#parliament
THE DEBATE
It should have been an easy re-election to Parliament. A well-known and well-respected gay male who had easily won in the previous election was facing a very mild, dull candidate for his seat. On the day of the televised debate, he was confident- until it was just the two of them on stage with only their microphones… His opponent suddenly became loud, witty, brash, and now had an uncanny ability to humiliate with his polished and aggressive words… it was a setup! But no matter how hard he tried to recover, he kept getting pounded on every argument- soundly defeated on each issue… Then during the final statements, he heard his opponent strike at the issue he had long thought was not an issue- or even one of his strong points: his sexuality… His opponent started referring to him as “flaming” and a “queen” - which left the studio audience laughing so hard. It was uncontrollable laughter- only dying down as his opponent lobbed even more insults at him- now boldly using the words “faggot” and “pervert”- and ending with a high-pitched “homooooo-sesh-ual”! As the laughter continued, he looked down at his pants, and realized he was now fully erect, and might be seen- and maybe that was causing additional laughter! But rather than risk his erection becoming fully apparent in his pants, he just ran off the stage- to even more jeers from his former constituents…
He ignored his staff and got in his car - racing home, and running in the house, and closing the door behind him…
He couldn’t believe what had just happened- humiliated on television, called names, laughed at… His political career was over that night- and to top it all off, he looked at himself in the hallway mirror. And what did he see? He was standing there without pants- for some reason, he had taken them off in the car… And he was erect… And so, to appropriately finish the most humiliating night of his life, he thought of his opponent and how he had thoroughly been conquered. He then grabbed his penis and furiously masturbated like he had never before… He started to cry- and then ejaculated… It was over. It was all over now.
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I get to photograph a lot of portraits, which I have mostly neglected in this blog of mine. Im going to start posting more and more, with the aim of improving this skill, and reflecting on the many faces of I’ve encountered in the local reality.
Here is an off moment within a portrait session with Arab-Israeli Knesset Member, Ahmad Tibi, at his office in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem, back in November, 2015. Tibi is a member of the Joint List party, a union of Arab political parties that was formed before the last Knesset elections with the goal of together reaching a larger number of parliament seats and beating the electoral threshold. The goal was more than reached, being the second largest party in parliament, sitting in the Opposition.
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A 10-minute portrait session with Israel’s Defense Minister, Moshe Boogie Yaalon, photographed in an empty classroom at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, prior to the last Knesset elections, on March 4, 2015.
Photo by Hadas Parush/Flash90
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Just how big a difference did you make in GE2017?
This graphic, shared by @williamjordann, shows a significant disconnect between the intentions of young and old voters. We already knew that young voters overwhelmingly supported Remain in the Brexit referendum, and now a very similar trend is seen in the election results: the majority of young people voted for Labour.
We’re certainly not saying the hung parliament was entirely the result of increased youth turnout, but there’s no denying that we as an age group have suddenly moved up the priority lists of politicians everywhere. We mean something now. We’re an engaged group of voters with an almost universal political identity.
We’re a very big fish and, should Corbyn slip up, we’re seemingly ready to be caught.
Sources:
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The Queen’s Speech has been delayed.
Hold up, isn’t the Queen’s Speech just a Christmas thing?
This has been a common question today, so if you’ve been wondering the same thing, you weren’t alone! The Queen gives her Christmas speech every year (makes sense, right?) but to get full value for money on the royal family, she’s also brought out after each general election.
Makes sense. So what does she actually talk about?
The post-election Queen’s Speech is a quick summary of all the major policies the party-in-power hope to implement over their term. Not everything will make it in: the past two Tory manifestos pledged to repeal the ban on fox hunting, but the policy never featured in the speech.
When was it meant to happen?
The speech was originally scheduled for June 19th (next Monday). No date has been set yet for when we’ll end up hearing it.
Okay, but why has this one been delayed then?
Right, so this is where it gets a bit more complicated, mostly because at this point we move into the realm of speculation. Never a good thing for an article on politics, y’know?
