Labour Leaders-In-Waiting Rush Back to the Centre
Two of Corbyn’s potential replacements cannot wait to make Labour appeal to the Establishment again
Kit Knightly
Jeremy Corbyn isn’t gone yet, but his is now a phantom presence. He’s very much a political dead man walking. His replacements are lining up, setting out their stalls.
Two of them – Jess Phillips and Lisa Nandy – have columns in The Guardian today.
Both are keen to blame Labour’s loss of “connection” with the working class, yet neither mentions Brexit.
They’re both trying to sell the idea that Labour was too far left to appeal to areas of England which have voted Labour since World War 2.
There’s a lot of waffle and verbiage but, as usual with any opinion piece, you can distil their entire message down to one paragraph.
Romanticising the struggle deeply offends them and the message of solidarity is undermined by some policies that make little sense. Nationalising rail is a good, sound policy but should we have staked so much of our campaign on that policy when so many of the towns we lost have no train station and rely on buses anyway? Should we really be rejecting nuclear power when it is one of the best sources of good jobs outside London? What is the point of a minimum income guarantee if you have to stack shelves for the rest of your life and want something more, or a big offer on tuition fees if you can’t see a way of getting through college?
Her Labour will promote “competition” and “opportunity” (read: Capitalism), and won’t bother nationalising trains because people use buses instead. They will be pro-Nuclear power, and won’t increase the minimum wage OR scrap tuition fees. (Because that’s what workers want, apparently).
Jess Phillips goes even vaguer with it:
If we are to find a way to reconnect with those working-class voters, we have to be brave. It’s time to try something different, rather than re-enacting old battles. I’ve never been afraid to say what I think. The truth is, there are corners of our party that have become too intolerant of challenge and debate. The truth is, there is a clique who don’t care if our appeal has narrowed, as long as they have control of the institutions and ideas of the party.
She will ask the “hard questions” (she never says what those are), and will root out the parts of the party that are “intolerant” (read: the leftwingers). She wants to try something “brave” and “new” – Like a Labour party without socialism.
Later, she writes of helping…
working-class communities who need a Labour government.
But “working-class communities” don’t need a Labour government, they need a Socialist government. And if you abandon socialism in order to get yourself into power the only person you’re helping is you.
It looks like neither of them has a problem with that.
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Please see this hokus pokus…..
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/29/neoliberal-is-unthinking-leftist-insult-all-it-does-it-stifle-debate?CMP=share_btn_link
If like so many of us you have full confidence in Jeremy Corbyn, please could you sign the petition below and get as many people who agree to sign it too? Thank you! Let’s fight the corrupt establishment from every angle that we can.
Vote of confidence in Jeremy Corbyn:
https://www.change.org/p/labour-peers-vote-of-confidence-in-jeremy-corbyn?recruiter=40538671&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial&recruited_by_id=a2b59b20-50cb-0130-b9ec-3c764e049c4f&share_bandit_exp=initial-16761807-en-GB&share_bandit_var=v0
Just found this, not sure if this was already shared here: Jess Phillips, on prime time TV, being quite happy that Labour lost, but able to put on a straight face (as only actors can do) when she (after a few moments) understands that she is not talking in private with the muckymucks, but is live on television.
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/hot-mic-moment-exposes-insane-sleaziness-of-british-political-media-class-909bd4980ba2
I had posted the video link below. But I would hardly even call Phillips an actor. It was the kind of performance that would have made anyone with a conscience or even with any capacity for embarrassment shrivel up into a foetal position on the floor. But Phillips just carries on in her blunt charmless way. The galling thing is that it doesn’t matter how obvious they are about their true intentions. The script churns on anyway. Blair himself has now launched an attack on Corbyn for losing the election. The sheer depressing predictability seems to me to be part of the ‘psyop’. I think the aim is to instil despair at the very shamelessness of it all.
Defeated figures like Zac Goldsmith and Jo Swinson are likely to be among those who could be handed peerages – despite losing in last Thursday’s election. Nicky Morgan – who ‘stood down’ as an MP – has already been awarded a peerage and now gets to stay on in the same ministerial role she stood down from. You couldn’t make it up.
Let’s be clear what that means. More Lords voting on our laws for life – after losing the confidence of their electorate. And claiming £305 a day tax-free for the privilege.
Its gut wrenching stuff I’m afraid geoff, made worse when I consider the two Kinnock’s in the Lords, working hand in glove with his son to destroy what remains of the actual Labour Party – much of the crap that afflicts the Party today can be traced back to Kinnock and his push for ‘Professionals’ to represent the heartlands, Angela Eagle is an example of this crap, and that’s before we get to the Blair babes, which, means theirs hardly any Giants within the PLP anymore, which is a far cry from the late 60s and &0s when the LP/PLP contained at least 10 persons of genuine rank and ability, among them one Ms Barbara Castle, who’d eat the Blair Babes for breakfast – the saddest matter is, the two most genuine women MPs who offered hope to all lost their seats in the Brexit purge, whilst Dame Margaret Hodge… Read more »
There’s very much wrong with the crony-capitalism of our day. We do not have a true capitalist system, we have an oligarchy of bought-and -paid-for politicians enabling the banksters and global corporations to capture most of the wealth whilst never paying for the external costs of pollution and waste which is never costed and is destroying the planet. We have a clique of rentiers – of wealthy insiders who make their gains via the financialised economy. Supported by corruption in high places the working class, or the 90%, have been excluded from the amazing growth in ‘wealth’ over these several decades albeit mostly on paper. The numbers can’t lie, but the official government statistics do and fool the people, such as low inflation, low employment rising wages etc. Nothing will change until the system changes so if the Labour party want to promote ‘socialism’ in the form of the ‘peoples’… Read more »
Before I leave this article comments section (to try to enjoy the remnants of the run-up to Christmas), people should look up the company, IDOX (electoral services) and postal ballots. Who this company is associated with it – very eye-opening stuff!
Hope you have a good one everyone!
Okay I’m angry today – the neoliberal establishment, with its MSM and Blairite lackeys have surpassed themselves, it is a sickening, spinning disgrace. Why do we keep falling over and over again for all the establishment’s machinations and their lackeys’ spin? Why should Jeremy Corbyn resign? Why should the movement be stopped? Seriously, why?! Remember, that is the outcome that the establishment has coveted from the beginning of Jeremy’s leadership. We all know he shouldn’t resign; and the movement he started should carry on. Jeremy has been pushed and pushed, cajoled and shoved into the 2nd Ref trap by not just the Blairites but also by a couple of his so-called allies who should’ve known better! They should have listened to him not shunt him into the bear trap. All the Blairite-traitors should be made to leave the LP not Jeremy – let’s not forget all the ‘treasonous’ things they… Read more »
I’m with you Tallis. Some of the proposed replacements are clearly absurd. But I do not know enough about the allegedly better ones to trust any of them. Corbyn’s life and work spoke for itself. I would rather he continued as leader than Labour reverted to being a ToryLite NeoCon party.
Thanks, James. Yes, it is very unclear whether any of the people being put forward as LP candidates are trustworthy. It also isn’t the right time to have a leadership contest imo.
So many people are angry right now with this ‘silent coup’ and many of us know we shouldn’t just let things lie. I’ve just seen a tweet by @upsadaizy who is trying to find out how many people would want Jeremy Corbyn on the Leadership ballot, if it were possible and if Jeremy was up for it. My humble guess is that most of the LP membership would want him on the ballot?
