Terror is contagious
Nothing to fear but fear itself
Dear lovely people,
I was up in Parliament on Tuesday. What I saw was the very best of politics.
I was on a panel run by Girls Who Talk Politics in the beautiful Committee Room 10. The room was absolutely packed - standing room only - with young women.
Two different MPs spoke, both utterly inspirational. My fellow panelists were interesting, funny, intelligent and forthright. The hour went incredibly quickly.
A room full of people choosing to come and talk about politics on their Tuesday evening. They were young and almost entirely female. Yes, they’ve seen the abuse, they’ve been subject to the abuse, but they want to be involved anyway. They are finding their voice and they are going to use it.
It is International Women’s Day on Sunday. We spoke about it on the podcast (available now) and Diane has written an amazing post for SP - looking at what this government is doing and some statistics that show the mountain we’ve still got to climb.
I find these days hard to bear.
One in eight women, according to government research, was a victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking in the last year. One in eight. Jess Phillips will stand in the Commons next week and read the names of all women killed by men, or suspected to have been killed by men, in the last year.
The horror of all of this. The existential question: am I doing enough? Can I do more? To what extent am I implicit in this?
This year I have a room full of brilliant people to protect my heart. The passion and the hope of those women, crammed into a room in Parliament.
They represent a future that sees the world for what it is, but believes in change and believes that they can be the change we need.
Also, they gave me a really cool t-shirt that says ‘Liberté, Égalité, Sororité’ and a badge that said ‘Do no harm. Take no s**t’.
It was a good night.
Peace and love,
Tatton x
I had been planning to write a little more on International Women’s Day, including using a few poems along the way. Shabana Mahmood’s press conference yesterday put paid to that plan, but this poem has been making me chuckle all week, so I thought I’d share it nonetheless.
Mrs Icarus
I’m not the first or the last
to stand on a hillock,
watching the man she married
prove to the world
he’s a total, utter, absolute Grade A pillock.
Carol Ann Duffy
Have you run your fingers down the wall
And have you felt your neck skin crawl
When you're searching for the light?
Sometimes when you're scared to take a look
At the corner of the room
You've sensed that something's watching youIron Maiden
A government on the run
It started on Monday.
Keir Starmer was making a serious and necessary update on events in Iran over the weekend. A statement from the Prime Minister at a time of war.
And yet… our Prime Minister chose to use it to attack his political enemies.
Sir Alex Shelbrooke (a Conservative MP) asked the PM if he was appalled by the co- Deputy Leader of the Green Party , Mothin Ali, having been ‘protesting in support of the ayatollah’.
Keir Starmer agreed, saying ‘we were all shocked’. He went on, in the next sentence, to say ‘It is important that we all set our face against antisemitism.’
Our Prime Minister supporting and doubling down on this strange accusation.
Mothin Ali is a famous anti-war campaigner. There is a war in which the UK is involved in bombing. He was protesting against it. It was not a protest in support of the ayatollah.
The clear implication that Ali has been antisemitic, too, comes out of nowhere.
Is it a coincidence that the PM was making cheap political points in the very first Commons session after the Greens won a by-election? Of course it isn’t.
In this terrified era, there can be no platform too serious not to cheapen or degrade with point scoring.
The next day, on the same green benches, we got a financial update. Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement isn’t about announcements, it’s about looking at numbers.
Not just looking at numbers, though. Looking at numbers and also saying how terrible other parties are. She made nine references to the ‘Conservatives’ and mentioned Liz Truss twice.
Perhaps this is fair enough. Her argument is that our economy is in trouble because of what the last lot did. Our surging unemployment is down to them. You’ve got to mention them by name.
What relevance, then, is Reform? She bought them up six times, with a swipe at Farage for not being in the chamber. Why would he be in the chamber? She had said that nothing exciting was going to happen. There were no announcements.
She repeated the line that Farage would ‘ditch our allies and side with Russia’. I’m pretty sure that’s not true. They’re quite big fans of Trump and the USA, no?
This government won’t let the truth get in the way of a good attack on another party.
The Green Party were in that mix, too. Three mentions of them. Reeves said that their plan was to take us out of Nato. When Green heads all shook at this she admitted ‘I do not know if they have changed their policy’. So… how much research went into this?
She was on her speech for 23 minutes. A huge amount of that time was given up to political posturing.
They are terrified.
Wednesday saw the PM back in the Commons for PMQs. I think that PMQs has been about cut and thrust and cheap points and all the rest of it for a very long time.
Yesterday saw Shabana Mahmood make a speech about migration. It was a huge and meaty speech. Giving people £10k to leave the country might be a sensible solution as it costs much more than that to keep someone here, but it was always going to be controversial. Time, then, to stand up and bang the drum. This is who we are. This is what we do. This is why we do it.
Except, of course not, this government are terrified of everyone else. They can’t say something positive they’re doing without talking down anyone else.
The Home Secretary’s speech from yesterday is up on gov.uk, where all government announcements live. This is a government speech and so bashing other parties isn’t allowed on there. They have had to insert ‘[political content redacted]’ 10 times.
She focused on the Green Party and Reform. She spoke of Polanski’s ‘fairy tale’ and ‘the nightmare of Nigel Farage’. She took every opportunity to have a go.
This is a serious time for our country in many ways. This is a time when our government should be standing up and being counted.
The issues of war in the Middle East, inflation and youth unemployment and immigration are huge.
When dealing with them, though, we see the three most powerful politicians in the country - the Prime MInister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Home Secretary - all choosing to use their platform to talk down others. To diminish.
They’re reading the polls, they’re looking at election results and they’re terrified.
Monday - MPs will debate a Lords amendment that criminalises VPN companies if they provide VPS for children.
Tuesday - Courts and Tribunals Bill. This is the one that will end the right to trial by jury for most people. Will there be a rebellion at this point? Will that come later? Maybe a U-turn in the offing? Nobody knows…
Wednesday - PMQs.
Thursday - Backbench Business debate on International Women’s Day.
And just like that, another week is nearly done.
Be well x
Maybe I'm just tired but I really do wish there would be less finger pointing and we're better than them and well at least we aren't and more focus on actually what they're doing. And then doing that stuff! It's no wonder that some people switch off from politics when none of them are actually saying anything more than attacking each other.