Theresa May ran on a promise of strength and stability. She was hoping to get a huge majority for the Tories to (a) put Britain in a better negotiating position with the EU and (b) bolster her self-esteem. This didn’t go to plan: we now have a ‘hung parliament’.
All those policies the Tories could have put in the Queen’s Speech suddenly look doubtful to pass a vote in the House of Commons. Right now, senior Tories are going over and over their manifesto looking for the bits and pieces that stand a chance and coming to terms with the policies they’ll have to lose. This is one of the reason’s it’s going to take longer than usual to prepare the speech.
Didn’t the Tories make that deal with the DUP to avoid this sort of thing though?
The DUP agreement is a Confidence and Support deal rather than a full on coalition. What this means is that the 10 DUP MPs in the Commons keep their right to vote against Tory policies if they don’t agree with them.
A good example is triple-lock pensions. This is a promise by the government to increase state pensions each year in line with inflation or wage growth, or by 2.5% (whichever of the three is highest). The Tory manifesto pledged to do away with this, whereas the DUP strongly support keeping the protection. In a Commons vote, the Tories will face a real struggle to secure the majority vote needed to scrap the scheme.
It’s also likely that the delay is partly because of this deal: the DUP will be making some demands of the Tories in exchange for their support that the Tories just won’t be that willing to accept.
So what does this mean for the government then?
As of right now, Theresa May’s Tory party still hold the power. The delaying of the Queen’s Speech has made them look weaker to the public and has potentially put a dent in the timetable for Brexit negotiations (will we even have an official Prime Minister when they’re due to start in 9 days?).
There’s rumour that Corbyn is poised to take full advantage of this perceived instability. Labour are supposedly planning to try and block each and every policy the Tories try to include in their Queen’s Speech. If a speech cannot be agreed upon, then there’s a series of steps that could be followed to give Corbyn a chance to form his own minority government.
That’s only a very remote possibility though!
tl;dr The Conservative Party have delayed the Queen’s Speech as they struggle to edit their manifesto to a more centrist position.
Got a question about GE17? Ask us here orsend us a tweet!
Who’s in Theresa May’s Cabinet?
If it sounds like a twisted children’s game, we promise it was only half intentional.
After every general election, the first fun game (after ‘who the heck will the minority government team up with?’) is the building of the cabinet. The Conservative party have decided to set themselves up as the minority government in a ‘confidence and support’ scheme with the DUP, meaning they get first shot at playing the game.
Don’t forget - they haven’t passed the Queen’s speech test yet, so this might not be the government we finish with. There’s talk of Corbyn (backed by almost every non-blue MP) making a bid for power and completely obliterating the Queen’s speech talks. It’s unlikely, but an interesting potential plot twist nonetheless.
So back to The Game.
How does a prospective Prime Minister choose her cabinet? Some, like Amber Rudd and Philip Hammond, are pretty obvious choices. They already held their seats before the snap-election and were very loudly on May’s side even after the polls had closed on a slightly-darker-than-expected day for the Conservative party. Any name not in bold falls into this category.
Then we get to the four newcomers, the ladies and gentlemen getting promoted or demoted in the aftermath of GE17. These are the boldednames in our list (taken lovingly from the BBC live updates page, accurate as of 10pm on June 11th).
First we have Damian Green. Let’s think of him as Theresa May’s best mate. Admittedly, with the Tory performance in a snap election they probably shouldn’t have lost, he maybe doesn’t have so much competition for that role as in April. The fact remains that Damian Green, 61 years old and Oxford educated (like 15% of the 650 MPs elected on Thursday) is now officially Theresa’s righthand man in Parliament.
Green retained his seat in Ashford, Kent, with a 29% majority. He has previously voted against a ban on fox hunting. Generally speaking, he votes along party lines (no rebellion from this staunch Tory man). His most recent role in government was as the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (the benefits department) from July 2016, so a definite promotion this time.
What about the new Justice Secretary, David Lidington? Bucking the political trend, Lidington is not an alumni of Oxford University… he attended Cambridge, earning a PhD in Elizabethan history. This is another man promoted after the 2017 election: his previous role was as Leader of the House of Commons. Perhaps most notably, this CBE honoured 60 year old once claimed over £115,000 in expenses in one year. This included £1,300 claimed for toiletries like toothpaste and vitamin supplements.
