A local speech for local people

[smokingboot]

From Theresa May's speech about her 'shared society.' And because I do not need to restrain myself here, my interpretations are inbold just in case, as is often the way with May's speeches, one gets the disturbing impression that she is using a great deal of English to say nothing;

"A few months ago at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, I upset some by saying that “if you think you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere”. [A few months ago, my bladder was voiding itself so constantly in fear of the Far Right I decided to reveal my secret identity as Goering's devoted grand-daughter, reckoning I could placate everyone else later]
But my point was simple. [This is later]. It was that the very word ‘citizen’ implies that we have responsibilities to the people around us [It doesn't but please don't check] The people in our community, on our streets, in our places of work. [Note to self: Not hospitals; FFS don't mention hospitals] And too often today, those responsibilities have been forgotten as the cult of individualism [i.e My party's base principal of self reliance] has taken hold, and globalisation and the democratisation of communications has encouraged people to look beyond their own communities and immediate networks in the name of joining a broader global community.[Never do this.What's the point of fences if you keep looking over them?] I want to be absolutely clear about what I am saying here.[I want to be absolutely clear in saying nothing at all, but even the Queen is sick of me sucking my teeth in terrified silence] I am not arguing against globalisation [foreigners' money] – nor the benefits it brings [foreigners' money] – from modern travel and modern media to new products in our shops and new opportunities for British companies to export their goods to millions of consumers all around the world [foreigners'money]. Indeed, I have argued that Britain has an historic global opportunity to lead the world in shaping the forces of globalisation so that everyone shares in the benefits of economic growth.[I was a Remainer and argued just the opposite. But never mind that now, just despise foreigners and get their money.]

I hate the paucity and meanness of it, the implication that the person next door matters more than the person 5000 miles away. They certainly do not matter less, it is the implication of either/or that I detest, this idea that you can care about people far away or here but you can't do both; that's what lies behind all these grand words, no largesse, no nobility, the sort of kindness that melts for you if your eyes are the same colour as theirs, if you speak the same language and support the same football team, and then rejoices in closing up if you don't belong. Out of sight, out of mind, unless there's money in it,and even then the trade must come second to tribalism. It is parochial and prejudiced and denies the universality of human experience. It is petty.

I utterly despise it.