Thank you for this tragic reminder of how far the Labour party has fallen since it's aspiring, people-driven beginnings. For those of us who still vainly hold on to socialist principles in this money-driven society, we can only look with despair at where the Labour party has come to rest.
Radix malorum est cupiditas indeed. The root of evil is the love of money, and the Labour party has thrown itself, body and soul, into the pursuit of money, to the detriment of it's base vote, the working people who believed in it's founding principles.
If I lived in England, Wales or Northern Ireland I would be despairing of who to cast my vote for. Fortunately I live in Scotland, where we still have some competent, left-of-centre parties who value social justice and a fair and equal society above the opportunities other parties embrace to line their own pockets. I will be voting SNP.
What I find extraordinary is that the English haven't come up with a credible left of centre party, HV.
It's not like there aren't vast areas of the country where the poverty and deprivation isn't grinding. There is a crying need for a party that doesn't worship at the feet of the the god Plutus.
tris. I think there is still a lack of political enlightenment/awareness in most of the English counties. Some of the Scottish electorate was similarly unaware before last year's referendum, and some of it still is. It usually takes a major upheaval to shake up an entrenched mindset, and it hasn't happened yet, south of the border.
The voters there are still controlled and manipulated by the BBC and MSM, after all, but I think new left-wing parties will emerge, once the English electorate come to realise that voting Conservative, Labour or Lib Dem offers them only same-as, same-as policies. Enlightenment will dawn, eventually.
Robert Tyler - Er...Plaid Cymru, the party that slipped into 3rd place in 2011 behind the Welsh Conservatives? So far as I can see, Wales is as similarly politically uniformed as England about where socialist values currently rest and expire. Sad news for Nye Bevan, then.
I have family down south and they only hear snippets from up here. They have no one to choose other than the same old losers. It's sad. I keep telling them to organise themselves. That's what we done and boy what a difference it has made. They have no idea how many would support them . Google had " how can i vote for SNP / Sturgeon at number 6 on their search list. That's a lot of people.
Indeed. There has to be someone who is on the left of the spectrum without being too far left. Someone everyone can put their trust in. In the 50+ million Englishmen and women, surely there is someone who has that kind of talent.
"Plaid Cymru, the party that slipped into 3rd place in 2011 behind the Welsh Conservatives? " So does that negate Plaid's message? We are working hard in Wales for a credible socialist alternative and your dismissive, ill-informed ("Wales is as similarly politically uniformed as England") remarks we can well do without.
I have huge respect for Pliad, as does the SNP leadership. I hope that they will continue to work together in Westminster. I certainly didn't mean to degrade them. I follow them on Twitter and retweet many of their common sense messages.
But Labour is still the dominant party in Wales and even the Tories appear to hold on in your country.
Not you Tris, your comments are always constructive, valued and taken on board. The comments by HV do rankle however. We are fully aware that Plaid's position is weak and that, tragically, Labour remains dominant. What I am objecting to is the throwaway comments by HV that their is no credible le alternative in Wales.
Apologies for my badly-expressed remark. I don't think I was saying that there is no credible alternative in Wales, but only that people don't appear to be voting for it.
People in Scotland have educated themselves about the current political scenario by reading blogs like these, and watching the new online broadcasters like Derek Bateman and Newshaft. We didn't all suddenly wake up on September 19 with SNP membership cards in our back pockets, suddenly informed and aware of what Westminster has been doing to the electorate for the last 300 years.
It takes time to assimilate facts, check information and develop an informed position and, of course, to find sources of information which you feel safe in trusting. I have no idea if Wales has developed the blogs/websites/online broadcasting media or a print publication like the National and the Sunday Herald as we have here, but those are areas which Plaid Cymru should perhaps be targeting, so that the Welsh electorate can be better informed about how they are being screwed over by their elected representatives.
We mostly crowd fund our very excellent writers/bloggers/broadcasters and I am quite sure Wales has as many high-quality and informed contributors as Scotland does. Cymru am byth.