The man replacing him in Work and Pensions is David Gauke, the MP for South West Hertfordshire. This is another for the expenses scandal files: Gauke once claimed over £10,000 in expenses for a second flat in London, despite his commute to the city being under an hour by car. A law graduate of Oxford University, all of Gauke’s previous roles in government have been within the Treasury department.
‘What about the women?!’ we hear you ask. There are over 200 female MPs in Parliament now - surely one of them must have been promoted to the top table? Welcome, Liz Truss. Having attended a comprehensive school - and then Oxford University - Truss has been moved from Justice Secretary to Chief Secretary to the Treasury. This is the second most senior position within the Treasury, so a big move for the first woman ever to hold the Justice position.
One name that was only announced afterwe took this screenshot was Michael Gove, the new Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. In a shrewd move by Theresa May to block off a leadership challenge from Gove, he has been brought back into government (albeit to the role nobody ever asks for). Michael Gove, while Education Secretary, once faced a vote of no confidence in his policies from all major teaching unions.
So that’s the cabinet as it stands. It’s a who’s-who of Oxford alumni, a Dulux wall chart for a house themed on Whipped Cream Gone Off. Alternatively, it’s a collection of qualified, competent, devout Tory MPs who are now less likely to stab May in the back to try and steal her position as head of the party.
We’ll leave it to you to decide your view on the matter…
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Two big stories in UK political news today, both in the form of Queen’s Speech Amendments. Last week, we gave you a quick overview of the 24 bills Theresa May’s Tories included in their Queen’s Speech, 8 of which focused on Brexit.
Today, two big amendments were put to a vote in the House of Commons.
First was a proposal led by Labour’s Stella Creasy to allow women from Northern Ireland to get free abortions in England. Currently, abortions in Northern Ireland are banned unless in extreme circumstances of poor health, and the women who travel to England for the procedures have to pay around £900. It passed the house and will now come into law.
The amendment - which was backed by more than 50 MPs from across the major parties - means Northern Irish women will now have their abortions in England covered by the NHS. Fairly reasonable, when you consider most of these women pay the taxes that fund the service. It is estimated the amendment will cost approximately £1 million per year.
Second was a Brexit-based amendment led by Labour’s Chuka Umunna. This amendment suggested the UK stay in the single market, which guarantees free movement of goods, services, money and labour within the EU. Jeremy Corbyn called on all Labour MP’s to abstain from the vote and threatened they would be sacked from any ministerial roles if they rebelled. So far we are aware of 3 Labour frontbenchers who have been sacked from their roles for not abstaining.
While parties such as Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats showed unanimous support for the amendment, it was easily defeated due to Labour abstentions.
Then all that remained was the vote on the final Queen’s Speech, the last piece of the puzzle to make Theresa May the undisputed Prime Minster of the United Kingdom. With the support of the DUP’s 10 MPs, the Queen’s Speech passed.
tl;dr Good news for women, bad news for business, great news for Theresa May
It’s been the big will-they-won’t-they romance of the summer so far, but Theresa May has finallysnagged her woman. Something the DUP probably wouldn’t approve of in any other circumstances…
Yes,the Tories have reached a deal with the DUP, ending over two weeks of talks.
Firstly, the good news: it is nota coalition. In the UK, coalitions have been very rare - the 2010 Lib-Con coalition was the first for 70 years - but usually they involve the smaller party being allowed to nominate ministers and propose their own bills.
This is not that.
The DUP have entered into a confidence and supply deal with the Tories. In return for £1bn extra funding for Northern Ireland, the DUP have agreed to support the Tories in votes of confidence and in budgetary matters. It is likely the 8 DUP MPs will be allowed to vote with their conscience when other policy issues are debated.
In return, the DUP are allowed a little influence over some Tory policy - the Conservatives have already agreed not to scrap Triple Lock Pensions and to find an alternative to means testing winter fuel tax.
