UK Local Election Propaganda: “Significant Losses for Both Sides”
The local elections have been a complete disaster for the Tories. They have lost over 1100 seats (as of 7pm today). They have lost nearly forty councils. They have been destroyed. It’s a humiliation.
However, if you just read the headlines, you might not get this impression.
The BBC has gone with this:
The Financial Times went with:
Pressure Mounts on May and Corbyn over Brexit deal: Tories and Labour suffer losses
The Guardian likewise is misrepresenting the situation, with an even stronger focus on Labour: Their headline points out Labour’s “heavy losses”, there’s a Freedland opinion piece criticising Labour and even a special write-up about Labour losing control of Bolsover council.
Just for a quick reality check, here are the actual results:
Have Labour gained a whole bunch of seats? No. But the media effort to conflate Labour’s minor losses with the complete trouncing the Conservatives have taken is totally dishonest.
Especially bearing in mind the disparity in press coverage – Labour routinely have smear campaigns run against their members and their leadership, including fresh (preposterous) allegations of “antisemitism” the DAY BEFORE the polling for these seats.
This is nothing new. Last year the local elections were portrayed as total defeat for Labour, despite making gains and winning 80% of the mayoral elections. The gains “were not big enough” and Corbyn was “humiliated”. If this was a humiliation for Corbyn….what on Earth is today for Theresa May?
The propaganda on this issue is two-fold, it’s not just minimizing the Tory losses to attack Corbyn’s labour, it’s also attempting to turn the UK into a one-issue nation. Every vote cast, the media tell us, was cast by people thinking about Brexit. Labour’s “heavy losses” are allegedly because of remain voters flocking to the Lib Dems or Green party.
This doesn’t even hold water in the media’s own narrative – Bolsover council, which the Guardian choses to focus on, has slipped from Labour control into a stalemate. Bolsover voted 70% for Leave.
The Tory government, and the craven local councillors, have increased poverty, increased homelessness, cut social care, cut unemployment, cut the NHS, cut everything. Police are down, crime is up. The rich and mega corporations refuse to pay their taxes without censure, whilst 10% of the country is being hit with council tax bills they literally cannot afford to pay.
Have some people voted against the Tory’s because they want to remain? Of course. But more than that, the Tories are the party of brutal austerity, declining living standards, desperation, poverty and a return to a quasi-Victorian social divide.
The people hate them, and if the press would do their duty and hold power to account, then this electoral embarrassment could have been even greater.
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You’ve all forgotten dear Vince – he’s won the cup don’t ya know and has qualified for next season’s Champions League!!
Have you guys watched this? Two years old
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn ‘What Was Done’ *HQ Official*
Haven’t got much to say but did notice that the Greens, who under Bennett especially were very anti Israel and Zionism, have in fact made the greatest gains. Just an observation which I concluded was a strong message to the establishment that many voters are “against” Israel and “for” the planet. Also I am a remainer and voted Labour, so don’t quite understand how certain individuals might claim the Labour losses are due to Brexit. Whilst I might despise the EU I loathe the Washington regime even more and as previously I will protest any TPA the US userers want to mire us in.
“The Tory government, and the craven local councillors, have increased poverty, increased homelessness, cut social care, cut unemployment, cut the NHS, cut everything. Police are down, crime is up. The rich and mega corporations refuse to pay their taxes without censure, whilst 10% of the country is being hit with council tax bills they literally cannot afford to pay.” – true, but surely all of this pales into insignificance when compared to the horrors of media invented antisemitism, or the fact Labour is over run with extremists wanting to reassert the post-war settlement, or who fail to embrace all aspects of Blairism, especially the bits about killing people in the Middle East while claiming it is for their own good? By the way was there an election in Tory Northampton in the end, or have they had to sell off municiple offices in order to pay various out-sourcing debts, meaning… Read more »
The Tories won 3,564 seast to Labour’s 2,021 last Thursday, and the projected national vote share was 28% each. Labour losts eats they managed to win on the day they disastrously lost the Ed Miliband general election in 2015.
Brexit is unravelling both of the main parties and I wouldn’t even bet a fiver on JC being leader of the largest party after the next GE.
The parallels between politics in the UK and in the US, the spins, the parties, the mealymouthed prevarication of the press and the affiliations of the main players becomes more and more striking.
