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Mansfield market place with the nineteenth century
Bentinck Memorial in the centre. |
I never imagined that there
would be a mention in this blog, of Mansfield in Nottinghamshire,
U.K., a fairly unlovely East Midlands town and my birthplace, the
town where I lived for the first 34 years of my life. I went to King
Edward’s Primary School there and then the Brunts Grammar School. I
taught there, danced and socialised, lived and loved there. Oh,
mostly happy far-off days!
I bought a copy of The
Times on Saturday 18th May and was totally bemused
and pretty incredulous to read in it an item headed ‘Rees-Mogg’s
sister is the star in Brexitland’. There
is a picture of Annunziata Rees-Mogg in Mansfield market place,
described as ‘surrounded by a gaggle of middle-aged
admirers’. The article claims
the crowd, queuing to see her, was anxious to shake her hand and
have selfies with her! I pinched myself. Ms Rees-Mogg, sister of the
Right Hon. Member for the 18th
Century, and high profile recruit to the Brexit Party, attracting
adoring interest from Mansfield inhabitants! And,
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| Annunziata in Mansfield with supporters |
standing for the
Brexit Party in the East Midlands, virtually guarantees a seat in the
European Parliament. Which is the secret to this public adoration and
unlikely pairing of former mining town with member of an old,
important family definitely situated in the upper crust!!
There
is quite an excerpt in the item on 63 year old Laurence Caunt,
ex-Labour and ex-NUM [National Union of Mineworkers] who accuses the
Labour Party of deserting the working class and decries the fact that
Brexit constituencies have Remain MPs. Mansfield and its ilk are now
driving Corbyn’s policy of ‘Look both ways’
for Brexit in an endeavour for Labour to reclaim these lost, traditional
strongholds. The poignant pity of it all is that the stratum in which
the Rees-Moggs reside will simply enjoy the luxury of nostalgia
restored and dreams of latter day Empire revived. While the chiefly
working class of the Midlands and the North will bear the brunt of
the anticipated economic turbulence and austerity. The more I see of
Brexit and its destructive social and economic effects, the more
inclined I am to wring David Cameron’s neck for his ill-judged,
arrogant and careless attempts at Party management.
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| Boris Johnson |
And
now, late to post the above, I hear that Theresa will be pushed from her post on June 7.
Which means that the fifteen or so eager candidates to replace her
will all
be
jostling for media attention with the focus reliably on Boris. If
he can persuade M.P.s that he can out-Farage Farage, then political
considerations may well cause Members to swallow pride and ethics
and place him on their list of two. And then the 130,000 elderly
Tory
Party members, Boris-adorers apparently, will assuredly
vote
him in as
Prime Minister, the least qualified, most ill-equipped ever. As
Martin Fletcher of The New Statesman online, suggests., “He
is a congenital liar, serially disloyal,
untrustworthy,
irresponsible and hopelessly chaotic”.
One could add his lack of the work ethic, inability/ unwillingness
to properly prepare for important public occasions,; disrespect for
business, for Northern Ireland, for any complexity in almost any
situation, for
truth. Boris
does have many gifts, not least his way with words, his oratory. If
only the rest of him lived up to those standards. As it is, or may
well be, impending
catastrophe is
approaching. A little postscript to add this Saturday morning; I heard on Radio 4, one contender for the leadership, Rory Stewart, an immensely able and honourable man, saying he would not serve in a Boris-led government. SO interesting!!
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| Rory Stewart |
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| Theresa May's resignation speech. |
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| Nigel Farage at the launch of his new Brexit Party. |
