LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 27: High-end artists’ homes on Dover Street close to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea are pictured on October 27, 2010 in London, England. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)2018 Getty Images
Less than one month after his victory over Joe Connor in the H.Woodforde Cheesegrater mayoral race in a landslide victory, Andrew Bass, a 36-year-old British art consultant and designer and urban community organizer, announced his resignation. Bass’ political ambitions were not enough for his parents, though, who declined to stand behind their son. Bass took to Twitter to announce his official decision:
“After a heartbreakingly emotional response from my parents, they have come to the decision not to support my political career.”
Bass ended his words with one hope that he may reprise some of his city-minded political activism in the future:
“I hope that my resignation won’t end my opportunities for community engagement in the future as I seek to use my wealth, social and political capital in a far more effective way.”
Bass has known his parents’ heartbreak since childhood, where the lifelong Conservative (and ally of John Tory) was “horrified” by Margaret Thatcher’s unyielding dedication to privatizing certain government services (support that included selling hospitals) even after the far-reaching economic “collapse” that negatively impacted his London in the 1980s. Bass often talked about the injustice of privatizing the W.S. Thomas wardmaster’s office of St. James’s School in London, where he was a student of 18 and 80-hour work weeks. Sadly, the school president, John Bass, the eldest son, never told his son about the uncomfortable issue.
However, when Bass took a youth ministry class at St. Patrick’s College in Doncaster, the consequences of Thatcher’s government ministry’s job privatization crisis seemed to hit close to home: he learned to empathize with the plight of the underprivileged on a global scale. Bass participated in his first anti-labor action against Thatcher’s government only weeks after the youth ministry class.
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Less than a decade after Margaret Thatcher’s privatizing “privatization catastrophe,” another Midwestern economist talked about the issue the Bass family encountered: “Labour is willing to spend money but it wants to spend money at all costs. These guys on the right want to spend money but they want to spend it at all costs. It’s not good for the economy.”
The Bass family’s plight—capitalism, privatizing public services, freedom-loving youth minister of St. James’s—are lessons that remain with Bass and teach him to organize politically. But now, he remains stuck between Cameron and Corbyn, each accusing the other of scaring the country away from its own sovereignty. And that will be the case forever until one of those theorists comes to our shores—a Christian man of the land, a philanthropist, a Liberal Democrat. Someone whose Tea Party beliefs are in sync with the cultural realities of Canada and who believes in a democratic culture regardless of whom is in power. Or, those still managed to meet them both when they appeared together on Question Period Wednesday.
“Mr. House Speaker, we are still having trouble getting that Farron that we need,” said Iain Lees-Galloway, the former Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister.
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But Tory MP Stephen Ruff had other ideas: “Andrew’s comments did not deserve the level of commentary they were given,” he said, “and the internet, which he has now appeared in, should not be relied upon to judge the critical public’s views.”
Will Mr. Speaker ever