overheard opinion on Theresa May.

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A ‘bloody difficult woman’. Compliment or Insult?

Recently Kenneth Clarke was overheard calling Theresa May a ‘bloody difficult woman’. So – insult, or a compliment?

 

I can’t claim to see inside anyone else’s head, but it was reported as an insult or if one is kind, an observation.

 

This is a label that has been directed towards me rather often, sometimes behind my back. Well usually, but I have ears like a bat, or a witch as some might say.

Without a doubt I take it as a compliment, because I feel I have earned such an accolade.

 

Why? A sense of self is hard fought for, and the confidence to stand one’s ground,  when societal or peer pressure is urging one to shut up, and go with the flow, is a precious commodity.

 

It doesn’t make for an easy life, though, because it equates to putting one’s head above the parapet, but I thought I’d ask around for the opinion of other women across the generations.

 

Tracy Baines, one of our most successful short story writers, who has three grandchildren, and looks ridiculously young, or is it that she knows some magic elixir says:

 

‘Depends who is calling me difficult. I think older women are called difficult and younger women are labelled Prima Donnas or drama queens. When I was younger I would have seen it as detrimental but now I think it’s an asset. It’s said by men and women who don’t like it when you are not a pushover. Bring it on I say.

 

So today I asked a girl who is quite the other end of the spectrum, a mere fourteen. Meg said:

 

I would take it as a compliment. I have a right to an opinion, and though I listen to the opinions of others, if I disagree I will say so. I know I need to make sure I have a reason for the way I think, but in the end, I have a right to transfer my thought into words, even if others don’t like it.

 

Another, a mother, said:

 

I do think men and women have different attitudes. Women are more used to placating others, so tend to keep their opinions to themselves, or subsume their actions into those which will make few ripples. I think they then feel increasingly frustrated by this and as they get older they realize that they have earned their place in the world, and increasingly will not necessarily toe the line just because it is inconvenient for someone else.

So, where are we with this? Perhaps being what is classed as difficult disturbs the status quo? If so, let it. Change is usually good except for the lazy, the scared or the narrow minded.

 

So, a firm decision from across the generations that to be called bloody difficult is a compliment. As Tracy Baines says: bring it on and more power to our elbows.
Any opinions amongst our Frost Magazine readers?
Would love to hear them at frost@margaret-graham.com

 

 

Cameron’s Fatal Blunder Over Web Monitoring

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It has been a calamitous few weeks for the PM with his and his parties poll numbers falling through the floor. The only saving grace is that the other parties and their leaders are disliked just as much.

The debacle over jerry cans and the budget has been bad enough but it is the issue of civil liberties that has permanently damaged the PM.

One can only wonder as to why Tory strategists weren’t running around in panic when the crazy idea of ‘web and email monitoring was raised’. What where they thinking? How was the PM’s finger so off the political pulse? Cameron compounded the error by publicly coming out and defending the policy, a fatal misjudgement.

Has he been blind to Ron Paul movement in the US? Did he not see the response to SOPA? It was the NO2ID movement which did so much damage to the Labour party. And it was the brave actions of David Davis (who would  now be home secretary had he not sacrificed his career)  and the subsequent Conservative plan to abolish ID cards which brought so many over to the conservatives at the last election.

They should have learnt. YOU DO NOT PISS OFF THE INTERNET IF YOU WANT TO WIN ELECTIONS. No one understands this better than Obama and his strategists. This is why he ditched his support for SOPA. Already the government is facing a backlash from ‘Anonymous’ who have been launching attacks on the Home Office website, although it would be a mistake to think that theses extremists are the problem.

One can only conclude that Tory HQ thought this policy would further damage the Lib Dems. It has certainly achieved this. But this in itself doesn’t make a huge amount of sense as Cameron has tried so hard previously to placate his coalition partners.

But if they thought this was an issue which was only important to Lib Dems they have severely miscalculated. This is a policy which many conservatives feel is fundamentally un-conservative. A further unnecessary intrusion of the state in our lives. Cameron should know that these neo con policies have very little support on this side of the Atlantic.

As a result the Conservative party has only succeeded in splitting itself. Prominent members such as Mog, Raab, Davis and Goldsmith have come out in furious opposition.

Once again the Tories have been tarnished as the nasty party. The painstaking re branding has been ruined. This decision may well be the one which costs Cameron the next election.

 

Riots Will cost Taxpayer £100 Million, Mark Duggan 'Did Not Fire at Police'.

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Mark Duggan ‘did not fire at police’

It has emerged that Mark Duggan had a blank-firing gun which had been converted to hold live ammunition

16,000 police on duty in London

England game against Netherlands at Wembley tomorrow called off

Jamie Olivier’s restaurant in Birmingham was targeted by rioters

Police Cells are now full and 44 more police officers have been injured

Three people arrested for attempted murder of police officer

Cost of cleaning up the riots could cost taxpayers £100 million

Prime Minister David Cameron has recalled Parliament for Thursday so he can make a statement

Sloane Square Tube station was among dozens that were closed last night during the rioting

Youths congregating at Piccadilly, riot police are there

People urged to stay indoors

In Clapham youths went on the rampage trashing dozens of shops and walking out stolen goods.
Residents complained that police were very slow to respond as a Debenhams store was ransacked.

This morning Clapham high street was cordoned off as a investigation and the clear-up got underway.

Rioting began in Hackney at about 4pm yesterday when hooded youths began hurling missiles at officers and setting fire to bins and cars. Masked rioters on BMX bicycles armed with batons attacked a crowded London bus during the evening rush-hour, chasing terrified commuters as they tried to escape.

Some of the thugs were as young as eight and they forced the driver to stop the double-decker by pelting it with champagne bottles stolen from a nearby Tesco. About 40 passengers ran away, some carrying their children.

