Q and A daily, part 16

I am angry. More so than usual. We are at the end of a week of remarkable revelations in Westminster. After revelations about the systematic sexual abuse and sexual harrassment perpetrated by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, the social media #metoo campaign demonstrated the scale of the problem across all walks of life. And accusations from the corridors of power here in the UK came to the surface. The Defence Secretary, Sir Michael Fallon, resigned this week. The de-facto deputy PM, Damien Green, is accused, as well as a number of other Conservative politicians. Labour politicians don’t emerge unscathed: Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins has been suspended pending investigation (and there are still questions whether Jeremy Corbyn ignored the warning of the whip Rosie Winterton that his conduct was unfit for office), and the Labour activist Bex Bailey disclosed that she had been raped and told not to report it by a senior party figure. The whole thing stinks, and makes me so angry. The response to it of so many in the public eye and the media makes it worse. What has been heartening is seeing the response of female politicians across the political divide, calling for a change. Real evidence that representation matters. As Hillary Clinton says, ‘the only way to get sexism out of politics is to get more women into politics‘. I have particularly enjoyed the interventions of Jess Phillips, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Harriet Harman. Go sisters! I can only hope that this will lead to a substantial change in the way politics is done. I can only hope.

Meanwhile elsewhere in British politics, the minor reshuffle caused by Fallon’s resignation outlined the incredibly weak position of the Prime Minister Theresa May, with many Tory backbenchers openly criticsing her choice to promote chief whip Gavin Williamson, and some cabinet ministers briefing against her to the press. All of which makes this article from the New York Times seem absolutely correct.

In my last post, I talked about the impending crisis for Spain and the Catalan declaration of independence. We came to the brink when the President of the state of Catalonia, Carlos Puigdemont, declared independence, but Spain soon moved to take direct control of the regional government. Puigdemont fled to Belgium and today handed himself over to the Belgian police. So disaster averted for now, but the issue of Catalan independence will not be going away anytime soon.

Meanwhile, in ridiculous American politics, we saw the first round of indictments in the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in last year’s presidential election. I haven’t got the energy to go into it at the moment, but as the lead investigator Robert Mueller said today, there’s more to come.

We’re almost at one year of this diary and blog. I’m looking forward to seeing how things change over the years as I revisit previous questions. For now, the last original responses:

October 17th question: What’s the most valuable thing you own?

2017 response: Monetary value – flat. Sentimental value – gran’s ring. All of my artwork from various holidays.

October 18th question: What famous living person would you want to meet for drinks?

2017 response: Ooh hard choice! Helen Lewis, Tony Blair, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Ed Miliband.

October 21st question: What new word have you learned?

2017 response: Fake news is the Collins dictionary word of the year.

October 22nd question: Write a haiku about your day

2017 response (written 5th Nov): Westminster sex pests, Allegations come to light, Government at risk

October 24th question: How are you? Write it in a rhyming couplet

2017 response: Sir Michael Fallon made his exit, I hope it means we don’t do Brexit

October 25th question: What is the most honest thing you’ve said today?

2017 response: Brexit is a load of shit. (ok, I didn’t actually say this out loud, but I definitely think it every day).

October 28th question: _______________ is completely ridiculous.

2017 response: British politics – especially our constitution.

October 30th question: Are you able to tell when you have enough?

2017 response: Sometimes. Depends on what – I’ve had enough of everyday sexism at the moment.

October 31st question: Halloween plans? What’s your costume?

2017 response: Mary Poppins inspired sister suffragettes with Jenny & Frances.

November 1st question: What was something you couldn’t do today?

2017 response: Stop Brexit.

 

Looking back on a time when I hadn’t started this project, and I still thought Hillary Clinton would be US president. I hope as I come to the second, and all subsequent years of this project, that I see the treatment of women in public life, and in all sectors of life, improve.

