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Last Week in Politics

2 May 2017

By Lauren E. White

They say a week is a long time in politics. And they’re not wrong.

Last week in politics we saw the final PMQs before the election, heard Boris Johnson calling Corbyn a ‘mugwump’ (more on that later) and UKIP trying to stay relevant.

1. Monday – Jeremy guarantees EU citizen rights

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In a move that we were all expecting, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn guaranteed the rights of EU citizens living in the UK, even if the EU does not do the same for UK citizens.

Shadow secretary for Brexit Keir Starmer also said that the party’s top priority in the negotiations if Corbyn were to be elected on 8th June would be keeping the benefits of the single market and customs union. This is a stark contrast to Theresa May’s policy of pulling out of the single market altogether.

2. Tuesday – Mental health budgets are still being cut, despite Theresa May’s promises

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It was revealed that mental health care cuts in five regions of England would total £4.5 million.

This was a move I saw coming, and called out in my YEAR12PROBLEMS column when Theresa May promised sunshine and flowers of funding policies for mental health care.

While we have Prince Harry and the Royals raising the debate about mental health, the cuts are still happening and are going largely unnoticed. Thanks for that one, Theresa. Why not dig a bigger hole for our future generations?

3. Wednesday – Parliament closed – and a cute moment happened

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The final Prime Minister’s Question Time before the election was held in the House of Commons where Jeremy Corbyn took the opportunity to lambaste the PM for her poor record of truth. Theresa May took the opportunity to criticise Corbyn’s leadership (again) and it was basically the same as always.

For those living in Blaydon/surrounding areas, it was our MP Dave Anderson’s final PMQs too as he is standing down in the election. Ryton councillor Liz Twist will be Labour’s candidate for this general election and she opened the office on Saturday for anyone wishing to meet her.

In Parliament on Wednesday, a cute little moment between John Bercow, the Speaker of the House, and the Serjeant at Arms happened. You should watch it on Twitter below.

4. Thursday – Boris Johnson (regretfully for the Tories – and basically everyone else) opened his mouth

mugwump

Boris was back after criticism of the Conservatives hiding him away during the election for fear of any potentially humiliating gaffes.

Unfortunately, he escaped from Tory HQ and decided to do a bit of posh boy name-calling.

Did he call Corbyn an ‘idiot’? Nope. ‘Useless’? Nope. A ‘pleb’? Nope.

Instead, the Foreign Secretary called Corbyn a “mutton-headed old mugwump”. Yep. Because as JC pointed out himself, it totally does not sound like he’s insulting George on the Eton playground…

(P.S. – A ‘mugwump’ is used in many things, including Harry Potter in which Dumbledore is the Supreme Mugwump. So, technically, it’s a compliment…)

5. Friday – UKIP pledges to stay relevant by carrying on moaning about Brexit

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We all know they’ll never win, they have admitted to not wanting to win and now they’ve gotten us to leave the EU, everyone wonders what exactly their point is.

However, UKIP’s leader (no, contrary to popular opinion, it’s not Nigel Farage any more) Paul Nuttall has said that Brexit is a “half done job”. I wonder if that’s because we haven’t started properly yet?

The only way he would win the election is if he got votes for stating the obvious.

So, that was last week in politics. We hope you found this a useful and comprehensible guide to this often incomprehensible topic.

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