Theresa May’s Fake “Meetings” 285


The sharp-eyed among you will have noticed that many of those forming the “audience” for Theresa May’s speech in Crathes looked even less enthusiastic than usual.

The real Tories are very obvious to spot. But when you look at the BBC video from which this picture is taken, you can see that the others not only do not look enthusiastic, they do not join in the clapping. Do not take my word for it, watch the video – the body language, apart from the obvious Tories, is more of hostages than supporters.

My contacts in Banchory tell me that this is because, in a weird Tory return to the 19th century, it was made clear to tenants of the Crathes estate that they were expected to turn out to support strong and stable leadership. The heir to the estate, in whose name the hall was booked, is Alexander Burnett, old Etonian and Tory MSP. Which century are we in?

The area, “Royal” Deeside, is a magnet for rich retirees from Surrey and had the highest UKIP vote in the Scottish EU elections. It is perhaps the only part of Scotland in which May could truly feel at home.

The popular theory among election advisers is that the electorate are stupid and do not pay attention to elections. There is therefore no point in trying to discuss detail or make any intellectual explanation of policy dilemmas. All the electorate will notice are simple slogans, which can be repeated infinitely because most voters don’t pay attention and will only hear them two or three times.

The Tories are testing this theory to destruction in this election. Shielding May from any “real” encounters, from any debate with opponents, and from any questions except a very few from picked right wing media, they intend to coast to victory. In Scotland this approach is so at odds with the active citizenship that was inculcated by the referendum campaign, I believe it will fail badly. We will see.

So what did May say in Crathes? Well, according to the Guardian

“she had told her supporters that she was the only leader capable of providing “strong and stable leadership” for Britain as the country headed towards Brexit.
“At this election, people will have a clear choice between five years of strong and stable leadership with me and my team or a coalition of chaos led by Jeremy Corbyn,” she said.”

Which funnily enough is exactly what she told her supporters in Leeds at her last “meeting”. That was remarkable because, in one of the most ethnically diverse districts in the UK, she spoke to what looked exactly like a Broederbond gathering.

I was delighted that the Metro newspaper conducted a sober appraisal of my statement that Tory policies are identical in most important respects to the BNP manifesto of 2005, and found I was right. You might imagine that might cause May’s advisers at least to try to make her meetings not look like BNP gatherings. But evidently they have decided it is more important to continue to prioritise the racist vote. They are banking on it being all white on election night.

May meets nobody except ardent Tories or those in no position to argue – employees of companies in their workplace or tenants. It is appalling abuse of power.

May is simply refusing to participate in democracy – which involves candidates being open to question and debate. There is really little point in having an election of this kind. Which presumably explains this question being asked in YouGove’s current political poll.

It is all extraordinarily sad, and I suppose the saddest thing of all is media complicity in this non-election – of which the latest and dreadful example is STV’s decision to exclude the Green Party from the Scottish leadership debate.

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285 thoughts on “Theresa May’s Fake “Meetings”

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  • Brianfujisan

    Great Expose Craig.. The Umpteenth photo of Glum faced FORCED folk to have attend / listen to the broken record Loop.. Next they will be forced at gun point.

    • michael norton

      Brian, this saw of thing happens in most dictatorships, crowds of wildly cheering people for Saddam, springs to mind.
      These days thousands of ecstatics clapping and cheering for Kim.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    That YouGov poll highlights the truism that the final act of democracy will be to vote itself out of existence.
    Still, it would be handy to know how many of my fellow-citizens want a dictatorship
    This is all getting nastily reminsicent of the collapse of the weak Weimar government, and the blame can be laid squarely at the door of centrist politics.

    • Loony

      One of the main reasons for the collapse of the Weimar Republic was the mountain of un-repayable debt.

      That only led to the collapse of Germany and the rise of the Nazi’s. This time around there is a lot more debt than Weimar had to deal with and it is piled high in Himalayan proportions throughout North America, Europe, China and Japan (now there’s a blast from the past).

      Things don’t look good – King Solomon he never lived round here.