Absolutely, and a key dilemma at the heart of the Brexit convulsions, as I see it.
A: Brexit – although this choice theoretically offers greater scope for democracy, in reality it delivers what’s left of our infra structure to US corporations and their right wing allies in Albion, who, like hyenas, will feast on whatever scraps are left by the US lions.
B: Remain – although this choice theoretically offers short term economic, and logistical stability in reality it cede what’s left of national self-determination to banking fiat or the whim of unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels.
“…although this choice theoretically offers greater scope for democracy, in reality it delivers what’s left of our infra structure to US corporations and their right wing allies in Albion”
A very good definition of the meaning of the term ‘defeatism.’
From the outside, the shameful invasion and rendering poodling to the Americans does not shed soft flattering light on any national self-determination. Invasion monkeying seems a low aspiration bar. As was widely reported, the American military envies the GCHQ which does things they “could never get away with”. Why tie your wagons to a decaying amoral Empire? Leaving will indeed force you further into the tentacles of a country which will not have your best interests at heart and will use and abuse you as long as you give them the respect they cannot get from anyone else.
Of course the annoying way the French and Germans, and the EU, do things is unpalatable but this Hobson’s choice is not even close to being balanced, imo. The notion that somehow the Commonwealth will step up for you ignores the sea changes in some of those.
-1027 -72 +556 -32 +151 +210 = -214
Shouldn’t the number of seats gained and lost add up to zero?
Local Elections : MSM Nonsense – and the real message for politicians
https://truepublica.org.uk/united-kingdom/local-elections-msm-nonsense-and-the-real-message-for-politicians/
A lot of those local councillors are officials that the Labour Party could do without. Many of them represent everything that Labour is fighting against, from austerity to imperialist sympathies.
Take Glasgow, for example.
The centre-left, which includes the Labour Party, SPD, PSOE, PS, PASOK as well as the US Democrats have sold the pass. The ideology of this group of piecemeal reform from within has been swept aside by the neo-liberal counter-revolution. It’s time has gone. It is now in thrall to the neoliberal/neoconservative ascendancy. It is part of the problem, not the solution. Social-democracy in the advanced economies after the crash of 2008 had long been neutered; erstwhile social-democratic parties had become cheerleaders for financial deregulation. Rump lefts had failed to grow in thirty years; late-90s alter-globo movements seemed to have been wrong-footed by the harsher international climate of the war on terror as well as the phony war on terror and cheerleaders for NATO – NATO being little more than an army of occupation in Europe. The civil war in Greece – under a Labour government – and Korea saw the… Read more »
The teleology of a truly socialist party would be to absorb its own power superstructure, transversalising power to be distributed equally among the autonomous unity of a self-sovereign people …not its own perpetuation, as you say. No matter how long this takes. Which, coming from the four hundred year colonisation and capitalisation of consciousness – may well be a mighty long time. It is precisely the Nietzschian will to power that must be overcome. This leads to the immediate despotism of an Ubermensch and and Untermensch – the Master/Slave dialectic. And yes, this is a misreading of Nietzsche – but you don’t expect the power-knowledge regime to correctly interpret anything. It is their vocation to misunderstand, to interpret for power, to act as sole intercessors for interpretative rationales, and to impose their manipulated meaning on us. For the spoon-fed authoritarian massif to bleat: Nietzsche – didn’t he play for Arsenal?… Read more »
Errata: that’s reification, not rectification. And that was the keyboard, not me!
I mean ‘Will to power’ (wille zur macht) in the sense that a radical or revolutionary movement which means business; a movement that perforce is going to upset the apple-cart and not play by the rules set by the class enemy. A movement with a fundamentally different world-view from the status quo. Unfortunately our HM’s loyal opposition exhibits a Will to Surrender; a craving for respectability and acceptance by the PTB. Nietzsche puts it well. ”Is not the true questioner/inquirer totally indifferent to what the results of his enquirer may be? For when we inquirer are we seeking for peace, rest, happiness? No, only for the truth, even though it may be in the highest degree ugly and repellent? Here the way of men divide: if you wish to strive for peace of the soul and happiness, then believe. If you wish to be a disciple of truth, then inquire.”… Read more »
The very essence of Zen is to question more …to question more until the very process of questioning is exhausted. This is the problem of common sense – we desperately need uncommon sense. Every element and hidden truth parameter of the culturally acquired knowledge system is a heresy, and its linguistic reification needs to be questioned …until it disappears. Reality is nondual and cannot be interrogated via dualism. This is the basis of the Cartesian Error Protocols. There are no answers: it is the answering itself that is the problem. Especially when the answers become cherished beliefs. To answer is not to answer. All conceptual answers are ultimately false anyway. Nagarjuna showed this. To be free of the need to answer is to be free of the need to question …which is to be free of the need to inquire further. Which is to be ultimately free. Then nature becomes… Read more »
Thanks. I enjoyed reading this.
