PM May continues the tradition of capitulation

Michael Douglas, actor, and his wife Catherine Zeta Jones, actress Felicity Kendal, actress Mark Hamill, actor, Michael Madsen, actor, Heather Locklear, actress, Ronnie Whelan, former footballer and manager, Will Smith, actor, Declan Donnelly, presenter, Jodie Kidd, model/TV personality, THERESA May is preserving the modern British tradition of capitulation when negotiating with foreigners, following in the footsteps of Neville Chamberlain (Hitler), John Major (Maastricht) and Tony Blair (the IRA);.

What would our Victorian forebears think? It seems, as before, to be a case of “agreement at any price”.

She is building up a track record of bad decisions (immigration figures while Home Secretary) and calling unnecessary general elections, to start with. She has fallen into the trap of thinking “I must do something” when in fact, right now, she should do nothing and let the Europeans sweat it out. The clock is ticking for them just as it is for us; they have much to lose.

James Dyson, just over a week ago, is reported saying: “I’ve been dealing with the EU on committees for 25 years. In all that time we have never been able to influence one iota and have never been able to stop anything.”

No messing and no paying. If you leave a club you stop your subs without saying “I’ll keep paying so the rest of your members don’t have to pay more.”

The “inscrutable” Chinese, not known for their stupidity, described Mrs May as “weak.” They were right.

Juncker or Barnier (not sure which) claimed that over the years, “The British complain, object, but in the end always sign up.”

Don’t forget that Mrs May was a Remainer at the time of the referendum. It’s their black hole not ours.

I feel ashamed, disappointed and betrayed by Theresa May. Moreover, although I may not vote for anyone else at the next election, I shall certainly not vote for her.

Regarding a period of transition with temporary arrangements, remember William Pitt in the 1780s introduced Income Tax as a temporary measure.

I bought champagne after the referendum result but vowed to open it only when the UK was “out”. In fact, I drank it when Town won promotion, but I shall not buy another bottle. WHEN my aunty and uncle moved into their council house in the fifties in South Yorkshire I remember we looked enviously at the indoor toilet and bathroom, the spacious rooms and the generous garden with its outhouse.

My uncle had been in the war, they had a young child but had been forced to live with a relative for quite a few years before they got the key to their council house.

It was a social housing policy based on the needs of the tenant not on profit for the landlord. After the sacrifices of the war, people were ready for a better future across the board.

Anything less would have spelt trouble for the establishment.

Councils then had the power to buy land and build homes but they had only had this power for a relatively short time.

The history of the housing crisis is a history of class struggle - of people living in squalid conditions at the hands of unscrupulous landlords with little or no regulation by the governments of the day and people fought back.

The current housing crisis has its roots in Thatcher’s ‘Right to Buy’ policy at the end of the seventies. It effectively banned the construction of new council housing and decimated the supply of affordable housing in the UK.

At the same time, measures were introduced to encourage growth in the private sector. Rent controls were abolished while tenants rights were all but destroyed by the replacement of assured tenancies by shorthold tenancies.

A Labour Government is more likely to put our needs higher up the list. But it’s the pressure that we bring to bear collectively from below that makes the difference - as a class - in our communities.

Make your voice heard on Sunday, October 1, at the mass protest outside the Tory Party Conference in Manchester. There is plenty of transport from Huddersfield by train or by coach. Contact 07814709853.