But there's no smoke at all coming out of the stack

[julesjones]

 For the mill has shut down and it's never coming back.

That's the second time I've seen a former employer fall to the dynamite. It takes time to demolish a mill safely; months, even years. But the destruction started long ago, with investment choices and other choices; some of those choices made by a government hell bent on shovelling as much money to its chums as possible, and if that means bringing down an industry so you can push large government grants for regeneration of a derelict industrial site to your party donors rather than grants to keep the mill afloat through the lean times, well, that's just business, isn't it?

Forgive me if I'm cynical if the promised regeneration ever happens. This is, after all, the government that gave millions to a ferry company with no ferries. There was once a Tory party with a one nation philosophy, an enlightened self-interest that believed that the rich had a duty to the poor, to provide a safety net and make sure nobody fell through it. That too has gone and is never coming back.

Comments

[watervole]

I now have to go away and listen to Belfast Mills. It's such a haunting song.

Even Richard, has given up on this government - and like you, he long had faith in the better parts of the Tory party.

[julesjones]

It was clear after the Brexit referendum, when Cameron quite rightly refused to be left with picking up the mess so Johnson could claim the glory of delivering Brexit, that One Nation Toryism was done. The party had been completely parasitized by the far right appealing to nationalism and spite against anyone who was worse off. May did try to hold things together, but she was never going to be able to drag the party back to something resembling a coherent policy beyond "you need to hate Those People".

[watervole]

Yes, there now seems to be a solid view that if you are poor, it is entirely your own fault, and nothing to do with the power of large, wealthy businesses to force down wages.

[heleninwales]

The number of times I've said recently, "These are not PROPER Tories. They're just looting the nation's coffers."

[julesjones]

Yes. The process of purging the party of anyone with any long term plan beyond "what can we asset-strip?" began a while back. They've forced out people like Michael Heseltine, Ken Clarke and Nicholas Soames, who cared about the future of the country and about the people who weren't them and their friends. Anyone still left who has some empathy or conscience has been intimidated into staying silent while the looting takes place.