Well, sometimes in a written communication, it is difficult to get the exact meaning across. It's good we can get it sorted though.
One of the things that energised us in Scotland was the referendum campaign... another was being shafted at the last moment by the British establishment,
The civil service, the queen and the vow. And then the day after Cameron making it impossible to Labour to support what they had naively signed up to, but throwing in EVEL, which would wreck Labour under the current lopsided devolution system we operate.
Wales hasn't had that, although I'm sure that they could le us know about maltreatment by Westminster.
A warning to the SNP though, may be a lesson to learn. I think Plaid suffered from the period in government with Labour in Wales... Maybe I'm wrong, I speak as a foreigner, looking in. Maybe R Tyler would le us know more about that...
I'd welcome an article on Plaid, if you're up for it R Tyler...:)
I've been waiting for him to make an appearance. I suspect it will be only a matter of days, or ever hours, before the vote, so that we don;t have time to counter his ridiculous assertions and remind everyone of his promises.
But a few good pics of him and the rusty lady wouldn't be a bad idea.
After watching the media coverage of the launch of Labour's manifesto yesterday and today Cameron's manifesto launch speech it is obvious to me that "They" require Cameron back. And the media and their string pullers will ensure that happens - expect the polls to show a Tory revival in England by the weekend.
So the Labour decision to stick to the right wing policies abandoning any hope of rescuing their vote in Scotland in a desperate gamble to become the largest party in England will have failed.
I have wondered why anyone would want to vote Tory Lite, when the real full bodied thing is there in all its true blue splendour.
It only really works when even the fairly serious Tory is sick of them (1997) or when they are in complete disarray with complete numpty heads leading (Hague, IDS and Something of the Night)
But as Mandelson said, without the South East they will never have a chance of government.
As we found out this week, it's impossible now to be different things to different people.
I hope it's not the Tories that win, because we'd get nothing, even if we had all 59 seats. They will walk over our faces.
We must hope the hapless Labour leadership stages some sort of revival and squeezes in with a minority government.
Preferably without Murphy, Sarwar, Curran and Alexander. for starters.
Not heard that song for ages and the captions were great.
It's fun watching the Slab members fall over themselves. Dim Jim slapped down yesterday was almost as good as it gets but i know there is much more comedy gold to come.
Vote SNP vote Scotland > The Northern Branch Red Tory's is sinking faster than the titanic.
I love the song too. Been singing (wailing) it all day since I put this up.
In a way I'm sad to see Labour fall to pieces. In a way of course, I'm glad that this lot of half witted self servers are going, but I wish Labour itself could be saved.
The principles of the party, as it used to be before the warmongers and banksters took it over, are those closest to my heart. Fairness, decency and an acceptance that we can;t all be born with silver spoons anywhere near us, so some of need a little more help than others.
Still, like you say, it's good to watch these creeps fall apart.
Whoever thought Murphy was a good idea is a complete joke. And after Chukka and Ed threw him under a bus yesterday, showing just what a junior branch manager he is, I can only imagine who Johann Lamont must be smiling.
Scottish politics will change over the next few years. New Left leaning parties will form from the ashes of LIEbour. No one can really believe anything they say and they have become irrelevant as a party of opposition .
SNP and Greens do that now. SSP will maybe grow with many ex Labour voters joining but i see the huge numbers of new members to SNP/Greens/SSP keeping the leftish view. They listen to their members and will be kept in check by us.
The SNP have changed over the years and so will the others.
I think the polical landscape will be very different .
A rainbow coalition is on the cards for the SE 2016 and we will see how well these guys do in time. But fair play to the SNP who have done a helloffa job so far considering the obstacles placed in their way.
Who knows they could be something special with "real" powers. They have cracking mp's and the others barring a small few come no where near them . We have a healthy confidence in our Govt in Edinburgh .
I believe the only way for Scotland to grow is to lose LIEbour. They have kept us in check for decades. No more.
P.S. I hope they don't sack Dim Jim. he's the most entertaining looney on tv just now. Hell we even played Murphy bingo last week guessing which phrases would come up.