Within hours similar scenes erupted in Lewisham, spreading to Peckham, Deptford and Croydon.
Hundreds of fires were started all over the capital, North London; Camden, Woolwich in the south, in West London; Ealing. People were forced to take the law into their own hands to protect themselves and their family.

In Dalston and Hackney, shopkeepers fought back against looting youths and protected their businesses. Surrounding areas were pillaged as members of the town’s large Turkish community stood up outside their homes and businesses to protect them.

Home Secretary Theresa May said this morning that there had been 450 arrests in the last two nights but she ruled out bringing in the Army and using water cannon. She told BBC Breakfast:

‘British policing has always meant and always depended on the support of local communities and that’s what we need now.’

She told Sky News the capital needed ‘robust policing’ – and claimed that police budget cutting had not had an impact on the violence.

‘Don’t let police budgets be used as an excuse for what is going on on our streets is sheer criminality and nothing else.’

Patrick Mercer, the Tory MP and former Army officer, hit out and told the Telegraph that tougher policing should be used.

He said: ‘I find it strange that we are willing to use these sort of measures against the Irish yet when Englishmen step out of line and behave in this atrocious and appalling way, we are happy to mollycoddle them.’

Met Police Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh seemed to contradict the Home Secretary and said using the military had not been ruled out.

‘All options were discussed last night and that means, not that we’re doing it, the people of London need to know that the Commissioner and his management board team are considering everything and working through those options as we go forward,’ he told BBC Breakfast.

Mr Kavanagh said it was ‘a shocking and appalling morning for London to wake up to’ and he was struck by the ‘sheer scale and speed with which the attacks took place across London last night’. It ‘was truly unprecedented’

He said there was a ‘changing nature’ in the make-up of the rioters, with the profile changing ‘dramatically’ last night from 14 to 17-year-olds to ‘older groups in cars doing organised looting’.

He added: ‘And there was the far more focused attempt at injuring London Ambulance staff, there to help the community, trying to injure Fire Brigade officers and, of course, police officers.’

In Birmingham, West Midlands Police said it had made about 100 arrests and confirmed that a police station in Handsworth, Birmingham, was on fire. Merseyside Police said there were a number of incidents in South Liverpool and that cars had been set on alight.

Somerset Police reported 150 rioters were in Bristol city centre, with main roads closed and a number of shops damaged.

Councilors have said it will cost £227,000 to repair Tottenham

There is a brilliant article here on how the poverty these kids have is moral, not financial.http://www.thecommentator.com/article/359/london_rioters_are_the_pampered_children_of_the_welfare_state

And the Telegraph has a brilliant article with pictures of london before and after the riot

You can help people made homeless by the London riots by donating bedding, clothes, etc to Apex House, 820 Seven Sisters Road, London N15 5PQ

26-Year-Old Man Is First To Die In London Riots

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London Riots: Worst Civil Unrest in Decades

A murder hunt was launched after a 26-year-old man died after being admitted to hospital suffering from gunshot wounds.

According to a police statement, the as yet unnamed victim was discovered in a car at about 9.15pm in Croydon, south London.

As the man became the first fatality of the ‘unprecedented’ London riots, David Cameron has come back from Tuscany early to deal with the unrest. He went into a meeting with COBR (the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms) at 9am and then made a statement saying: “If you’re old enough to commit these crimes, you’re old enough to face the consequences.”

This came after the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s website queried: “Where were the statesmen as London burned?” ABC went on to say: “London burned and meanwhile Prime Minister David Cameron fiddled with the foil on a bottle of Pinot Grigio in Tuscany, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg quietly recovered at home from his getaway in sunny France and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osbourne remained ensconced at a hotel somewhere in Beverly Hills.

“Britain’s already shaky confidence in its leaders, several of whom have spent the summer trying to wriggle free of their association with the hacking scandal, will be further disturbed by the determination of the nation’s powerbrokers to cling to the sun bed.”

The troubles started on Saturday after a protest outside Tottenham police station descended into violence. A crowd demonstrated after alleged gangster, Mark Duggan, 29, was shot dead on Thursday. The protest began peacefully, but soon descended into chaos and has since spread around the UK.

Last night it wasn’t just London that was affected – Bristol, Liverpool and Birmingham also suffered riots with mass looting – while surburban Ealing in west London was also hit by looters.

People have been left homeless after their homes were set on fire, shops were ransacked, and, in a chilling development, people were asked to get out of their cars by looters before their vehicles were set ablaze. One women talked of waking up to find a masked man at the foot of her bed, after looters broke into her home. It is also alleged that the rioters tried to set fire to Ealing Studios, while Tesco and Sainsbury’s were attacked. Shocked and determined locals met at the Ealing Horse pub to begin to cleaning up their neighbourhood from 10am today.

Frost found this video of the violence in Ealing:

 

In Notting Hill, acclaimed restaurant The Ledbury was attacked and dinners were mugged, before thugs were chased off by kitchen staff. There were also reports on Twitter of yobs wielding machetes in the area.

One rioter said: “We are getting our taxes back.”  It was, however, unconfirmed whether or not this person – and many others involved – have ever actually paid tax.

As 16,000 police are set to retake London, Home Secretary Theresa May said:  ‘We don’t do water cannon, we rely on consent,” as she ruled out tough action. She added: ‘We need robust policing but we also need to ensure that justice is done through the courts.”

As vigilantes are forced to defend shops, she has been criticised for the soft approach and the government appears increasingly out of kilter with the mood of law-abiding citizens.

In the meantime, the police have put photos on their website to try and find some of the culprits, link here

The Met added that 334 people have been arrested in London since rioting broke out on Saturday. So far 69 have been charged.

The youngest person to be arrested so far is 11 years old.