This is a train wreck happening before our very eyes. Absolutely every mistake that could have been made has been made.

Our PM and self-appointed chief negotiator (May) has made herself look stupid and vulnerable while going in fists pumping saying she wants a fight.

She has not completed negotiations with the 10-MP minority-interest party that could give her any semblance of mandate but who know they can wag the dog for all kinds of unreasonable demands in exchange.

The honest broker that was the UK Government, one that assembled and maintained a peace deal, will henceforward be siding with one side in a bitter and often bloody conflict.

Despite that massive failure of diplomacy looming on this front she is now also and simultaneously negotiating with absolutely no cards with – or rather against – the combined diplomatic teams of many European nations.

At home there is rebellion in the streets and mutterings of a leadership bid. Meanwhile inflation is growing and wages remain flat.

Boy, have we been made to look stupid. So forgive me for politicising this, I know this is not a failure of Conservatism or Capitalism themselves, just one of thinking-it-through. Nevertheless I just want to say, for the record, that as an in-voting Labour supporter not one of this train of ignorance and arrogance-based errors was in my name. If we feel the bile rising – and I am speaking as a patriot – perhaps now you can see why.

Hope you feel proud.

No, I see the placards. Yes, they were on the march. Not blind.

OK, I understand what you are saying, of course some people there had political views. They will turn up and wave their placards at the camera, of course they will. And yes, I concede that serves to politicise the protest, by definition, of course it does. So I retract my statement.

I stand by the point that the situation is inherently political, it has not been hijacked by politicians or political activists as the right wish to claim, it (the resentment, the unrest, the growing interest in the alternatives to conservatism) was already there. It’s just that the cameras are there now, and people are organising protests.

Hatred is a very strong word, CD. Some of my best friends are tories – that’s actually true, not a throwaway line. I reserve my hatred for the obvious leeches.

Example. This man, despite having two ‘full-time’ jobs, one of which is supposed to be as a representative of the people in his Ward and the other marketing for a stock exchange (not sure why the NY exchange needs marketing, but there you go) is paid £25,000 a year of our money to ‘manage his wife’s office’. https://democracy.bexley.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=177

Now, if you feel this is wrong, is that feeling ‘political’, just because he and his wife are tories (yes, it’s that Patel again – interesting that despite being staunchly traditional in such things she doesn’t trade as Priti Sawyer)? No. But they can both be voted out, so if my anger translates into me waving a placard that says ‘vote for somebody else’ then yes, I accept the charge of politicisation. Is that not better than the alternative with barrels of gunpowder (or a modern equivalent)?

The unrest comes first, aligning with the opposition follows. That was my point. And it’s nothing more than democracy in action. There are interests who would rather paint it differently – the Telegraph are now claiming this free protest is a harbinger of tyranny.

CD first.

Who exactly is helping themselves to something they haven’t worked for, beyond emergency accomdation? No one is suggesting the victims are given these houses to keep! It’s not about it being ‘unfair’, its about practical use of housing as housing not just as a savings account when there is a need to do so.

These are empty houses
They are not used
Not occupied
Not lived in
Not enjoyed
Provide no shelter

They are assets. They are assets because they sit where they sit. They will remain assets whether they have been used as temporary accommodation for families displaced by a fire or not. No one will take them away.

Whatever you think about my wisdom or otherwise I do know enough about the world to know that in many other nations, especially the ones that exhibit a ‘super rich’, it is really not at all about ‘honest graft’. It is painfully naive to think these places belong to hard workers from these societies. You are not looking at extra shifts down the tractor factory here.

Not that this is relevant, sorry for even mentioning the shameful role we play in banking for these people.

But put that aside. What IS criminal is that these stand empty while people are made homeless through no fault of their own.

It is political, but it’s not because politics have been superimposed on it by any leader. It is at the very heart of of two different ways of thinking that separate left from right. Right says people can keep others away from their assets because their property is inviolate whether they live in it not – in other words, no one else should benefit from their ownership of capital as a matter of ‘principle’.

Left says why? Nobody wins from applying this principle in this case, let’s consider how we can house these people in unused houses. Even if it means paying fair rent to the owners.

It is up to us all and our consciences which way we go on this – not which leader we prefer or whether we consider ourselves labour or conservative first.

Brad, everyone – including our councils and our government – understand the feeling now. As we live in a democracy they are obliged to act accordingly should they desire to remain in power. Protest works that way.

OK, you do get the principle of acting for others. So why did you find it necessary to point out that most were probably not victims?

Plot far from lost. Sometimes it feels like I’m one of the very few (here) who are actually keeping up with it.

Did you read that article over on the Independence Day thread? Handy plot summary.

..and Agent K posted something over on John’s independence day thread that might help paint the picture for those who still don’t know what’s happening.

I’m surprised you haven’t met her down the Maggie T fan club social.

Seriously though, it’s not about the party. You remember your line about the politicians we deserve? Compare Patel to Ken Clarke, for example. We need to raise our own game.

Ryan – I think you will find that this was the position of both main parties. May tried to pretend it wasn’t, but that failed.

You really believe the result of any free vote in a free country is for a large proportion of citizens to ‘shut up’? That is misguided anywhere, and especially here.

In Britain we are wary of anyone telling us what we think and then standing on that as a platform. That was May’s misjudgement. We rocked that platform, just to remind her. One thing we don’t do is shut up when told – and that is one of the things that makes me proud to be British – not some ‘Difficult woman’ thinking she’s Farage.

John, I have some spare goat skin if you need it.

The planning application?

Now I admit to being confused. The Council own the buildings. They submit an ambiguous planning application and therefore are not to blame in reading it to mean the safe stuff having just written it?

I know in reality its two very different teams, and drafting of the application may even have been outsourced, but corporately an ambiguous planning application does not, in this instance, matter one iota.

Very few are misinterpreting this result.

The increased vote share for both main parties is largely due to the decimation of the UKIP vote.

Enough of the hardcore anti-Europeans believed the ‘Plastic Thatcher’ rhetoric to preserve a very slim majority in the popular vote. The ill-judgement of Mrs. May – her tactics were abysmally awful – means that even that majority has probably gone now. What else is there to interpret or misinterpret?