Labour in Scotland, could not be resurrected unless it was truly independent, from London labour. Even then, if it just attached it's self to London labour, they would have the same influence they have now, that is to say zero, naught, none.
The founding fathers of the labour party, would not recognise the party of today, though they themselves failed to deliver home rule, as did subsequent labour governments, and they sure as hell are trying to back peddle from any form of home rule now.
For too long they have had the power to change society, for the common good, for all but, chose to play the Westminster game of power today and maybe tomorrow for the party not the people; I for one will not weep on the occasion of their passing.
Four non blondes, top tune a great one hit wonder.
You're right. All will change now. I don't think they can go back. Murphy was a dreadful mistake, but they can't unelect him. not only Johann must be smiling uip her sleeve as he gets shown up as branch office supervisor, after he said she was lying about that. Findlay must be smiling as he thinks that there is no way he would ahve got Labour into this mess.
Labour are going to get slaughtered, but I'd be careful about writing them all off on the basis of a few polls, however good the analysis. The Labour Party needs a kick up the proverbial. I voted for SNP last Scottish election as I saw them as competent. Not perfect, since a few numpties got elected, but for effective in Government. The SNP will make large (huge?) gains, but unlikely to get 50 seats. (Of course, the last Scottish GE was a major surprise.......)
As to a rainbow coalition. No thanks. The Green Party manifesto is cloud cuckoo politics - except for the major and certainly admirable policy of insulating homes. The rest is pure mince. The danger of the Green party is that they might take voters from Labour when they may have gone to the SNP. That could make the difference in a few seats.
I will vote SNP. My candidate is an unknown quantity but from a non-political background. That is a big plus in my view. My sitting Labour MP is ineffective and at times arrogant. I have no time for such people. If the SNP end up in a pact with Labour, can they ensure that Ed Balls is NOT made Chancellor?
Yes Jim... the problem is that you just cant have two separate Labour parties with separate policies in the UK.
In the end Murphy and his likes have to work out whether they want free education or education at £6,000 a year; whether they want free prescriptions of whether £9 an item is a reasonable amount to pay on top of your NI.
For people on low incomes who just stretch the money till the end of the week, a prescription with a couple of items on it could be the difference between eating and not.
I think that MPs from outside the political world of university, spad, assistant, MP is fantastic.
I dunno if they can stop Balls being chancellor. I wonder if Ed will make him chancellor anyway.
Why do we call them chancellor anyway? He's the Finance Secretary...
Thank you for this tragic reminder of how far the Labour party has fallen since it's aspiring, people-driven beginnings. For those of us who still vainly hold on to socialist principles in this money-driven society, we can only look with despair at where the Labour party has come to rest.
ReplyDeleteRadix malorum est cupiditas indeed. The root of evil is the love of money, and the Labour party has thrown itself, body and soul, into the pursuit of money, to the detriment of it's base vote, the working people who believed in it's founding principles.
If I lived in England, Wales or Northern Ireland I would be despairing of who to cast my vote for. Fortunately I live in Scotland, where we still have some competent, left-of-centre parties who value social justice and a fair and equal society above the opportunities other parties embrace to line their own pockets. I will be voting SNP.
What I find extraordinary is that the English haven't come up with a credible left of centre party, HV.
DeleteIt's not like there aren't vast areas of the country where the poverty and deprivation isn't grinding. There is a crying need for a party that doesn't worship at the feet of the the god Plutus.
Er, Wales has Plaid Cymru...
Deletetris. I think there is still a lack of political enlightenment/awareness in most of the English counties. Some of the Scottish electorate was similarly unaware before last year's referendum, and some of it still is. It usually takes a major upheaval to shake up an entrenched mindset, and it hasn't happened yet, south of the border.
DeleteThe voters there are still controlled and manipulated by the BBC and MSM, after all,
but I think new left-wing parties will emerge, once the English electorate come to realise that voting Conservative, Labour or Lib Dem offers them only same-as, same-as policies. Enlightenment will dawn, eventually.