People are hypnotised and indoctrinated by forces of evil who know exactly what they are doing and how to manipulate the masses. Bill Hicks made the point that our institutions are no longer relevant. They are preventing our evolution. First step is to expose religion for what it is……fraudulent, man made, out dated systems of control which are still brainwashing children and ruining society to this day
Or, as Ken Wilber described it: the ‘Holographic Paradigm’
(Every tiny piece contains the All).
As in David Bohm’s ‘Wholeness and Implicate Order’
My apologies, BigB for trying to “summarize you”:
“the will to power is spurious conception, a culturally contrived linguistic fiction, and a statist constructivism in the service of its own statist power regime. It is not a natural or organic part of the processual consciousness …actively engaged in the continuum of living experiential. It is a post hoc invention that needs constant reaffirmation. Without incessant reification, it is literally nothing.”….
I could only add that not just that conception but in fact all concepts are essentially spurious…all of them are unnatural
Exactly: got it one. You cut the cultural Gordian Knot not be thinking about it…
…and not by not thinking about it.
As I mention in my reply to Big B below you miss the point. The Labour Party that you so enjoy talking about is in the process of transformation into a democracy. In its previous incarnations Labour has always been dominated by an almost feudal leadership. In this New Labour differed only superficially, and for the worse, from the old Labour of MacDonald, Attlee and Wilson, all of them ‘top down’ parties dominated by bosses. For the first time in its history Labour is now becoming democratic. And, for its pains, it is chastised as being unchanging: its doom long predicted in Arthur Henderson’s conservatism and Jimmy Thomas’s greed, in Snowden’s narrow mindedness and Ramsay Mac’s snobbery. Oh and another interesting aspect of the situation, this largely arose because Ed Miliband ran out of Blairite ideas and had to consider those that he’d rejected around the family breakfast table. Funny… Read more »
AS I mention in my reply to Bevin below: the Labour party represent the antithesis of democracy …as well as the depoliticised end of democracy. Not least over Brexit: which is post-democratic and Constitutionally High Treason. How did Labour’s democratic justice and universalism serve Julian Assange – when was deliberately depersoned on world press freedom day? Without press freedom – what is democracy? And, for reasons I go into, but can only really scratch the surface, until we all get up to speed on the risks to humanity …I am standing by my claim that, since the national climate emergency psyop – declared and led by Corbyn – Labour is now a clear and present danger to the future, and the continuance of all life on earth. If you think that is overwrought and melodramatic, I suggest you get up to speed – fast. Support for Labour costs the earth.… Read more »
A new type of opposition possibly Parliamentary, extra-Parliamentary or both must emerge with a Will to Power
No thanks, I’d rather work on fixing social democracy than opening to the doors to another Stalin or Hitler.
There really is no other way, human history is littered with the corpses caused by extreme politics.
“If my sons did not want wars, there would be none.” Gutle Schnaper. – Mayer Amschel Rothschild’s wife.
That’s what happens when you have a two-party-system.
After power toggling backwards and forwards a couple of times – no delivery for the people displeases the people. Conditions keep deteriorating.
People’s reactions are rejection of that power structure which does not do the trick, either by electing outsiders, TV stars, or fresh looking newcomers because they haven’t been coopted by the powers and moneys which rule from behind the curtain. They simply need to elect someone from outside that system.
When the Wall fell in my hometown in 1989 we thought the world would improve. Instead we got more polarization, poor people/rich people, peace seeking people/war engineers.