So is there bad news? If you’re a Labour voter, yes. If you’re LGBT, you might think so. If you don’t like seeing a woman embroiled in financial scandal being bought for £1bn, almost certainly. And we’ve yet to see how the Tories will defend their neutrality clause in the Good Friday Agreement…
In the end, it’s what the deal symbolises which is concerning. The Tories have clung to power by spending £1bn of tax payer money that, just a few months ago, wasn’t available for education, the health service or social housing.
For more information on the DUP from out NI reporter, check out our article: Who Are the DUP?
tl;dr Theresa May has finally pulled Arlene Foster, but it’s not a formal arrangement
Long-awaited (and for once not all that long-winded) the Queen’s Speech was finally revealed at 11:30am today. So just what did it contain?
Brexit
8 out of the 24 bills in the speech related to plans for UK policy after leaving the EU. We’ve broken down the main aspects of each bill below:
- Repeal Bill – turns EU law into UK law so UK Parliament can make changes
- Customs Bill – UK takes control of import and exports
- Trade Bill – lets the UK make trade deals with other countries
- Immigration Bill – allows UK government to end free movement of EU nationals into UK
- Fisheries Bill – gives UK control of its waters and fishing quotas
- Agriculture Bill – a system will be put in place to protect UK famers
- Nuclear Safeguards Bill – creates a UK nuclear safeguards regime to replace the EU one
- International Sanctions Bill – gives government final say on imposing non-UN sanctions to the UK and ensures sanctions can still be challenged
Economy
This was a stripped back speech, with very little change in economic policy. Only 5 bills related to the economy:
- Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill – service stations will, at some point, need to install charge points for electric vehicles
- Space Industry Bill – new commercial spaceflight to be licensed, including rockets
- HS2 Phase 2A Bill – the high speed railway will extend to Crewe sooner than planned
- Smart Meter Bill – every household will be offered smart meters by 2020
- National Insurance Contributions Bill – allows for the changes announced in 2016 budget
Other
There were 11 miscellaneous policies. More notable bills include the Courts Bill, which will remove the right of partners accused of domestic violence to cross-examine their alleged victim in court.
On a similar vein, the Draft Domestic Violence and Abuse Bill will introduce new measures to protect victims of domestic violence.
For younger voters, the Data Protection Bill is very interesting - it will require social media accounts to delete information held about you at the age of 18.
What does this all mean?
Legally, not very much. Not until next week anyway, when the MPs in the House of Commons will have the chance to vote for or against each bill individually. With a majority not yet secured, there’s a chance not all of these proposed bills will pass. Even then, these are just a snapshot of proposed government policy over the next 2 years.
What the Queen’s Speech does tell us is that the Tories are not having a very happy time at the moment. A large chunk of their manifesto has gone missing:
- New grammar schools
- The ‘dementia tax’
- Scrapping triple lock pensions
- Replacing free school lunches with free breakfasts
- Energy price caps
- Voting to remove ban on fox hunting
- Means testing winter fuel payments
The suggestion is that the Tories did not think they would be able to pass these policies through the Commons - the more liberal parties were all very vocal in their opposition to these proposals during election campaigning, and even the DUP do not agree with scrapping triple lock pensions.
Through the Queen’s Speech, we’ve been given a little glimpse of the state of the Conservative Party: a monstrous papier-mâché parody of an unpopular manifesto.