Fingers crossed that the spirit in this country now is to fight the establishment to expose this ‘silent coup’.
P.S. I have a feeling the establishment are betting on Keir Starmer winning if the leadership election is on. Apparently, he is part of the Trilateral Commission so if that’s true, quelle surprise!
No, it’s got to be one of the wimmin.
Corbyn never had a chance when surrounded by these chancers. He should’ve stuck to his guns and at least he may have fell on his sword via his own terms I.e backed brexit result etc. In saying that it is obvious these politicians are spooks I.e they do the bidding of the suits behind the scenes. Everyone knows the spooks ultimately decide state policy and woe betide anyone who goes against it. Cameron even admitted himself to the family of John Finucane. Watson,hodge etcgot the ball rolling to steer Corbyn into the ditch, the ones now clamouring to be leader are the real enemy within.
Israel and their syanim was the main enemy working to stop Corbyn becoming PM. UK government followed orders.
I’m sure it’s al;ready been l;inked to, but: https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/hot-mic-moment-exposes-insane-sleaziness-of-british-political-media-class-909bd4980ba2
I hate her. She is poison. I hope she gets roundly kicked in the arse in the “leadership battle”. If she even gets close Labour really are finished for a generation, which I suspect they will be in any case..as it was supposed to be…
excuse i…it was posted two posts down…ahem…
https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/the-real-reason-corbyn-s-anti-racist-labour-just-can-t-deal-with-anti-semitism-1.8191704 Here’s an opinion piece from the liberal Israeli paper, their sort of Guardian, about the ‘poison’ of anti-Semitism in Corbyn, Labour and the wider Left in the UK. Most of the media and the Establishment in the UK could sign up to this, with ease. What’s striking is how vague it all is and how subjective, also how quickly open and real examples of anti-Semitism are merged, or pushed aside, in favour of a ‘definition’ or charicature of ‘anti-Semitism’ that comes to equal scepticism, opposition, or criticsm of the Israeli state’s policies and actions in relation to the Palestinians. Though in the article this is also covered by layers of vagueness, but it’s pretty obvious. What still staggers me is how passive and totally inadequately the Labour Party and Corbyn dealt with the accusation of widespread, deep-rooted, structural, anti-Semitism flourishing in the party under Corbyn’s leadership. When anybody with… Read more »
reality is irrelevant; perception is everything
No such “poison” of antisemitism in Boris even though that book he wrote can be construed as such.
He wasted no time proving he is not……..
https://www.jpost.com/International/Boris-Johnson-to-pass-anti-BDS-law-official-says-611044
Along with that ‘poison’ theme, don’t forget the other magic word used so liberally by the BBC i.e. ‘precipice’ – as in the ‘precipice we are all facing’. Now listen very carefully you soap and strictly watchers: ‘poison/precipice/poison/precipice/poison/precipice…….’
Actually I have a lot of time for Gideon Levy the Israeli dissident who writes for Haaretz. He writes:
Gideon Levy: The Zionist Tango: Step Left, Step Right
See. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQS-_9K5-Dk
Apologies if anyone has posted this before – but here’s an interesting bit of behaviour modification:
This clip now seems to have been nobbled.
She thought the Labour defeat was almost as hilarious as the increase in men committing suicide and the increase in male cancer.
Charming creature.
And that’s saying it.
I actually applaud people who say what they actually think; if more people did it the world wouldn’t be in such a fucking mess…It’s just that Slasher Phillip’s thoughts are just bile-filled man-hating codswallop (or plopcarpet?!)
She was clearly afraid to say what she so obviously thought with her reaction to the Labour loss in that C4 clip. If she really had been fearless, then after her jubilation, instead of doing a 180 degree turn and giving us the old “I’m devastated!” bollocks, she shoud have said, “I’m glad our stabbing Corbyn in the back finally paid off!”
…..as queer as a clockwork orange…. are these two …..
Labour will continue engaging smug, globalist-loving, false humanitarians and champagne socialists as only those types would be able to turn a blind eye to the illegal war and murder their party started not too long ago for the chance to preach to us about “values” and “principles” and what we don’t know is best for us. Good riddance Labour and all who support you.
This was the second Brexit referendum dressed up as a general election. I am a Labour Party member, and it is essential that we make sure that anybody who was remain in anyway shape or form gets nowhere near the new leadership…_
Thornberry and Flint have kicked off the fight for Jezza’s crown with a big slanging match.
Writs and lawyers all round.
They should sort this all out in a bout of mud wrestling instead.
Phillips and Nandy could join in as well, making it a tag team foursome.
Winner takes all.
What the Labour Party really needs now is some Third Wave Feminists.
LOL
the friends of tel aviver
boys in image above will do a great job
for oded yinon new mappa.
on the radio today london global radio today 5 hours so far of corbyn needs too go now.
by the end of play today maybe 10 hours go now.
EYE SAY corbyn stay
stand firm fight
When I say ‘Corbyn’, I don’t just mean him alone, but the rest of them at the top of Labour. They all lack basic leadership skills to an extraordinary degree in my opinion. Of course there are those on the left that don’t even like the idea of ‘leadership skills’, including Corbyn himself. What it means it the ability to take hard decisions, coherent decisions, and lots of times choosing between a multiplicity of ‘bad’ options, but attempting to choose the ‘right’ or ‘least bad’ one, because, in politics their are rarely ‘good’ options. Especially if one is a opposition party determined to overturn a ‘rigged’ political and economic system that’s been in charge for, well, basically, centuries. Only Corbyn doesn’t like taking decisions or responsibility for them. For years he could ‘hide out’ on the cosy backbenches and polish his principles and bask in the adoration of sections of… Read more »
Sometimes it makes you think if he was part of the system, his support for the white helmets seems rather strange to me
Who else could have stood up to the “butchery” of the Zionists. Can you name anybody in US, UK or elsewhere who have done so. See The Antisemitism Wars by Karl Sabbagh.
You are missing the point that Labour got more actual votes in this election than Blair got in 2005, but Blair got a 66 seat majority. Corbyn is not to blame for our unfair electoral system – we need PR
Another example of the lack of real determination, grit, intelligence and basic tactical competence by the Labour leadership, was their unwillingness to take on the Israeli lobby directly and their fellow travellers in the media. I think they were actually complicit in framing the attacks on Corbyn as credible. That he was the kind of person who was friends with or supported terrorism and mindless violence. For example, why was it acceptable for Labour Friends of Israel to routinely meet Israeli politicians inside Israel who’ve overseen the mass slaughter of innocent Palestinian civilians on a scale that dwarfs that of the socalled ‘terrorists’ that Corbyn’s been repeatedly linked to? Why is Palestinian use of violence so ‘wrong’, when attempting to fight an illegal military occupation of their land, compared to the Israeli state’s use of violence? Why can’t Labour advocate arming the Palestinians so they can defend themselves against Israeli… Read more »
So true, i’ haven’t met anyone who has offered a sensible reason for leaving the EU, the usual shit unelected bureaucrats etc, not like here with head of state, house of Lords , civil servants , and at the time unelected PM remarkable really
Geoff, I suggest, as I suggest to many others, that you actually take a gander of the Lisbon Treaty, specifically its monetary policy/fiscal policy dictates, and, competition rules that are threatening state-owned entities within its boarders – I would also ask you to pay specific attention to the ECB itself, its absolute lack of transparency and how much you actually desire German monetary ethics to push these across all EU members, be they Euro insiders, or Euro outsiders – but above all, I’ll remind you that the monetary & fiscal policies driven by Brussels, which on the fiscal side the UK was signed up to, and which on the monetary side, had an absolute impact on the UK. Further Geoff, and which our Remianics friends seem utterly incapable of understanding, when discussing trade relations with Europe, it the fact that Sterling from its peak in early 2007 has declined massively… Read more »
Well Chris, he’s started already banning rail strikes, where in the world does that happen ? but all will be OK when we leave the EU eh? he will be able to repeal them !