Wilmers31, what you say is true. However, we have, as the opposition in this country, a Leader in Jeremy Corbyn who has a clear vision and focus and yes, a costed Manifesto, on how to end Austerity, the housing shortage, the poverty etc. At the root of these policies is an equal distribution of wealth so the rich will be taxed as they should be not the paltry amount they pay today. The Labour Party currently pose a threat to the establishment because they have a Manifesto that will ring the badly needed changes in this country, will challenge US new world order politics in breaking away from the alleged ‘special relationship’ and other economic policies which would have a serious impact on the status quo – i.e. the establishment. Corbyn has been subjected to the most sustained vicious, malicious, slanderous, poisonous campaign in UK Political History, even though he… Read more »
The problem with elections is that politicians get elected.
Politics is the sly game of expedience.
It’s a lose-lose situation for the proles.
Politicians are useless. In my country, gardeners are drafted into government for a three-year stretch.
Chauncey Gardeners?
“if the press would do their duty and hold power to account”
Lol, well, there’s a first time for everything, I suppose.
I can’t speak for others but I voted Lib Dem as in my locality they campaigned to save our few green fields. And Labour have been bragging about putting those hump on all of the streets in my city. A major turn off.
Apparently the turnout was low, so I expect people are fed up with politicians: perhaps the sheeple are beginning to wake up to the fact that they are routinely lied to by that rabble.
Lol, well, there’s a first time for everything, I suppose.
Since 2014, no-one has been caught speeding in my country. Every vehicle has a speed limiter.
“Anti Semitism” smears helpfully thrown in as a distraction.
That nauseating little turd Robinson quitting the Labour Party because of yes, you guessed it, “anti semitism.”
Another “anti Semitism” scandal because of a single reference to Rothschild in a book written years ago.
Professor Sassons response to Freedland’s smear exposes the fascile nature of Freedlands logic. “The campaign about antisemitism in Corbyn’s Labour party is getting absurd (Corbyn urged to explain his praise for antisemitic book, 2 May). Hobson’s Imperialism: A Study has been taught for years in universities up and down the country (I taught it myself). No one has ever felt the need to highlight the 10 lines or so, in a book of 400 pages, which are antisemitic, but Corbyn was expected to do so. Anyone who had not heard of this text would be forgiven for thinking this is antisemitic text. It is not. It was an extremely influential study of imperialism (it even influenced Lenin) and has always been read as such. I do not remember any article in scholarly journals making a point about that paragraph on the Rothschilds and the “race” which, Hobson claims, was so… Read more »
Yes, there was ONE reference to Rothschild – p.57 – and no reference to Jew, Jews, or Jewish throughout a book of nearly 400 pages. Moreover, J.A.Hobson along with his contemporary L.T.Hobhouse both wrote for the MANCHESTER Guardian. Both were affectionally referred to as ‘The 2 Hobs’ They were well liked by Guardian editor of the time, C.P.Scott.
And CP Scott was very Zionist-friendly.
The spin from BBC began almost as soon as the first results were declared – Tories and Labour “suffer heavy losses”. When I read that first thing this morning I assumed the losses were on a similar scale for both parties. Not so at all, even at that early stage. Now, with all the votes in, I’ve no idea how a total loss of less than a hundred council seats could be described as a “heavy loss”, disappointing as it might be for Labour not to pick up seats. Clearly this had all been in planning for days or weeks by Downing Street – that Labour would be made to share the humiliation and it would all be portrayed as a revolt against the established parties to keep the heat off the Tories. What has gone badly wrong with the spin is a) the scale of the Tory losses and… Read more »
I agree, however what I also noticed was: FIRST practically no news coverage beforehand AIM low turnout RESULT turnout 36.3% down from 65% when the same seats were last contested on the same day as the general election Labour always does far worse on a low turnout SECOND The latest anti-semitism smear. Nick Robinson on the Today Programme gave the latest smear away when he asked why Corbin could not be bothered to look up Hobson on Wikipedia. The view history tab the on John A. Hobson page on Wikipedia shows that it was edited Icewhiz and Philip Cross between 5:05 am and 8:08 am on 1 May to include for the first time the anti-semitism accusation against Hobson. Philip Cross needs no introduction. Icewhiz was awarded The Israeli Barnstar of National Merit. This “story” had originally been broken on 30 April by Murdoch crony Daniel Finkelstein in The Times… Read more »
The Labour vote held up remarkably well I thought.