![The Queen’s Speech [x]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/bf99fdf8ff12a413729f74701cd33750/tumblr_orw5m0yNYm1w8r8xio1_640.png "The Queen’s Speech [x]")
![The Queen’s Speech [x]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/99f0057ff0e3b03af6097d8dfebe7418/tumblr_orw5m0yNYm1w8r8xio2_1280.png "The Queen’s Speech [x]")
![The Queen’s Speech [x]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/c30946a9c2f03bb07303afd01bbb3d6d/tumblr_orw5m0yNYm1w8r8xio3_1280.png "The Queen’s Speech [x]")
![The Queen’s Speech [x]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/8642b03f6643225ab8d0e343032d0f6d/tumblr_orw5m0yNYm1w8r8xio4_1280.png "The Queen’s Speech [x]")
And so begins my degree in politics, philosophy and economics, all whilst still working full time… #politics #philosophy #economics #degree #openuniversity #uni #education #cresshorst #boxersofinstagram #fitfam #democracy #democratic #socialism #socialist #iifym #flexibledieting #politicalrevolution #peoplebeforeprofit #study #studying #socialsecurity #welfare #parliament
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And so begins my degree in politics, philosophy and economics, all whilst still working full time… #politics #philosophy #economics #degree #openuniversity #uni #education #cresshorst #boxersofinstagram #fitfam #democracy #democratic #socialism #socialist #iifym #flexibledieting #politicalrevolution #peoplebeforeprofit #study #studying #socialsecurity #welfare #parliament
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A Bulldog Keeps Watch
The statue of Winston Churchill (Ivor Roberts-Jones 1973) watches over the parliamentary offices of Portcullis House (Michael Hopkins and Partners 2001) and Big Ben. (Elizabeth Tower, Houses of Parliament / Palace of Westminster) Parliament Square, London.
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“Fall on!” Convinced of victory, troops of Parliament’s Eastern Association army break ranks and attack their fleeing Royalist opponents!
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The Eastern Association was the organisation of counties in the east of England - Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire - that funded and administered an army which eventually became a mainstay of the Parliamentarian military effort towards the end of 1644. Commanded by the Earl of Manchester, whose regiment we reenact, the Eastern Association not only helped shore up Parliament’s war effort but also provided the veteran troops who would form the backbone of the New Model Army and fostered the rise of Oliver Cromwell, who went from raising a volunteer cavalry troop to being King in all but name. Manchester had been one of the chief opponents of the king in the House of Lords and his Eastern Association army enjoyed success in its campaign against the northern forces of the Earl of Newcastle, defeating the Royalists in Lincolnshire, relieving Hull, capturing Lincoln, and then heading north to besiege York and, eventually, helping gain victory at Marston Moor.
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The tensions and arguments in its ranks between Presbyterians and Independents presaged the coming battle for control of Parliament between the two groups, and the political, religious, and military make-up of the Eastern Association remains a fascinating but sometimes misunderstood aspect of the first English Civil War.
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Shaun Stothard
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#easternassociation #parliament #historyofparliament #suffolk #norfolk #hertfordshire #essex #cambridgeshire #war #battle #photoreenactment #reenactment #reenactors #reenacting #reenactorstyle #reenactorslife #reenactorsofinstagram #reenactmentphotography #livinghistory #history #photohistory #historicalreenactment #17thcentury #sealedknot #dailyphoto #photoaday #photooftheday #photoadaychallenge #englishcivilwar #instadaily
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_vo3ZFncW-/?igshid=1kskfpstjse8o
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I really like Sandman, Neil Gaiman’s old comic series from back in the 1900s, and there’s this one with a part about rooks. Apparently a gathering of rooks is called a parliament, because sometimes hundreds of them all land in a field with one at the middle who everyone is looking at, and the guy in the middle goes “Caw! Caw! Caw!” for a while. But sometimes the rest of the rooks don’t like what the rook in the middle had to say, so they straight up peck it right to death. OR SO NEIL GAIMAN CLAIMED. But I looked it up, and that is bullshit. Rooks do NOT hold parliamentary proceedings, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
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On 1 February 1913, Leonora Cohen made history when she threw an iron bar at the Crown Jewels in protest at the Government. Becoming known as the ‘Tower Suffragette’, Leonora dedicated her life to fighting for women’s suffrage and equality. Not only did she campaign for women’s right to vote in 1918 and 1928, but incredibly she fought again in her late nineties for the passing of the Equal Pay Act in 1970. This gave men and women equal pay for equal work, something that she had been fighting for from the very beginning.
Discover Leonora Cohen’s remarkable story in our film (http://bit.ly/LeonoraCohen) and find out how you can get involved in our programme of events marking the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act 1918 here: http://bit.ly/VotesandVoices