Recognizing a sensible reason when one is offered probably requires a sensible brain in one’s head.
Yes.I didn’t take that into account
”i’ haven’t met anyone who has offered a sensible reason for leaving the EU.” Hmmm, can I suggest that your social circle seems to be a little constricted. Try this: Precarious work – aka monkey Jobs – and Europe’s new reserve army Oct. 25, 2017 by Harald Schumann and Elisa Simantke Abridged by Frank Lee The misery of bad jobs has many faces. It can take the form of work contracts without health or social insurance; it can be part-time jobs, which don’t pay enough to live on. Moreover, those affected are kept dangling from one temporary contract to the next, or they have to eke out a living as bogus self-employed and contract workers. The methods vary from one country’s national legislation to that of another, but the outcome is always the same: millions of EU citizens have to get by with insecure and badly paid jobs, offering them… Read more »
Do you think if we leave the EU the slob will abolish ZHC s ? this country has always been at the bottom of workers rights in western Europe and always will be, people are more interested in watching multi millionaires kick a ball around for a couple of hours and get paid more for doing so that most could earn in ten years, that’s why there is so much coverage for it, I was in a pub the day after the election, in Liverpool, there was five chaps from I think from Crewe, and that’s all they were talking about, they’re just not interested, I’m sure you must have witnessed this yourself.
Well Francis, he’s started already banning rail strikes, where in the world does that happen ? but all will be OK when we leave the EU eh? he will be able to repeal them ! this is what I don’t understand with the leave voters, did they not see all this shit coming, because I did and it’s not going to stop there with these fascist bastards running the country, so I say again well done to all you leavers.
The Zionists had indicated that essentially they would do anything to stop Corbyn being PM. So to what extent had he and his family been threatened by these ruthless individuals.
For what this may be worth to some: Brexit the Tragicomedy pdf
Norman, I’m afraid Brian Green needs to relook at the figures he presents us with, he claims a majority of the electorate that cast a vote on Thursday were effectively endorsing Remaining in the EU, or endorsing a Second EU Vote – this is utter bollocks I’m afraid to say, and such inadequate interpretation of the figures would have very poor outcomes, as they say in Data analysis, if you put shit in you get shit out. Now, I’m a member of the Labour Movement, and have been all my adult life and lent my weight to Corbyn, whom I hoped could transform the Labour Party for the better – he failed!!!! Now, I also happen to be a Leave Voter, and unlike many others, be they Remain or Leave, my own reasons for exiting the EU was based an an analysis of European Monetary Union and the fiscal (spending… Read more »
Chris: you are a highly intelligent contributor, and I really respect – and more or less totally agree with your analysis. So, you have a highly cogent personal and nuanced set of reasons for voting: which I am not invalidating. But I want to point out that the State Electoral Process (SEP) invalidated your views for you. And mine. And everyone else’s. Which is a form of systemic depersonalisation and dehumanisation. The SEP is completely blind to your personalised nuance. Wherever you plant that ‘X’ – unless your nuanced and balanced view is totally aligned to ‘the Party’ – it counts for nothing. Except to you. You entered into a quasi-formalised and quasi-legal consensual contract by which your own personal POV is transferred to that of the Party political view …which was for ‘second say, second stay’. But whatever the policy, and however they evolve – they are now your… Read more »
BigB, I’m under no illusions, quite the reverse, I strongly believe in delivering home truths, however comfortable these may be, which is why, like you, I’m sceptical of those parroting notions of Green New Deals, which ain’t green by a long shot, dissatisfied completely with those pushing notions of perpetual economic growth on a planet with finite resources, and saddened that the majority of our elected representative have no idea what ‘De-Growth’ actually is, and what it actually entails, which certainly is not poverty for all, but certainly lifestyles no dominated by Consumerist crap, much of it made with materials that are poisonous to life on our planet – these matters are for a later date, the fact remains we needed to get someone, anyone at least, who opposed neoliberalism and the globalisation that goes with it, a globalisation that impoverishes billions – the good news is that at least… Read more »
BigB, I should have added to my initial response to you, that I’m still of the opinion that if we throw democracy under a bus, however corrupted and perverted it may be presently, I’m none too sure how you expect any change whatsoever, by voting I certainly don’t endorse the present status quo, and would quite like to cast my vote in favour of persons best able to challenge the status quo, and all that goes with it, hence, I take my vote seriously and I take politics seriously, regrettably, its tough trying to change or challenge when those we elect are part of the problem, of course, within the LP, some of this could have been addressed by the party adopting Open Selection and allowing the CLPs a greater say in the operation of the Party, and, by clear definition, the type of policies pursue in Parliament. Thus, under… Read more »
How much of a ‘challenge’ to neoliberal austerity does Corbyn and Labour really represent?
Here is a slightly different take to yours, by the same Brian Green whose interpretation of the numbers of the election you doubt, with another set of numbers with which I suspect you will also disagree, but that should in my opinion give any supporter of Labour at least a little pause: A manifesto ‘For The Many,While Preserving The Few’
If you ignore the endless backstabbing of the two Blairite ladies above and all their kind, the chicanery and skulduggery of a certain Levantine minority in collusion with the MSM and the spook organisations, and various other shortcomings, the prime reason for the disaster was a monumentally inept Brexit policy, which seems to have succeeded in alienating simultaneously both Leavers and Remainers. It should have been a relatively easy matter to obtain a large measure of success, if not outright victory, against the Tories. For the past 9 years, they have presided over increasing poverty and inequality, the decline of the NHS and all public services, including the police and armed forces. They are extremely vulnerable in many areas. 14 million in poverty. Food banks. Universal Credit. Zero hours contracts. The north/ south divide. NHS waiting lists and assorted scandals. The railways. Creaking infrastructure. Housing and homelessness. Education. Student debt.… Read more »
Well said Paul .
Maybe the likes of the graun and the mirror can stop pretending more people than ever are remainers when this election has well and truly proven that to be veeeesery wrong! I won’t hold my breath
I think even quite strong remainers didn’t relish the prospect of this dragging on indefinitely into the dim and distant future, with protracted negotiations and feasibility studies and Commons votes, followed by another referendum.
There is an estimate that the working class vote went 48 – 31%, Tory – Labour.
The result might not be quite as grim as is being made out.
In terms of MPs, it is the worst result in 80 years.
But the actual share of the vote is higher than in a number of Labour defeats from the 80s onwards.