So the BBC’s headlines dissembled.
How very BBC!
Still, a minor indiscretion compared to its beat-up of the “antisemitism crisis” in Labour.
The BBC should be democratised or – if it cannot be – closed down.
Should have said ‘fake “antisemitism crisis”‘.
So we spin the spin? Into champagne socialist hopium? It is quite clear that the vote was an admonition of the dominant binary globalist war parties. Whether that be purely over Brexit is a matter of contention. Who knows the why, but volitional High Treason – from both parties – is volitional High Treason. Neither is fit to govern, and that seems to me to be the Zeitgeist …not the neoliberal polyarchical apologia. The government is not working. The government – as detailed in today’s UK Column News – is not the government. Mark Sedwill appears to be the government – usurping deregulatory powers that Tony Blair used to bypass Parliamentary ‘democracy’ – to run the “May Cell” …a tightly controlled cabalistic politburo of neoliberal occupation. Anyone who thinks a Jeremy Corbyn led government will somehow counteract this tendency, seems to me to have not been paying very much attention.… Read more »
BIGB
Why do you keep banging on about hydrogen, nuclear and geosequestration?
Hydrogen is an energy sink – check the laws of thermodynamics
Nuclear – what about the waste?
Geosequestration – unfeasible and a corporate ploy to create a legal structure to bury nuclear waste
Why do I keep banging on about them? For exactly the reasons you say. The CCC – which is clearly going to be a policy focus document, to become the basis of the major energy strategy of the UK in the next Parliament. That is, it will be implemented in some form by either of the major parties (no one is expecting the LibDims to win a GE). Its implementation commits us to a neoliberal imperialist energy strategy up to 2050. It commits us the (free) market principles, hidden subsidies, and hidden debt – mainly up front as debt financing infrastructure. Which makes the CCC, its political implementation, and its probable geopolitical implementation – as the UK seems to be the leading ‘Parliamentarian’ green activists …a threat to all life on earth. It will ruin our economy, at the very least …because it is based on three spurious energy sinks.… Read more »
BIGB
My apologies, I misinterpreted your original comment and thank you for such a comprehensive reply.
In my own case I bailed out of dodge over 30 years ago as I witnessed the writing on the wall.
These days I am not up to speed on what is really happening on the ground in the UK other than being a fervent supporter of the good guys down at UK Column.
Cheers
The problem -as I see it – is connected to our capacity for emotional investment. People are emotionally invested in Corbyn’s leadership to such an extent that they have to ignore the contradictions, just as they are invested in the Greta story or the ‘XR’ story as ‘rebels with integrity winning against the odds’. So we see good people mischaracterise or dismiss rather than address the evidence that points to another reality. Not that I am saying that emotional investment is not a human thing. Maybe it’s the quintessentially human thing. ‘Tis not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger.’ – and all that. However, the sociopaths who shape and steer society use the public’s capacity for emotional investment against us, to manipulate even the most discerning, critical thinkers. The former are, of course of the cold calculating variety. I’ve… Read more »
I’ve read nearly 200 pages of the CCC, which is not easy. It is pure fantasy. It is fantastical enough that the committee, the Royal Society, and Imperial College – the main research contributors – can actually think this can work. It is worse than even Robin and Cory could have imagined. They want to take gas – which we do not have – and convert it into hydrogen …to set up a whole hydrogen economy – running our energy, transport, and heating systems. That is fantasy. It becomes double fantasy when we either import the gas as LNG, or make it by the underground gasification of coal. If it wasn’t so damn serious, I’d have tears running down my face in laughter and incredulity. They are assuming 95% capture rate for CCS, And best of all: we are currently paying £60 MWh for energy …in 2050, with all this… Read more »
I’ve read nearly 200 pages of the CCC
Fuck !
That is honourable and slightly insane, if you don’t mind me saying BigB.
I guess the split in the eco-world has always been there, although less apparent than at this juncture. Although I was too young to really grasp the details, I remember it as seeming obvious 30years back that only a full scale, global revolution stood the chance of averting the worst.
[sarc]
Now we are there!
I am fully behind the revolutionary vanguard of David Attenborough, George Monbiot, Christiana Figueres, Bono, Bill Gates, George Soros and the rest.
Climate capitalism is a ‘revolutionary force’ (said someone who read Marx once).