Q and A daily, part 15

It’s almost 2 months since I last posted, and once again, there has been so much happen that it is hard to keep up. So I will try and keep to only the most significant geopolitical developments, as well as some mildly amusing domestic politics. I spent the first two weeks of this hiatus on holiday in northern Spain, and it was glorious. A road trip through stunning scenery that changed dramatically as we meandered through it, stopping in beautiful historic towns and villages, eating delicious food and drinking delicious wine. What struck me, as someone who has been to Spain a few times but never hugely explored Spanish culture (like a lot of Brits who visit Spain..), is just how varied the landscape, culture and experience was: from the Basque country, through Castile & Leon, La Rioja, Navarre, Cantabria, Asturias, and Galicia. When we were there we heard the news that Catalonia was going to go ahead with a referendum on independence that the Spanish government ruled illegal. It took place on 1 October, with a low turnout, but an enormous majority voting yes, and horrific violence from the Spanish national police trying to suppress voting, injuring hundreds of innocent people. The whole thing is so difficult to comment on as an outsider, but I am both supportive of self-determination and worried that this conflict could destroy Spain as a country, and potentially the whole European Union. It may sound dramatic, but it does feel like we’re in dramatic times, and anything could happen. As I write this, the Catalan leader has declared independence but delayed it for talks with the Spanish government, who are rejecting the legitimacy of independence. It all seems intractable. I hope it isn’t.

In UK news, we had party conference season, where the Labour party conference was to all accounts triumphant, if in places a little bit Jeremy Corbyn-culty, and the Conservative party conference was miserable, fuelled by rumours of leadership challenges, and crowned by a disastrous speech by the PM where she struggled with a cough, was handed a P45 by a prankster, and the letters of the slogan fell off the wall. All hilarious, and I’d spend more time on that if I wrote this blog a week or two ago, but feels irrelevant in the place of real stuff happening in the world. Like the stalling of Brexit negotiations, and the prospect of a ‘no deal’ Brexit being an actual possibility.

Let’s not even get started on the US. Trump has had three natural disasters to deal with (in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico), and has for some reason got into twitter storms with the leaders of Puerto Rico. He has taken a stand against the NFL players taking a knee to protest the inequality African Americans face, extended his travel ban to further countries, signed an executive order on healthcare that will undermine the Affordable Care Act without any legislation to replace it (and the Republicans’ third attempt to pass a healthcare bill, the Graham-Cassidy bill, couldn’t get agreement), proposed a HUGE tax cut (incidentally, if you google search ‘Trump tax plan’ vs ‘Trump tax cut’ you get very different results..) that basically screws over everyone except the very rich, and I’m sure more that I’ve missed. Outrage is the new normal, and outrageous activity from the White House is also the new normal. Oh yes, the biggest insult to injury – Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, among others, were found to have USED PERSONAL EMAIL ACCOUNTS whilst in government service. Remember Hillary’s emails?! Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton published a book, What Happened?, about the 2016 election, which I just finished listening to on audiobook and am all pumped up about.

So, onto the basically irrelevant questions from my Q&A diary:

August 30th question: What’s your simplest pleasure?

2017 response:  A glass of red wine and the New Statesman podcast.

September 3rd question: Where have you found evidence of a higher power?

2017 response: Despite what’s happening in UK & US politics, there’s been a lot of progress in disease eradication and poverty reduction.

September 4th question: Where do you see yourself in five years?

2017 response: Definitely keeping up with the blog. Hopefully not talking about Brexit and Trump any more.

September 6th question: What was the last online video clip that you watched?

2017 response: Kate McKinnon’s SNL open Hallelujah as Hillary Clinton. Bawled my eyes out.

September 9th question: What comes to mind when you think of fear?

2017 response: What will happen to the UK when we leave the EU. Seriously, it’s terrifying.

September 21st question: Where do you think your road is going?

2017 response: Me: I hope to a head of L&D role. UK: To a no-deal Brexit [though I really hope not!] World: Despite nuclear escalation, to a better place.

September 22nd question: What shocking news have you recently learned?

2017 response: Hahahahahahahahaha. Not enough space. The shocking has become nornmalised now.

September 23rd question: Write down a quote for today:

2017 response: “To all the little girls who are watching this: never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance in the world to pursue your dreams” – Hillary Clinton, concession speech 2016.

and there’s a whole lot of questions I find uninteresting, until:

October 13th question: You have no patience for: _________

2017 response: Conservative party squabbling. Sort it out & negotiate Brexit!

Well it seems like there isn’t enough time to cover everything, but then also not covering everything as it happens makes me think about what is truly relevant and might acutally be interesting five years from now. It’s hard to know what will last, maybe something I’ve emitted from the past two months will come to define the era in retrospect. I have tried to choose to cover here what is important, but who knows?