      • michael norton

        “Nicola Sturgeon has helped us considerably by making it SNP versus Conservatives,” Davidson said. She described Sturgeon as being a good recruiter for the Conservatives.

    • grizebard

      …the blame is centrist politics”?? You must be joking. Theresa May is no “centrist”, she is a control-freak authoritarian with an increasingly tenuous inclination to democracy, as this article well illustrates.

      (Oh, and the Weimar government was a proper socialist one, simply beset by various reactionary forces – not centrist, note – with widespread support in a country with no deep democratic tradition.)

  • Argyll Exile

    Am sure she’s been told that if she keeps Dacre and Murdoch on-side, that will account for all the votes required to keep her in power. They in turn, sadly, only need a front page headline to achieve the desired result apparently. I hope we prove smarter than that here in Scotland.

    I note also, that Davidson seems to be much more comfortable with the rightward lurch of her party.

    • Sharp Ears

      The Murdoch owned Sky News video report was hardly Theresa friendly apart from showing her greeted by obvious Tory stooges holding placards reminding me of the Mark Clarke fiasco.

      Nicola’s on it too. 🙂

      The Glums in the background stayed glum.

      The video was like a SNP recruiting piece.

      ‘May says Corbyn election victory ‘could happen’ as she warns over voter complacency
      Mrs May says recent polls have been wrong as she urges her supporters to vote or risk the real prospect of a Labour government
      Video 2.08 plus ads at start and end unfortunately
      http://news.sky.com/story/may-says-corbyn-victory-could-happen-as-she-warns-over-voter-complacency-10856500

      PS How about the close ups of Davidson? LOL

  • Ba'al Zevul

    I’m no adman, but I offer a poster design to anyone who wants it:
    Juxtapose:
    (1) Picture of large horse taking a dump. Caption (caps) ‘STRONG’
    (2) Picture of not-wealthy people mucking out a stable. Caption: ‘STABLE’

    Caption below: ‘IF YOU WANT HORSESHIT VOTE HORSE’

    • Bayard

      Alternatively You could have the Tory slogan followed by “Dictatorships have strong and stable leaders, democracies tend to be more chaotic”.

        • Bayard

          OK, how about “Strong and stable” under a picture of a dictator of your choice (Franco?) and “Coalition of chaos” under a picture of Messrs Cameron and Clegg? (only for Labour activists, of course)

          • Ba'al Zevul

            The former would attract thiose who hanker after a dictatorship. They exist, possibly in some numbers. The latter would fail to resonate. I still think Saatchi’s ‘evil eyes’ take on Blair was exemplary (though at the time I thought Blair was a socialist, fool that I was, and resented it too) . No words, ace graphic, instant emotional hit – and in fact accurate, as we found out.

  • RobG

    Craig said: “The popular theory among election advisers is that the electorate are stupid and do not pay attention to elections. There is therefore no point in trying to discuss detail or make any intellectual explanation of policy dilemmas. All the electorate will notice are simple slogans, which can be repeated infinitely because most voters don’t pay attention and will only hear them two or three times.”

    As Craig points out this is theory, and does not match my own experience with voters in the forthcoming election.

    Theresa is about to reach her Ceucescu moment.

  • gloria harkin

    Crathes Village Hall Trust reg charity SC10 SC043007 . OSCR rules provide for charitable use and not for the advancement of a political party. hall was booked in name of Burnett for a childrens party.

  • Sharp Ears

    She is looking more and more like Laurence Olivier in Henry V, especially the hairstyle.

    ‘Strong and Stable’. There were over 30 uses of the word ‘strong’ in her PMQs performance on Wednesday. The Lynton Crosby mantra.

    https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2017-04-26/debates/CC7BF7D9-1C7D-484A-BA58-269E29BD7E07/Engagements

    Even one Con MP, Sir Simon Burns, who was one of the health ministers involved in the Health and Social Care Act, 2012 which allowed for the shafting of OUR NHS, used it 4 times.