Here’s to net zero everything !
‘Viva la revolucion’ !
[/sarc]
https://winteroak.org.uk/climate-capitalists/
Well, I’ve been laid up again. I went back to work too soon. The M$M just did a glib analysis: we just do this and this and we meet ‘net zero’. Driving: no problem, Crack on with 2-3 cars per household. Just switch to EVs and FCEVs by 2030. 12.5 million of them. HGVs => hydrogen HGVs. Flying => no worries, synfuel and biofuel. Heathrow gets a new runway. We can still have open cast mining in Northumberland. Just eat a little less meat and maybe cycle a bit more. That’s it: climate sorted …nothing to see – just carry on with your lives …we’ve got it covered. Well I read the proposals, they aren’t even coherent. Like the 2050 projection of where the economy will be. What science fiction fantasy did they pluck that from? The way they sell it, this isn’t really going to cost much – because… Read more »
I favour open-minded skepticism that remains optimistic, that is not vulnerable to cynicism. We can train ourselves to identify then shed our beliefs, to learn only from the consequences of our decisions and responses to the world. To be scientific, in other words, but truly unattached to any particular outcome, while recognising the endeavour is for organic life, for the crazy richness and wildness of it all, and expressly not towards some mechanical-utopian ‘perfection’.
Keep fighting, but with love guiding our choices and improving our wisdom as we go.
Wise words. Wise words I would do well to emulate. Unfortunately, I have become attached to a particular outcome – survival. In no spurious way, I see that threatened by the dead-end narcissism of our leaders, and as the majoritarian ethos that is internalised by the led. We are reaching a tipping point whereby that uncritical and blinded acceptance on faith of, well, one man really. Because no other politician is trusted. The entire faith in the political establishment is in one man. Who would support a Tom Watson, or Jess Phillips led Labour party? No one, I hope. Then why support a Corbyn led Labour party. Apart from the political figurehead, they are exactly the same. Optimism can’t be blind: the concerns I have raised are real, not only for me. The enaction of the CCC is a blind alley that Corbyn seems to have been chosen to lead… Read more »
I don’t see what you wrote as being in disagreement with what I wrote. To me it reads like an agreement.
Sort of, my patience is wearing thin. I’ve essentially been saying the same thing for forty years. As, I’m sure you have. I’m running of of ways to say it nicely. The next few years will determine humanities fate. I’m not alone on that one. I do not feel that is unnecessarily melodramatic to say so.
As we are talking, it looks from what Davidson said earlier that Corbyn and May are close to a collaborated Brexit deal – which is what I have suspected since he met Barnier and Verhofstadt a few months back. I see a few are still trying to claim a moral victory for Labour on Thursday. A propaganda victory for Labour: a massive loss for humanity. I do wish we actually wanted freedom, rather than just celebrate our false consciousness subjugation quite so loudly.
From your earlier response: Which is an overlong apology, in order to say that I probably won’t be following your very good advice. A lot more people are going to have to stand up for what they believe. I always wanted to build a nice coalition of understanding, aligned for peace. That ain’t gonna happen. We are up against some of the most cynical people ever. Corbyn has crossed the Rubicon to join them. I have no idea why. Anyone uncritically following is crossing to the wrong side of humanities future. People need to wake up very fast as to what that means. Very fast. Hope and optimism are fading fast. They say, don’t fight fire with fire. Nor should we fight cynicism with cynicism. No way would you advocate either. Hope and optimism are fading fast, you say. I’m sure that’s true, and I’m sure the notion of enjoying… Read more »
Wobbly: I’m into my fourth week of a bronchitis, that is the worst I have had in my life. And that is not melodrama! So, I totally agree …but I am not quite feeling it at the moment. The events of this week have been a cold, hard, reality check. I’m sure you are up to speed on the XR ‘exponential’ rebellion, etc. Hope and optimism were collectively rekindled this week …at last, we are doing something about the climate. Not enough, some say …but at least we are doing something. There has been little but blanket endorsement …finally, we get some action. How many people have said, as I do, if we follow this course of action …we ruin our chances of survival? As a percentage of populations – not even close to a single percentile. Not only that, perhaps the most vocal and focus of a small group… Read more »