Yes, this doesn’t surprise any of us. If the neoliberal establishment take hold of the party again (including making one of their puppets the leader of the LP) the Labour Party will implode because the reason for the colossal growth of the membership was Jeremy Corbyn and the movement he helped start. I (like so many other people) will be extremely devastated (to say the very least) if Jeremy Corbyn steps down, not just because there doesn’t seem to be an appropriate successor imo, but also because he truly is a rare, kind, gentle yet determined spirit. That being said, I do understand he may have very legitimate reasons for doing otherwise – not least because of the four years of constant bludgeoning from all sides – who but the most hardy could stand that for as long as he has?. It is not hyperbole to suggest he is an… Read more »
Hmmm…..Jezza or Jess Phillips? Difficult choice, isn’t it?
He was and remains to be a Trotskyist social democrat who’s former calling card was being a Labour Party loyalist while mildly criticising the liberal empire party! The best run down critique of Jeremy I’ve ever seen wasn’t done by the daily fail or the graun or right wingers etc etc but it was this article by the CPGB-ML https://thecommunists.org/2019/12/12/news/brexit-election-death-of-project-corbyn/
While the article you link to makes a great deal of sense. Unfortunately it doesn’t tackle the socially conservative mindset of ignored, rural, traditional Labour voters for whom immigration is the cause of all of their problems.
They’ve been ignored for so long, they’ve accepted the false reality that neoliberalism is the only solution. They work together in their local communities (I know this because I live in a tower block. My neighbours are collectivists but believe in the concept of “the white van man”, Freedom from government controls, “indigiyounus” citizens, the idea that foreigners are at fault and extreme nationalist love of the royal family, who they believe, in the face of logic, are on their side. is prevalent so, the last 40 years have worked their magic…….the rural working class are untrusting, believe in collective solutions and accepting of right-wing, supply-side solutions…….They are lost to the left.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/15/britains-new-political-landscape
Here’s an article from the Guardian that shows what a bad election Labour had, and the scale of the task it faces if it’s ever to win power again. The author thinks that the Conservative share of the vote 44% is really significant, only he doesn’t think that the fact that the opposition to the Tories got substantially more votes combined, about 54% is, in contrast, particularly significant at all, or that the lower Tory share of the vote is turned, by Westminster ‘magic’ into a whopping great parliamentary majority over Labour, the Liberal Democrats and others, who actually won the popuar vote.
Perhaps, while he’s still leader of the Labour Party, Corbyn could do something really ‘radical’ and really principled and go a visit Julian Assange and bring some attention to his terrible conditions and the ghastly fate that awaits him, if he’s dragged off to some American hell-hole of a dungeon for the rest of his miserable life. What’s Corbyn got to lose? Do the right thing for a change, man, and show some determination and courage.
Counted 79 comments to this point in time. All, for some reason, discussing individuals who will 150% guaranteed be controlled by and be assets of the ‘Invisible Hand’ (who even have their own police force and a flag with an ickle pointy thing on it).
Genuinely confused Malloy can you explain what you mean
Whoever gets the job they will need the approval of the Jewish lobby first.
You have to admit the AS campaign against Corbyn has been spectacularly successful.
Parliamentarians on all sides have stood back and allowed the AS hoax to do its work in doing over Corbyn.
The IDF could murder a thousand Palestinians tomorrow and there wouldn’t be a single word of criticism from anybody in Parliament such is the fear of being branded AS.
They did kill and maim thousands this year.
It is as bad as the apartheid regime was in treating whites as the chosen people at the top of human evolution and all else as on a scale to worthless.
The Empire was built on such a rock.
The bullshit US constitution was built on the same rock – it held that slaves and natives had no room in the pathetic ‘all man are equal’ bs.
speaking of apartheid, did you see Sacha Baron-Cohen blabbing on to the ADL about how he “marched against apartheid in the 80s”? My irony meter caught fire
“he fear of being branded AS”
It is truly a toxic atmosphere. There has been nothing like it since McCarthyism. The media has a fear running through it caused by a little voice that says, “Just watch! The slightest deviation from the permitted script and we say the magic spell: ‘anti-Semite’ and away you go, career finished, reputation ruined, livelihood gone” It’s like Stalin’s Russia. (Or at least Stalin’s Russia as presented in the West.)
Not Stalin’s Russia.
The present day United Snakes, Israel’s bitch.
Stalin is the most lied about man in history while Churchill is the most lied for man in history
What’s the chance of the next leader being selected solely on merit – zero?
The Labour party which I used to love and vote for, has been dead for some time and is turning into a decaying corpse.
To ignore Brexit is to hold their voters, their natural, traditional voters in contempt.
Well said Andy.
I don’t know if Nandy is a suitable candidate or not, don’t know enough about her or her history since I live overseas now, but she did make sense this morning and held her own when being attacked by Marr.
Most interesting for me was her point that Labour HQ had to move out of London and away from the Metropolitan bubble, as well as holding their annual conference in normal towns across the country. She’s fully understood that traditional Labour voters were ignored because HQ and doesn’t understand them nor their genuine concerns.
Personally I don’t think it’s as simple as that, and I do think that McDonnell would make a very good leader, but he’s ruled himself out.
How about moving Labour HQ to – Wigan? Would it be a bit like Scargill moving the NUM to Barnsley?
Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Hull, Newcastle, Sunderland, Birmingham, all are suitable.
Birmingham. I’d move parliament there as well. (Might leave the Lords back in London, and then quietly forget about them. 🙂
“normal towns”
Eh?
Labour has held conferences in “normal towns and cities” throughout the UK for decades! So Nandy, again, is talking rubbish. Absolute rubbish.
Labour HQ also didn’t ignore the Brexit vote. Many in the PLP did! Corbyn didn’t and was crucified for that by many Remainers in the PLP for it.
Nandy comes over as naive and very immature and, sadly, limited in every way. It’s frightening that she’s seen as a condender. I take it Starmer has been told to keep quiet because he’s a man. Jesus wept!
I believe she meant away from typical resorts like Blackpool, Brighton, etc.. She’s promoting a non-London-centric future for Labour and I can only support that, since I was born and bred in Yorkshire.
Well said Frank.
The echo chamber of New Labour London, where everyone thinks that everyone else in the UK is on £80k per annum or more.
My missus is an MSc scientist on £21k in the South East with 20 years experience.
How we worry for our future.
Starmer is a f’ing remainer, who will try to stop Brexit any way he can. The EU is hurting ordinary working class people across Europe, by imposing austerity measures upon them and driving wages down. Casual employment is rising and crippling people, including me.
Momentum and the other anarchists who supported Corbyn, favour open borders etc.
Christ I am so glad that I am in the twighlight of my life.
Corbyn sat on the fence regarding Brexit, and that was what cost him votes in the Labour heartlands.
To be fair to Corbyn, the disastrous Brexit policy was forced on him and John Mc Donnell by the PLP. He probably did his best under the circumstances.
Andyoldlabour if Trotskyists and anarkids are involved walk away it’s bound to turn into a shitfest soon enough because one group is deeply unpopular and needs entryism to get anywhere in life and the other views being told to tidy their bedrooms as a form of oppression! God I despise anarkids and Trotskyists with a passion!
I see from your other posts that you are a Stalinist. So what are your plans for that?
Not really. The majority of Labour voters in the North voted Remain. Plus, it has become fairly clear there are few, if any, benefits of Brexit to working people. Labour under Corbyn were wise to be lukewarm on it.
You are deluded, or just plain disingenuous.