    ‘Sir Simon Burns (Chelmsford) (Con)
    Mr Speaker, may I thank you for that? May I tell my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister that, for 30 years, I have had the privilege and the honour to represent the great people of Chelmsford? May I tell her that the great people of Chelmsford are perspicacious and that they have always wanted a Government who provide strong defences, a strong economy and strong leadership? May I also tell her that it is the Conservative party under her strong leadership that will deliver for this country for the next five years?’

    You will see and hear the words ‘strong and stable’ from all of the Tory stooges until you feel sick. There are over five more weeks of this to come.

  • fred

    “It is all extraordinarily sad, and I suppose the saddest thing of all is media complicity in this non-election – of which the latest and dreadful example is STV’s decision to exclude the Green Party from the Scottish leadership debate. ”

    I expect STV are worried about the delay while the SNP tell them what to say.

    • Harry Vimes

      Is that it? That’s all you have got? SNP BAD. SNP BAD SNP BAD. Like a bad sheep impression from Animal Farm.

      This is simply pathetic in the current context. It screams in banner headlines the disdain and hatred of democracy of the bitter, twisted and terminally selfish disdain of the cap doffing and forelock tugging I’m all right Jack with all the character traits of Uriah Heep. Who seek to force and impose their narrow minded choices on everyone else. Nothing about the context. No concern of the blatant undertone of fascism at play here. Not a peep about the feudal power grab at play here. Not so much a broken record more a five minute loop consisting of simplistic back biting, bile and spite. Anyone I don’t like bad. FOAD and variations of the same. What a sad example to set.

  • FranzB

    I listened to BBC R4 ‘Any Questions’ last night (28/4/17) from Scotland

    There were the regulation two tories Mark Littlewood (Institute of Economic Affairs) and Adam Tomkins (Tory MSP), along with Jeane Freeman (SNP MSP) and Lord Falconer (Labour peer). Jonathan Dimblebore was his usual obnoxious self.

    Why are the BBC importing a rabid neoliberal such as Littlewood (Balliol college Oxford) to Scotland?

    Anybody who listened to Falconer (Queens’ College, Cambridge) would be left wondering as why exactly they should vote Labour in the general election.

  • reel guid

    The Polish psychoanalyst Andrew Lobaczewski coined the term pathocracy as a name for government by an assortment of people with severe personality disorders. The present Westminster administration being a prime example of it.

    However the Scottish Tories have clearly come up with a Caledonian variant which we can call Crathocracy.

  • Ross

    The YouGov question is particularly sinister in that…

    1. It echos the empty slogan the Tories have been repeating in perfunctory fashion.

    2. May’s rationale for calling this general election is in effect that parliamentary democracy is broken, and the only fix is a political monoculture in which she can govern unopposed. This question seems to be testing the water in terms of taking that direction of travel to its logical and likely conclusion.

    I mean what the hell is a supposedly legitimate polling organisation doing in attempting to ascertain to what degree their is public support for a dictatorship, nevermind phrasing the question in such a way as to seemingly advocate one.

  • Loony

    Why should candidates be open to question and debate? All questions will be delusional and all answers more delusional.

    You are living in a world with $200 trillion of debt and yet the citizens of the UK demand their right to own 1.29 mobile phones per head of population. The necessary components for these phones can only be obtained by killing the foreign man. Who cares about anything other than more consumption. If that means more war then bring it on.

    Things aint what they used to be because the era of cheap energy is over. Don’t tell me that I don’t want to know. Anyone who attempts to understand reality is instantly smeared as a communist, a fascist, a racist or a terrorist. Don’t know, don’t care and I gotta go shopping mate.

    With a mindset like this is it any wonder that politicians are vague, vacuous, shallow and mendacious. Maybe when you see politicians you are just seeing yourselves.

    • michael norton

      I had thought that all the rare earths were present in China, surely no one has to die in China to manufacture mobile phones?

      • Loony

        But the smart people they wouldn’t sign their name and so the Chinese have banned exports of rare earths.