I’ll start with your closing comments: I’m not a party-political animal. I thoroughly distrust the system as it stands but do understand that any system that dominates, let’s say, a planetary-ish culture generates a lot of ‘value’ that attracts a lot of ‘bad’ people towards it. It also has massive momentum and power to influence, seeing as we are social animals. It can’t be any other way. Corruption is an ever-present and corrosive reality that does not care about left-right differences. Hopping back to earlier in your reply: I expect to be treated with whatever it takes to end me as a threat, should I raise my head far enough above the parapet to be a threat. Accusations of child-abuse, anti-semitism, etc., are to be expected. It’s a We See You As A Threat award. Because effective opposition must be annihilated, becoming an effective opposition to the insanity necessarily entails… Read more »
“Who would support a Tom Watson, or Jess Phillips led Labour party? No one, I hope. Then why support a Corbyn led Labour party. Apart from the political figurehead, they are exactly the same.” You miss the point. The Labour Party has, for the first time in its long history become very close to a democracy. New Labour (see Phillips and Watson above) was a self perpetuating oligarchy in which the PLP was selected by the leadership and then selected both leadership and policies. The Old Labour from which it evolved was dominated by bosses-Trade Unions with block votes, representing members almost never consulted, and regional Tammany style bosses from the big political/municipal machines, dripping with patronage and based on captive electorates. This is now changed and changing: if you had joined Mandelson/Blair’s New Labour you would have had no influence until you had shown that you were a mere… Read more »
Bevin, we’ve been over this ground for over a year now. Everyone is responsible for their choices. If you form part of the constituency of consensus for a political organisation, you effectively hand your political autonomy and agency over to the party. Effectively you endorse and legitimate everything they do. No one can be in 100% accord, a bit of Realpolitik is unavoidable. Support of the labour party is support of the white helmets, regime change in Syria, NATO and its jihadis, the drang nacht oesten occupation of Europe …you know my list. I’ve posted it many times before. How can any of this be acceptable in the 21st century? It is not, it never will be, and right now, I have an especially low regard for those who still insist that Labour is an acceptable political force. Since we last exchanged views, Corbyn has personally shafted Julian Assange. It… Read more »
Big B Hell, what are you on? You must live in a different country than me!
Our leaders, all of them have betrayed us. Yesterday could be the tipping point for humanities independence. It probably won’t be, but it should be. (Above quote from a BigB reply below.) I doubt we’ll have a tipping point that evolves into a coherent direction for a while yet but would very much like to see something sensible begin to coalesce. To that end and seeing as I said “sensible”: Which non-controversial statements can be made that together suggest an imaginable vector for humanity that is, essentially, “None Of The Above”? How about, as a rough starting point: 1. Consumerism does not make us happy; it is a stream of endless distractions from our unhappiness. 2. Perpetual economic growth is neither possible nor desirable. 2a. What is it about economic activity that remotely suggests that it alone should grow forever? 3. Humans are, broadly speaking, social animals. As such, meaningful… Read more »
Great to get some input from you Toby.
“THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM IS TO CALL THINGS BY THEIR PROPER NAME.”
― Confucius
This Blog by Toby Russel posits the ruling Elite, Hybridised Oligarchy call it what you will as a Danistocracy borrowed from Popp and Albrecht, http://thdrussell.blogspot.se/2011/12/from-here-to-there.html The medias role as the fourth Estate is brought center stage in this analysis with the Political Theater relegated to a role subservient to or co-mingled with the Main Stream media. This Speech , a rare one from Popp sets out much of what we need to do which could be summed up as Ignore the Bastards and do what you know will do some good. Do not pay attention to the Narcissists it only encourages them.
From the Russell blog:
More platitudes
barovsky, I assume you mean the whole article linked to was a string of platitudes, because the quote you took from it, being short and (probably almost verbatim) from Charles Eisenstein, can only really be a “platitude”, or at least nowhere near enough on its own. It is, as a simple observation, one of many to bear in mind in times as interesting as these.
But the article Roger kindly linked to is an open-ended recounting of the “Plan B” put forward by the German outfit Wissensmanufaktur, a plan that has a lot to commend it, in my opinion. It is far from platitudinous. In fact it is one of the more concrete sets of ideas and proposals I have come across.
Perhaps you misunderstand my position.