Nice lie Thom you’ve been told for 3 years now that no one wants to leave anymore except imagined hardcore racists and you’ve been proven to be full of shit
Imagine being a grown up and voting labour your whole life and wondering why zero socialism happened! Gullible beyond belief that party was NEVER on your side you sheep dipped fool
Yes but there are labour voters like myself who wanted to remain, I didn’t vote in the referendum because I thought it was going to be rigged to stay in
The only feasible replacement of Corbyn and keeping his ideals intact is bringing the best front bencher to the very top of the Labour Party.
Richard Burgon;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Burgon
I have to agree. He is currently a 100/1 outsider with the bookies. I like him because he has always been loyal to Corbyn, he voted against military action in Syria, and he has been criticised in the past for saying that Zionism was a significant threat to world peace. Overall he has very much the same principles as Corbyn and doesn’t seem to buy into self-promotion. Unfortunately, for all these reasons, he doesn’t stand a chance.
https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/news/leeds-news/leeds-mp-richard-burgon-delivers-17414377
Agree 100%. I like him a lot. I think he said he would like to be Rebecca Long-Bailey’s deputy. I know nothing at all about her, but have read some disparaging comments about her online (non-specific, so I have no idea what is supposed to be wrong with her, apart from being a Corbyn loyalist). I gather from Wikipedia that she’s from Manchester. Having northerners as numbers 1 & 2 wouldn’t be a bad thing, and a good balance (1 Yorkie, 1 Lancy 🙂 ).
Yes, have northerners in charge and move everything (parliament, party HQ) up to the Midlands. Get politics out of London for a change.
Mike
I can only endorse your view of northerners, especially Mancunians. 😀
Northerners both sides of my family tree, but I was born in the benighted south. 😉
Yeeeeeeeah clever idea lets all stick with one of the two evil bastard parties why not!? Many of you will laugh at yanks who still cling to the DNC’s teat but you’re all doing the exact same thing in English accents! You’re not as bright and not as clever as you all pretend to be! You’re all just a bunch of desperados clinging to a sinking ship hoping theirs mores lifeboats abroad but their isn’t! Pure idiocy from everyone still hoping for labour to be nice and not a gaggle of bullshitters
Can it get any better for the tories?
First the country buy lock stock and barrel into the shameful lies told about one Britain’s few decent MPs.
Then they win a large majority thus creating ideal conditions for full blown Americanisation of our culture (ie never ending war, mass poverty, shitty workplace conditions, and exhorbitant health care costs).
But the cherry on the cake must be the thought of an opposition led by low calibre opportunists like Phillips or Nandy: why don’t they go the whole hogg, for christsake and nominate Jo Swinson!
As an aside here is Jess who dosen’t seem to be too upset about the fact Johnson rather than Corbyn won.
https://twitter.com/Jonathan_K_Cook/status/1206129221543829506
Harry,
I was just talking about the election results in a phone call to my elderly ex-mother in law. I soon realised that she had voted Tory when she remarked that her vote reflected her support for Brexit. As I had your post on the screen in front of me as I spoke to her, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to, diplomatically, take the liberty of quoting your description of what people were supporting by voting Tory. There was a moment’s silence followed by “Ohh… Oh well, I’m too old to worry about those sorts of things. But Boris did say he wasn’t going to privatise health care.”
I’m afraid there are more people around, whose reaction would be the same, than we might care to believe.
For me, Corbyn reminded me of a humble monk, wearing sandals, clutching a wooden cross… walking out onto a jousting field to face a Knight on horseback, clad in steel armour and holding a long, pointed, lance with barbs on the end. Where, I wonder, should one place one’s bet as to who wins?
He won the moral war by a landslide. If there’s a heaven, he’ll be rewarded with spot there.
Corbyn had the job and the hopes thrust upon him. Over the last couple of years he’s been very, very, poor as a leader and seemed completely unable or unwilling to defend himself properly against the vile smear campaign that he was a racist or anti-Semitic. That was a terrible mistake. I used to think the strategy was to absorb the punches and deprive the story of oxygen, don’t get into such a dangerous area at all then it would fade away. Why waste time on something so ridiculous, why waste the energy? Only that was wrong I think. They didn’t have any reasoned strategy at all, no plan. Allowing his old comrades to hang and twist in the wind, sacrificing them on the gibbet of ‘anti-Semitism’ was a terrible idea, but one that typified Corbyn’s rule. He simply refused to lead and stamp his authority on the Party. The… Read more »
You have to get down in the gutter with these people and repay them in their own coin.
Trump understood that instinctively, for all his faults.
I’m very pessimistic, but I pretend not to be because that’s no way to live. I attempt to live as if there is ‘hope’ for the future and change is possible, when underneath I don’t really believe that. So each day I rise and live a kind of lie. I often feel like Cassandra in Troy, who was given the gift of seeing into the future, but the curse that no one would believe her! What do I really think? I think the era or age of bourgeois democracy is over and what we now have is a form of dictatorship, which is increasingly totalitarian in character. The idea that ‘socialism’ is possible anymore, if it ever really was, working through a system, the Westminster system, which was specifically designed to thwart anything like ‘socialism’, seems like a… ‘quaint’ idea to me, actually rather ridiculous. Most people don’t know that… Read more »
Excellent comment.
For the benefit of the Remainers. Germany – EU powerhouse – Or leader of neoliberalism in the EU Is Europe socialist? Let’s have another look at Germany, its economy and its social services. The health care system is cheap compared to the US, but also chronically underfunded. My father-in-law recently needed an endoscopy, and they wanted him to wait months for an appointment. German hospitals are terribly understaffed, and nurses complain they are often all by themselves during the night shift at a station. Millions of people are unemployed in Germany. Many receive Hartz (reforms) IV, long-term unemployment benefits, but these only cover the bare necessities of survival. If someone misses an appointment at the Jobcenter, they can have even this meager support cancelled. A massive bureaucracy forces unemployed workers to accept any job at all – this is one way that Amazon gets workers to do back-breaking labor for… Read more »
Actually, a better solution is forming mutualised businesses owned by employees and managers and proving that mutual options can succeed. They do not need to be based on profits for shareholders, although they can pay dividends if owners agree to it. They can prioritise solvency, fair working conditions, apprenticeships, maternity and paternity leave, if they can manage to successfully. Trying to slay the State is much harder than building successful businesses on mutuality principles. Some examples which might work: 1. Childcare facilities founded by mothers. 2. Local taxi firms owned by taxi drivers. 3. A plumbing firm owned by 12 founding plumbers. 4. A construction firm owned by 10 skilled tradesfolk. 5. An insurance firm owned by policy holders. 6. A cross-brand car repair firm owned by six mechanics. 7. A 1 hectare farm owned by 200 people investing in a weekly veg box scheme and the farming family they… Read more »
Sorry for the possible repetition, but the system “ate” my comment after distorting it, so here it is again. While I agree intellectually with the idea of cooperatives as a more realistic option at present, the pessimist in me sees its ultimate (sometimes rapid) degeneration. There is an old Garrison Keillor radio skit in which the young woman says (this is a paraphrase), “Yeah, like we started this commune..and then I became the owner.” I tried to interest my co-workers in a co-op when the small business we work for was for sale. The germinating plan was doomed at the organizational meeting, several people seeking to establish themselves as the “leader,” others remaining silent. People have grown up in a culture lacking in cooperation; they are schooled to see themselves (even in psychological testing) as leaders or followers. The self-styled leaders usurp the conversation, and the rest content themselves with… Read more »
Erm, it’s not democratic socialism any longer Francis, it’s Mutti’s neoliberalism. A nice essay, but aimed completely at the wrong target!