        Mining for rare earths is a dirty business – much too dirty for the clean and pure people that inhabit the west. So it’s off to the developing world (so much nicer on the ear than 3rd world) we go. Parts of Africa, Vietnam and Brazil.

        North Korea is rumored to have a lot of rare earths and nothing is too dirty for the people there. Could be an opportunity if only we could get rid of the dangerous megalomaniac that runs the place.

        The DRC has a lot of minerals needed for cars, laptops and phones. Now look what’s happening to them. There they do not pick up the dead from out of the broken glass – because they mostly there are too many to pick up and they don’t have much glass

      • michael norton

        Not a rare earth but a VITAL modern requirement Lithium is to be mines adjacent to Gigafactory in Nevada, the aim is to have everything mined, converted and manufactured by Americans in America.
        Economy of scale and vertical integration.
        In a way, this is part and parcel of The Donald’s philosophy of rebuilding the coal mining, iron mining, steel production, rebuilding the railways and so on.
        https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/gigafactory
        Tesla broke ground on the Gigafactory in June 2014 outside Sparks, Nevada, and we expect to begin battery cell production by the end of this year. By 2018, the Gigafactory will reach full capacity and produce more lithium ion batteries annually than were produced worldwide in 2013.

        America, is again going to mine, its own rare earths.

        This was put in motion by OBOMBA

        getting away for reliance of Middle East Hydrocarbons and particularly Saudi Arabia.

        There is a pretence that America and Saudi Arabia are friends.
        Saudi Arabia may think that
        but OBOMBA and The Donald – do not.

  • Orlando Quarmby

    The BBC would appear to have removed the video of the event you refer to, Craig. Now I wonder why they would do that. I expect they’re too late, however, and it will appear on youtube, exposing the sham this “campaign event” was.

  • Harry Vimes

    Does anyone have a contact number for missing persons?

    An hour and half since the first comment was posted and still no obligatory and yawn instilling predictable posting from Hab defending to the hilt the status quo. Someone send for the military police as one of GCHQ’S posse of twelve year olds has gone AWOL.

    I expect a full search party and posse if not a report from Craig telling us its OK has Hab has sent in a sick note from his mum.

    Who would have thought the day would ever come. Lolly gagging on the job. Is this what taxpayers are wasting our money on to have people like Hab missing in inaction.

    Not good enough. We demand our full quota of street entertainment and someone to laugh at.

    • RobG

      MI5, MI6, GCHQ, et al, are criminal organisations of the highest order, and they are also in the pockets of the Americans, which also makes them traitors of the highest order.

      These people are total and utter criminal scum who operate outside the law.

      If I’m wrong in what I say, perhaps the security service vermin who blanket this board will respond to me.

      • michael norton

        FIVE EYES

        expect Macron to be asked for France to join FIVE EYES
        he’s their boy, after all.

        • michael norton

          Expect more terror in the run up to the G.E.

          Willesden terror raid: Shot woman screamed ‘don’t touch me’ at paramedics after armed police stormed house
          http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/willesden-terror-raid-shot-woman-screamed-dont-touch-me-at-paramedics-after-armed-police-stormed-a3526231.html
          Willesden shooting: Terror suspect once quizzed in IS probe
          Ministry of Truth
          ne of six people arrested in a counter-terrorism operation in London on Thursday was once suspected of trying to travel to Syria to join so-called Islamic State, it has emerged.

          Mohamed Amoudi, 21, was deported to the UK from Turkey in 2015, but released without charge.

          Police said they foiled an active terror plot when they raided a house in Willesden, north-west London.

          A 21-year-old woman who was shot during the operation remains in hospital.

          • Thorson Bloodaxe

            So our taxes are paying for some “terrorist” to be fixed after our “anti-terror cops” shot her? How come the cop missed? Wilful negligence IMHO.

          • Bayard

            Not only that, but the fact that she’s still alive means that the time spent preparing the essential “identity papers” to be found on the scene that prove she was a member of IS has all been wasted.