Toby you were well ahead of the curve in 2011 when you wrote that and I dare say you are still ahead of the curve now, probably not having stood still, or perhaps precisely by standing still and reflecting on the many viewpoints arriving and departing the set of ideas you so meticulously dissected on your ( and what remains one of my favorite) Blogs. Not only your Writing but the comments and discussion. So long and thanks for all the fish ( another tall person wrote somewhere once) . The best I came up with was this Trilogy, still writing the Fourth Part ( Conquest of Dough) https://longhairedmusings.wordpress.com/2017/03/28/globalisation-un-entangled-a-found-poem-cipher-of-globalism/ Regarding real time democracy I am finishing off programming of Objective Kuhnts ( working title) a distributed web 3 publishing platform. If you would like to write in the First edition please get in touch , serialisation of novels, poetry, and… Read more »
It’s funny you should say that! What you sketch here is something I’ve been building up myself, more or less. So yes, I’m interested in joining forces and will be in touch. It really is time for action…
Big B you are talking about the current Tory Government. Labour under Corbyn offer an entirely different proposition and one this country badly needs: Redistribution of wealth and good old fashioned Keynsian economics. They are the only Party offering something completely different and are fit to Govern. Everyone can remember the Lib Dems coalition with the Cameron Tory Government – they aren’t fit to govern at all after that shambles – especially as they could have made a difference by voting against austerity.
Now let’s turn the community elections into the same result for the national elections.
Who lost over 500 seats? Only the Tories
My error, apologies. It was a number I picked up earlier today. Labour have actually lost 77 seats but the results are very revealing, aside that is from the awful lib-dems who probably would have voted Tory (I thought they were dead?). It’s massive gains by the unidentified, 656 seats gained and 192 to the Greens. So clearly the electorate are sick and tired of the same old shit, though they’ll get a good dose from the lib-dems.
Unless there’s a radical break with this ancien regime, we’re doomed I tell you, dooomed!
Skewered the mainstream spin right there.
How a party that loses about 4 or 5 % of its seats can in any way be equated with one that has haemorrhaged one quarter of its councillors is just simple outright lying. Not that I hold any truck with either of them.
The key lesson seems to be that the liberals are the protest vote choice, plus ca change…
Good luck with the website move OffG
We can never forget LibDem treachery in supporting a Tory government
No, no, 90 is very nearly the same as 1,330.
very sheepish about turnout as well. I think its been pretty low but can not as yet track down official figures.
I read the turnout around 30%. The Lib Dems have done well you can’t mask that but how many of the votes are lent? The LD’s won most seats where they were second to the Tories mainly in the Shires but Chelmsford was a big win alright. The big towns and Cities didn’t vote so it’s difficult to transfer vote share into a forecast of a GE result. Truth is though is that in a GE we would be discussing economic and social policy and not just theRemain/Leave part of the whole domestic agenda. The LD’s are still pro austerity as are Change UK and most Tories and that would be revealed in the process of a GE. Labour would be more effective with its anti – austerity Manifesto than it was in the Locals and will be in the Euro Elections but the question is for Labour is: How… Read more »
Five million Labour voters in 2017 also voted to Leave. They now realise the extent of Labour’s betrayal, and they won’t be voting for JC4PM.
I think the True Publica piece hit the spot:
Apparently there were a colossal number of spoiled ballot papers.
Unfortunately, they don’t count spoiled ballot papers
Yeah but they haven’t been much better for Labour either, they’ve lost over 500 seats! The political system is broke, don’t try to fix it!
Oh Dear. How do you equate -72 with -500?
I think I explained it.
I think there’s more than a fair chance that most of the 72 seats lost by Labour in the local elections could have been saved, and gains made, if that party’s municipal politics were not so rotten. For years now, majority Labour councils, such as mine in Lewisham have cut, cut and cut again. The result has been a haemorrhaging of vital services for the borough’s most vulnerable, causing untold misery and privation. The problem has been that when push comes to shove, Labour locally jumps to the Tory call for austerity rather than stand firm behind the borough’s electorate who are called upon to tolerate ever worsening services at an ever higher price as council tax soars. This situation is replicated around the country. No wonder voters are ditching their Labour councillors and electing LibDem and Green candidates in their place. The ‘Brexit’ effect has been wildly exaggerated. Local… Read more »