It’s also the rump SPD’s (partner in the coalition) neoliberalism.
The coalition is collapsing, isn’t it?
It’s called “internal devaluation”. Bill Mitchell has written extensively on it, and other problems with Germany and the Eurozone in general. Also about the demise of the “left” in Europe, e.g. the SPD in Germany, Syriza in Greece. New Labour had gone that way, and it seemed to work for them for a while, until 2007/2008, and the Global Financial Crash, which caused all sorts of problems here, in mainland Europe, and in the USA, but specifically paved the way for the coalition here, and what we have today, with a hopelessly demoralised Labour Party.
I suppose everyone here’s tired of the post-mortems, but I just read an article at RT by Neil Clark that summed it all up perfectly:
Heart breaking is it not Seamus, And, as a reminder, I’ve been corresponding with Christopher Williamson and Steve Howell, Corbyn’s deputy election advisor in 2017, both had warned JC against appeasing the Israeli Lobby and endorsing a People’s Vote, which all could see was actually a second EU Referendum, that Corbyn’s own advisors, among them Milne also battled against this policy adoption says it all – what I’ll never understand is how John mcDonnell, another longtime EC/EU sceptic, not only changed his mind on Brussels, but forced JC to adopt a policy that was suicidal, a fact he’s accepted this morning. A bit fucking late now, the damage is done, and working class oiks like me understood this fact as far back as May this year when the PLP Remianiacs went into over drive. The upshot of all this is that Ms May’s racist, toxic immigration environment remains in place… Read more »
Good points Chris but I disagree about your view on McDonnell. He’s a very principled and honest man. He’d make a very good leader.
At the end of the day, Corbyn is the leader and he made the wrong, naive choices. He was too trusting and got ripped to shreds by the fascist attack dogs. He’s politically dead, yet still they fight against him relentlessly. Please try not to blame McDonnell and other people of the “project” when the whole State machinery and their billionaire friends are trying to kill them off.
Sorry Frank,
Such sentiment does not cut ice with me, it also does not cut ice with 30,000 plus other legally married couples, one of whom is a full UK citizen, denied a family life in the UK.
It also does not cut ice with the 120,000 needless deaths attributed to nine years of Tory austerity, now to be extended yet again and the countless others who will suffer as a result of persons selling snake oil to the leader of the Opposition, who’s own staff certainly knew better – John ain’t got nothing to worry about, the Rightist scum that remain on the benches of the PLP ain’t got nothing to worry about, the MSM propagandists ain’t got nothing to worry about – but my God, millions are impacted by this disaster. And for what, for fucking what?
Brussels, fucking Brussels that’s what for.
Philips and Nandy, amongst a whole host of others yet to ‘appear’ are obviously so much better than your average Joe or Josephine, that you know it’s right they should speak – they can’t help themselves. Nothing is ever their fault. They don’t need reflection and true analysis because they are the ‘answer’ and we should get behind them – to push them OFF the cliff – NOW! Throughout its history, whenever they fail especially, there is always the call by the right of the party known as labour that it has been ‘infiltrated’ by the left and that it will never get back into power unless change occurs. That change means reification of the power of capital, the diminishing or removal of anything that smacks of being socialist and the full incorporation of neo-liberal ideas. We all know, don’t we, that these risible people do not have the interests… Read more »
We’re heading for a Likud MK 2 party, that’s my lot with politics , I’ve had 74 years of it and we’re still no better off , any of this garbage get hold of the reins it will be another 15 years of toryism , when will the people wake up?
You can always rely on the entire executive class (politicians, media etc.) to grind out the same thing till the end of time: capitalism, capitalism, capitalism. Any failure, any lack of popularity for a movement is always interpreted as ‘It was too Left!’ This is where the endlessly requoted definition of madness as ‘repeating the same actions and expecting different results’ falls flat. The ones repeating – or at least their masters – know perfectly well they will get the same results. They LIKE the results. They WANT the results.
I already dipped into Jess’s sea of vacuity. I see no reason to dip into the other one. Surely everyone by now must know that these figures are just wafting the required fart noises to please the neoliberal order.
It’s not capitalism, it’s crapitalism
What and you thought corbyn would bin capitalism?! Haha you Trotskyists are a laugh riot no wonder you always lose
Hmm ….Don’t think I said that, J-J. I see JC as someone who would do what theofficial left always do i.e. carry on with c(r)apitalism with a few more crumbs to the masses. That even this miserable concession is no longer to be allowed says a lot about how the current state of crappywappycapitalism.
That ‘how’ shouldn’t be there. Jesus – I hate this inability to correct mistakes!
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” Good news is, there aren’t many Boxers left who happily put all their energy in making the system of the pigs work. In a Dutch novel, an idiot becomes, by accident, the captain of a ship. He knows to keep his job by shouting, at random but in full confidence, to the shipmates which course they should follow. Everytime I thibk of politicians, I think of the captain of this book. In the novel, the captain, somewhat surprisingly, is able to keep the ship running for a long time and the shipmates take confidence in the leadership of the captain (for some time). But, of course, at some stage the shore does stop the ship. But the Ocean is big, and… Read more »
“Don’t worry about trains .. Don’t worry about innreasing minimum wage .. Don’t worry about scraping tuition fees ..”
By Lisa Nandy’s logic, filling our food bowel with CARCINOGENS shouldn’t be a probem since we’re going to die anyway. A logic that is already propagated by Big Pharma and AgriChemical businesses.
Do these people represent us at government level? Is this what Democracy gave us? Aren’t they supposed to protect us? Are these people paid to simply mock and hurt us?
“Jess Phillips goes even vaguer ”
Vulturism comes in different echelons.
Jess Phillips – Tories would “walk over hot coals for her.”
The Guardian pick as the “safe pair of hands” to take over Labour.
We need a new political system were truth and reality prevails over mass indoctrination.
Parliamentary democracy is controlled by Financial totalitarianism. If you have money you can participate. People with more money get to participate more too.
Befriend the Queen for knighthood or a title for access to the money. When you become a billionaire give me a call.
MOU
The people hold the upper hand, they outnumber the ‘Money Holders’.
The problem lies in the fact that the MH are in control of the game they created.
Solution, change the structure of the game that gives everybody an even chance and nullifies MH’s omnipotence.
No other way.
Society must have control mechanisms in place to control the system we call society/civilization. Without control systems in place we would have no civilization or society apart from that which is balkanized into adversarial dispositions. The man on the Clapham omnibus cannot exist without behavioural control & system control of human beings. Freedom is qualified in society. Wealthy so-called billionaires seem to be parking their jets in my Davos parking spot every year with impunity. I am not wealthy enough to police my parking spot at Davos whereas they are wealthy enough to appropriate my parking spot whenever they so desire based upon means I have yet to obtain. Changing the structure of wealth is the game since 08 GFC. Aggregated wealth can only exist alongside aggregated poverty for so long before both impinge upon one another in conflict over disparity. Warren Buffett will never give his secretary a percentage… Read more »
Exactly.
What about making Britain into a confederacy? Direct democracy: power to the actual individuals in the country; localised power in the form of small ‘states’ within it? Parliamentary democracy has now been exposed as a complete sham.