        • RobG

          Perhaps you can tell us what accountability the UK security services have?

          Actually, I can answer that for you:

          Zilch.

          • Thorson Bloodaxe

            Actually they were “just following orders”! (See the Nuremberg Trials)

    • bevin

      Won’t Ben do? Or Loony? Or must you insist on Habbab? This is the weekend, you know-overtime, days in lieu etc. Make the best of things.

  • Kat Hamilton

    Disgrace that patrick harvie has been left out the debate on stv…It will only be a shouting contest with the 3 attack dogs of unionism growling ‘no referendum ‘ at nicola…she should say no Green Party then sorry won’t be there…let the motley defend their pitch, it would be a farce..

  • Mark Golding

    Some older RSGB members played an important engineering role at Hanslope Park, the governments communication centre that sprawls around a 17th century manor house hidden down a leafy lane just off the M1. A few members still relate to the nuts and bolts of secure radionics at Hanslope.

    Teresa May will be expounding ‘keeping the country safe…’ in this snap election and any indication that Corbyn is gaining ground in the run-up to the General Election will trigger another invulnerable grandstand play from the security services to rout a subversive.

    Communications or electronic warfare (EM) (jamming mobile phones) forms an imperative component of a successful ‘anti-terror’ operation.

    • Thorson Bloodaxe

      “down a leafy lane just off the M1”

      I reckon on a good day you might make it in 20 minutes from J15, if you know the way, but otherwise your “leafy lane” trip is going to take you quite a bit longer from J14. Plus the lane is only leafy in the summer; and it twists and turns rather like the British government.

  • Thorson Bloodaxe

    “The popular theory among election advisers is that the electorate are stupid”

    So says the man who has consistently refused to accept the result of the recent referendum !!!

  • Robert Hogg

    Everything seems staged as a prelude to an expected ( guaranteed ? ) election result . Wait and see , I,m sure the ready made headline could be simply ” the British people were asked to give me my mandate for ” Britains sake ” and they did so . Rule Britainia ! . ( shudder ! ) ?????????? That is not going to happen , local elections will give us an indication maybe ? Find if the Mantra of the three unionists party,s nobody wants a referendum ” divisive DIVISION ! family wrecking referendum ” has gained any traction with wavering voters , personally I think most will have been as sick hearing the parrot every day and week as I was , it is as bad as ” strong and stable leadership ” and ” coalition of chaos ” , the queen of austerity and Brexit , the punisher ( Tory policy ) of the weakest and most vulnerable in our society , and we could go on and on , we the country are to blank cheque her a mandate ” , talk about ” a parcel o rouges ” to lead us all into Jerusalem ! . The parliaments did ( with caveats ) pass her the mandate . This is for show , for what gain ? To strengthen uk negotiations with the EU ?? The EU will decide most of how what will be a very complex divorce , I don’t see the uk get half of everything and the kids at the weekend ( if they have a valid visa ) . I,m getting really uninterested in this ” oh no not another election what next ! A referendum ” 🙂 .

    • Thorson Bloodaxe

      Who is going to vote for her after she was seen on TV holding Trump’s hand?

      All that BS about voting to ban him from the country, and the minute Trump was elected (and of course, the electorate were not stupid to do so; Craig says so) off she went to give him a nice warm welcome. I guess the Lady is not for turning? ROFLMAO

      • Pyewacket

        I don’t think she had much choice in the matter considering Farage trumped her to it, and the press were having a field day. Of course, Theresa realises that Trump is a big knobhead, but however distasteful, one that she is forced to play with.

  • RobG

    So, we have a bunch of complete lunatics presiding over a bunch of completely brain-dead lunatics.

    It’s called the next World War.

    Scotty gets bored with me asking him to beam me up again.

    • Thorson Bloodaxe

      Hey RobG, I reckon that maybe they plan to fix “Global Warming” by giving us a “Nuclear Winter”.