You’ve more or less got it, but it would be set-up in a highly sophisticated way incorporating basic technology that will enable and facilitate social participation on a scale and depth never before envisaged.
A TOTAL RESTRUCTURING OF SOCIETY AND POLITICS FROM THE BOTTOM UP – WITH ONE MAJOR EXCLUSION – IDEOLOGY.
Society of the future will be based (excuse presumption) on ‘what works best’ related to the greatest happiness and fulfillment of the greatest number.
Such a basic determinate could never be realized under CENTRALIZATION. Centralization has proved to be humankind’s biggest enemy, history provides the death count to prove it. EVIL so easily steps in to occupy the POWER AT IT’S CENTRE.
You are absolutely right about centralisation being the biggest enemy. I like the model of the two cantons in Switzerland, Glarus and Appenzell Innerrhoden – local civic responsibility is key.
Yes, direct democracy must be participatory and it must also go hand-in-hand with a genuinely open, unbiased media/internet/tv/radio/online-forum-moderation etc – all owned and worked by the public (jury-type system); and an education system that genuinely helps people of all ages learn properly and use important skills like critical thinking.
Personally, I think digital direct democracy is too risky – too prone to hacking and manipulation especially in this current era. The Swiss canton ‘market square’ system is vitally transparent and a successful tried-and-tested model that should be emulated?
Forgot to add: ultimately, it is important to remove the inflation/debt-based fractional reserve central banking system first before we can begin to improve our society; and be vigilant of secret networks that are prone to taking hold of our societies by narcissists, control-freaks, sociopaths and supremacists!
Thank you for your positive and constructive input.
Imagine the future social/political system broken within a geodesic network structure (light but extremely stable) that encircled the world.
The permutations and adaptability of such a structure would be unlimited.
If this inevitable happens and Blair reappears in some form, or himself(?!),
I hope the membership haemmorage- I left in July ‘cos of the ‘Remain’ stance.
Start a new party- with or without the unions? Crowdfund?
I’m S.E. England, upper working class (skilled) good pay, good pension, but know how Thatcher and Blair have shafted the North (north of Watford gap)-
Watch Boris have his ‘Black Wednesday’ moment when the ‘markets’ shaft him!!
You’re about as working class as Stilton cheese you’re solidly middle class there is no upper working class AT ALL! It goes under class, working class, lower middle class, middle class, upper middle class, upper classes, ruling elite, aristocracy!
I had to work to put food on the table- I did not rent a house to someone, I did not live off bank interest or stock trading. With no work, I had no food or shelter.
What other definition of ‘working class’ is there?
Just because I was an engineer, doesn’t stop me being a worker! I used a hammer and screwdriver as well as my brain! Remember ‘Clause 4’?
‘By hand and by brain’…
Well said Davemass. You previously mentioned ‘with or without the unions’ and that raises a real dilemma. I’m a Branch Secretary for UNISON, and very close to chucking it all in. Partly because of the member apathy and unwillingness to stand up for themselves, partly because the overall ideological climate of austerity, vicious anti working class policies, and their effects (not least the apathy just cited). It means very few ‘victories’ of any note. Determination to keep fighting is diluted by a third factor: the Remainer rump, their identity politics, and ‘one more push’ bollocks. It hardly seems worth the candle and involves too many compromises with ‘capitalist realism’.
For sure 2020 is gong to be a very very bumpy ride for a lot of us.
All my family were engineers. They are just surplus to requirements now, like zeppelin makers. All the production has been outsourced to Timbuktu or wherever. All the engineers are Chinese.
There is no class.
You have the middle class or more truthfully house slaves, and the working class, the field slaves. Think otherwise? Tell me what you’re free to do tomorrow. The most productive slave is the one that thinks they are free.
OP is a house slave, for the record. White collar workers don’t have the power they once held. An Aircon engineer earns far more than most of the call centre they’ve been sent to service.
Until we realise that we’re all slaves, victories like Thatcher, Blair and Johnson will continue to happen.
Labour is a dead end. The rot is too deep. The problem is a new, pure and decent party won’t last long before the same happens again
I suggested that this could be an option between the first election by the membership of Jeremy Corbyn and events leading up to the second election. Many many people joined or rejoined Labour because of JC. They are equally likely to leave Labour in similar numbers. So do they just drift away or form a modern progressive party? Crowdfunding certainly would be an option. Such a new party despite offering to repeal all anti union legislation would still be opposed by the Unions. There are several incontrovertible truths. The Labour Party cannot be all things to all members. A split in the party preferably an amicable divorce would have been the best solution so that the so called ‘right’ could test their policies. None of those that left the party to form a centre ground have been elected. The most pro remain party pledged to simply repeal article 50 and… Read more »
You might consider the “continuation” SDP. I know, I know, but they are apparently a bit different now. Pro-Brexit, and pro working class policies. I’ve had it with party politics myself, so I won’t be bothering, but those still with the energy might want to consider it.
A new leader for the Labour Party? (or even better the People’s Party).
Mmm _ _ _ _
Russell Brand? Roger Waters?
Kate Tempest?
Give the suited Psychos the flick.
Keep Russel bland away from politics Jason Unruhe did several good videos on YouTube about that bland git
russell bland is a sicko satanist
a deceiver
he dates trans folks he even dated a rothschild
he is just another bad ashkanazi act
feel free 2 down vote
So, you haven’t sent him a Christmas card then.
I’d see it that we all need true governance instead of plunder backed by coercion and deceit. So I’m on it! Listening in the heart rather than running off with a mind masking its lack of substance is the basis of ‘relationship’ whose embrace and extension embodies our values. The replacement of relationship with systemic correctness of targets and tick boxes under fear of social and career exclusion if not being inclusive in respect of a rigged system runs a cruel parody of ‘delivering service’. I don’t see either/or in terms of human skills and potentials but both/and. Humans are perhaps the only self-endangered species – not least because of identifying in polarised conflict or being defined by what we hate, fear or don’t want. I had a fantasy about a human alliance based on what we live to each other – not what we mask or present and sell… Read more »
If Labour adherents believe the election & their party was coopted one only needs to go over to the Tories to coopt them in return. Labour played a short game and the Cons played the long game for the win. Labour does not know how to play a long game for the centrist position & helm.
Bojo nailed the long game for helm.
MOU
Yep, exactly what happened in Australia. Blame the loss on the leader being too much to the left and then install a pro-business, pro-opportunity, pro-capitalist, all that yada-yada. They might as well not even carry the name Labor.
You need a check-up from the neck-up if you ever want to submit yourself to that again. Five years out from the next election – in line with the Fixed Term Parliament Act – I want to make known that we should never vote again. We should be looking to organise around direct democracy and regaining autonomy, self-sovereignty, and the right of self-determination for a co-equal People. And the capitalist state is the enemy of the People. And if five years elapses: and we find ourselves voting for Starmer, Long-Bailey, or worse – Phillips – then the check-up came back negative …there were no signs of life …because you would have to be severely brain dead to vote for any of these. If you actually like being immortally infantalised by volunteering to abdicate all responsibility to the capitalist state …five years of Bojos psycho-capitalism should cure that. Remember, the state… Read more »
Nandy first. I’m sorry, she is a prime example, for me, proving that even morons can go into actual politics. She enrages me every time I hear or read her. I recall previous pieces she did for the Guardian, one pleading against a second referendum (because Wigan would kick her out). She is selfish to the core. And to say the defeat wasn’t about Brexit shows how deluded she is. Her own constituency warned her it would be. That’s why she broke ranks so often in Commons votes to back May, to back Johnson. That’s why she was working with Leavers to find a way to get the deal through. And it was all to save her own bloody job! Phillips. Blimey! I heard John McTernan supporting her on the BBC today and just despaired. He said what a great sense of humour she has! Oh, that’ll bring the voters… Read more »
Phillips thought that the high rate of male suicide was hilarious.
As was specifically male cancers.
Lovely woman.
The ABC’s pro-zionist national radio channel seems to regard John McTernan as their go-to expert on ‘anti-Semitism in the UK Labour Party’. They’ve given him at least two interviews telling us about how prevalent it is. Number of interviews given to speakers contradicting this narrative? Zilch. You can safely dispense with niceties like ‘balance’ when you’re a ‘public broadcaster’ saying what the establishment expects of you.
I can’t think of one female Labour politican that I have ever heard speak that hasn’t made my blood boil. There are plenty of other female politicians from other parties who have my respect, even if I don’t agree with them on much, but the females in the Labour ranks are totally nauseating
I forgot about dear Mo Mowlam…..sorry Mo. It is an effort to think of one though, they’re all so charmless. I’m sure they’re there just well hidden
I quite like Gisela Stuart. I’m happy with her Leave stance, but being on the same bus with Johnson was perhaps a bit of a misjudgement. No one’s perfect.
The word that always comes to mind whenever I see or hear her is “gobshite”.
Hardly surprising: these Centrists are still euphoric from their long fought and victorious election campaign. Naturally they feel that having won the election-by electing a neo liberal establishment majority- they are the natural choice. Their message to Labour is clear: if you don’t elect us. Or people like us. We will use our positions within the party to sabotage it. On the other hand, elect us, and there will be no more trouble from the Israeli Embassy , the Undertakers, licking their lips over the prospects of this winter’s funerals, and the billionaires’ media which requires only that the rich should be allowed to get even richer and the poor reduced to misery. We are, like Peter Mandelson, ‘intensely relaxed, even totally OK with that.” Unfortunately the Centrists misunderstand the nature of the world: the conditions that allowed the rise of Blairism as a sort of casual version of Thatcherism,… Read more »
Socialists in the EU are completely ineffectual due to MSM and Internet control. Moreover, the only socialist worthy of mention is Yanis Varoufakis PhD. Rally behind him and I’ll believe the European socialists.
Socialism in the UK can only work via a critical Marxist critique.
MOU
Is this the same Yanis Varoufakis who travels around the globe giving talks on finance on behalf of Goldman Sachs ?
If Yanis Varoufakis was on contract with Goldman Sachs Zero Hedge would have had a field day, and would have reported it. Professor Varoufakis would not accept any contract to work for GS. GS would never give Varoufakis any work whatsoever.
Varoufakis working for GS would be like the Pope working for orthodox Marxists.
MOU
aye OK
Varoufakis is a Remainer who participated in selling out his native Greece to the Frankfurt-banksters.
Thank you
A better version of Yanis Varoufakis 🙂 is Costas Lapavitsas. He was a Syriza MP, but not a member of the government, I don’t think. A friend of Varoufakis, but firmly on the side of Brexit.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Left-Case-Against-EU/dp/1509531068
Now working as an economics Prof at SOAS.
If someone hangs out with the elites and is given mainstream coverage in order to seem to be critical of them and their policies AS he frames them – then are you not a little wary? Mind you a PhD… (?) If something can only work via critical Marxist critique – are you saying that it can only seem to work under critical Marxist thought mandate? You are welcome of course to your views – but that mere use of this ism and that ism speaks to me of exhausted identities in search of reinforcement. For my part I see such identities or labelling as enabling the control of UN, MSM, and every other leverage of influence. Social masking playing out a hidden agenda through its bot-net mind of fear-driven humanity – including those who think their freedom is in manipulating and deceiving others. Elitism is self-specialness in general usage… Read more »
I’m confused, Bevin. This is the very party you were militantly exorting people to vote for last week. And chastising me for not voting for. Mainly on the gounds they are imperialists, anti-Palestinian, and neoliberal Blairites …among other things …like the GND. Now you seem to agree? They were totally unelectable before the election. They are totally unelectable now. And they will be totally unelectable forever more. Labour is dead: exposed as a mirror neoliberal Zionist party. If we want socialism: we will have to form a vehicle outside the state electoral process. We have to form an alternative to capitalism: clear and simple. Not an alliance with it for a hybrid neoliberal market socialism. Boris Johnson is the best ally a true socialist can have. He should make capitalism unelectable in less than five years. Plenty of time to reorganise as if people and life itself were primary: and… Read more »
Social-democracy is a spent force. It is dead in Europe, it is dying in the UK, and its American counter-part, the Democrats, is transmuting into an ugly post-modern capitalist zionist party run by Israel’s US proxies, AIPAC ADL and JINSA. Labour has been a machine for turning good socialists into respectable Parliamentarians. The ‘Broad Church’ has been two parties masquerading as one. The notion of a Labour Lord seems too grotesque to believe, but there we have it. Her Majesty’s loyal opposition were co-opted into the UK establishment some time ago.
No doubt the true believers will now be reassuring us that ‘next time it will be different’ and that the love object must not be profaned. Enough of this nonsense, it’s either hyper-capitalism or socialism.
All market economy related parties – predicated on ultra-individualism and hyper-growthism – will falter or fail in the next few years. Indeed, the price mechanism of the market itself may well fail. It is inevitable: but putting a date on it is a mugs game. The longer the overfinancialised market lurches on: the more likely it is to fail. Predicting this trend is the best we can do. My long term concern is the lack of any real awareness of this means there in no preparedness. And no emerging post-market socialist scenario. Except for the 60,000 military/paramilitary police the capitalist state have ready as a contingency in Operation Yellowhammer [WWSW]. A vortex in politics is good only for ultra-nationalism and ‘Tommy Robinson’ street fascism. Post-Labour party – post neoliberal market socialism would be a welcome alternative to the personality ‘cargo-cultism’ mentality being transferred to Jess Phillips! I think I would… Read more »
“Lord Kinnock”, “Lord Hattersely”, “Lord” Prescott”, “Lord” Blunkett”, “Lord Darling”,
“Lord” Mandelson, [to name but a few]
“Pass the sick-bag, Alice!”
That would be my conclusion too, thanks for pointing it out so clearly BigB. Of course there’s a real risk just now that if a genuinely left-wing party were to split away from Labour it would inherit the smear of bullshit anti-semitism, leaving the neolib rump (the great majority of the parliamentary party, sure) to seem ‘cleansed’, neutered, New New Labour. But so be it” by pushing back vigorously that myth can be shattered. Passively turning the other cheek has very clearly not worked, admirable as it might be at so many levels.
The AS slur techniques are proven technology now, I’m afraid. They’ll be employed anywhere capitalism comes under threat. Which in this carnally capitalist country is anywhere.
I might be biased, but my brothers inlaws are Jewish. I’m led to believe the Jewish community are less taken in by the AS smear campaign than is often made out. Just as I am led to believe there is significant pushback against Netanyahu. I’d really like to think the tide has turned against the Zionist slurrers for defaming their own ethnicity.
And I really would have to laugh if it did pan out. Quite long and hard!
Okay. I’m in.