  • giyane

    Liam Byrne, Labour Hodge Hill, allowed the Malaysian owned van plant here to be sold to China for want of a decent, long-distance engine. Now in his flyer he sports a hi-viz jacket and a car engine to support his credentials as a supporter of manufacturing, and a fluffy red beard for his credentials as a friend to Muslims.

    Ben’s comment on Trump enthusiasts about buyer remorse, stings. Byrne is a free market Blairite spin doctor and up to his eyes in war crimes against Muslims. I cannot vote for him. The snap election has prevented Jeremy Corbyn from de-selecting criminals as New Labour MPs.

    By the same stroke the Tories have pre-empted the police enquiries into criminal investigations of electoral abuses by their party. So there is grace and favour operating in both parties supporting the status quo.
    So be it. A frustrated electorate, fully conscious of being hood-winked by the main two parties, are much more likely to take risks and vote wildly and tactically.

    She who lives by the sword, dies by the sword. As swiftly as she got laddered up by Cameron’s hybris, she’ll get snaked down by voter nemesis. Mrs May is going the right way to arouse voters’ anger and galvanise them out of their apathy.

    • Pyewacket

      Here in Lancashire the Police have recently announced that no further action is to be taken with regard to their investigation into alleged electoral fraud, much to the relief of Jake Berry MP (Rossendale & Darwen) et al. As far as Lancashire Constabulary are concerned the case is closed. This of course has nothing to do with the force going cap in hand to the Government asking for financial input to support the policing of the anti-fracking protesters at Preston New Road. Reported to be £100k per day ?

  • RobG

    Maybe all the scum and vermin can tell me why we must have more war?

    No sane human being wants war.

    Remove the scum and vermin from this world and you won’t have war.

  • Jim Carrick

    “the saddest thing of all is media complicity in this non-election”

    It’s not only sad but still pretty shocking, the lack of scrutiny of what is going on; the dominance of the big TV news organisations and their endless recycling of vested-interest newspaper headlines.

    Generations grew up reading 1984 and never dreamed they’d see the naked propaganda pumped out by our own state broadcaster.

  • Habbabkuk

    Reel guid

    “The Polish psychoanalyst Andrew Lobaczewski coined the term pathocracy as a name for government by an assortment of people with severe personality disorders. The present Westminster administration being a prime example of it.”
    ____________________

    I’m sure you’re aware that Lobaczewski based his conclusions on his observation of the Communist government in Poland.

    Of course, all the govts of the Evil Empire were pathocratic. That is because Communism and its various off-shoots are a form of mental illness.

    • reel guid

      Lobacewski never claimed that the pathocratic phenomenon is confined to one kind of political system.

      • Habbabkuk

        Indeed not, reel guid – just clarifiyng, lest less informed and less intelligent readers get the impression from your post that he was referring specifically to the Conservative government (I’m sure you gave that misleading impression quite inadvertently).

    • Habbabkuk

      I should have said “a form of mental illness taking the practical form of an exploitative criminal conspiracy against the people”. The same applies to fascism of course.

      Let me take this opportunity to recommend some reading to bring you up to speed (French, I’s afraid, but they might have been translated into English):

      “Le livre noir du communisme : Crimes, terreur, re’pression” – Ste’phane Courtois and others – published Robert Laffont

      and its follow-up

      “Du passe’ faisons table rase!” —– idem —–.

      Bonne lecture, mon vieux.

  • Christine gordon

    How many of the impoverished children that her parties policies have helped create ,were invited to this children’s party in the woods

    • Ron Glaiser

      She didn’t actually stick sweets and biscuits to the outside of this tiny building, did she?

  • W. Wallace ya bass

    Get the English off the voting register in Scotland and stop them gaining any influence with their filthy lucre. They have no say in my future. Fucking sassenachs…

    • Brianfujisan

      Well Wallace Con artist… That’s Not how REAL Warriors. act on this Blog..So Go way

    • David Venables

      The truth will out. As Billy Connolly himself said racist bigotted nationalists.

  • Michael Dawson

    All Hiel the “Great Leader”…. Press gang a few people and have a children’s party so she can kiss a baby or two!

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