Robert Tyler - Er...Plaid Cymru, the party that slipped into 3rd place in 2011 behind the Welsh Conservatives?
So far as I can see, Wales is as similarly politically uniformed as England about where socialist values currently rest and expire. Sad news for Nye Bevan, then.
Well said. my sentiments exactly HV.
DeleteI have family down south and they only hear snippets from up here. They have no one to choose other than the same old losers. It's sad. I keep telling them to organise themselves. That's what we done and boy what a difference it has made. They have no idea how many would support them . Google had " how can i vote for SNP / Sturgeon at number 6 on their search list. That's a lot of people.
Come on England. You deserve more.
Indeed. There has to be someone who is on the left of the spectrum without being too far left. Someone everyone can put their trust in. In the 50+ million Englishmen and women, surely there is someone who has that kind of talent.
DeleteAye Robert. I said England. I have huge respect for Plaid. Strangely they don't seem to be hugely popular though with only 3 seats...
Delete"Plaid Cymru, the party that slipped into 3rd place in 2011 behind the Welsh Conservatives? "
DeleteSo does that negate Plaid's message?
We are working hard in Wales for a credible socialist alternative and your dismissive, ill-informed ("Wales is as similarly politically uniformed as England") remarks we can well do without.
I have huge respect for Pliad, as does the SNP leadership. I hope that they will continue to work together in Westminster. I certainly didn't mean to degrade them. I follow them on Twitter and retweet many of their common sense messages.
DeleteBut Labour is still the dominant party in Wales and even the Tories appear to hold on in your country.
Not you Tris, your comments are always constructive, valued and taken on board.
DeleteThe comments by HV do rankle however. We are fully aware that Plaid's position is weak and that, tragically, Labour remains dominant. What I am objecting to is the throwaway comments by HV that their is no credible le alternative in Wales.
What I am objecting to is the throwaway comments by HV that there is no credible alternative in Wales.
DeleteApologies, I was raging.
Apologies for my badly-expressed remark. I don't think I was saying that there is no credible alternative in Wales, but only that people don't appear to be voting for it.
DeletePeople in Scotland have educated themselves about the current political scenario by reading blogs like these, and watching the new online broadcasters like Derek Bateman and Newshaft. We didn't all suddenly wake up on September 19 with SNP membership cards in our back pockets, suddenly informed and aware of what Westminster has been doing to the electorate for the last 300 years.
It takes time to assimilate facts, check information and develop an informed position and, of course, to find sources of information which you feel safe in trusting.
I have no idea if Wales has developed the blogs/websites/online broadcasting media or a print publication like the National and the Sunday Herald as we have here, but those are areas which Plaid Cymru should perhaps be targeting, so that the Welsh electorate can be better informed about how they are being screwed over by their elected representatives.
We mostly crowd fund our very excellent writers/bloggers/broadcasters and I am quite sure Wales has as many high-quality and informed contributors as Scotland does.
Cymru am byth.
Well, sometimes in a written communication, it is difficult to get the exact meaning across. It's good we can get it sorted though.
DeleteOne of the things that energised us in Scotland was the referendum campaign... another was being shafted at the last moment by the British establishment,
The civil service, the queen and the vow. And then the day after Cameron making it impossible to Labour to support what they had naively signed up to, but throwing in EVEL, which would wreck Labour under the current lopsided devolution system we operate.
Wales hasn't had that, although I'm sure that they could le us know about maltreatment by Westminster.
A warning to the SNP though, may be a lesson to learn. I think Plaid suffered from the period in government with Labour in Wales... Maybe I'm wrong, I speak as a foreigner, looking in. Maybe R Tyler would le us know more about that...
I'd welcome an article on Plaid, if you're up for it R Tyler...:)
As they are bound to resurrect Brown we should get that photo of him and Maggie blown up onto placards to picket his speaking venues with
ReplyDeleteThat's a good idea.
DeleteI've been waiting for him to make an appearance. I suspect it will be only a matter of days, or ever hours, before the vote, so that we don;t have time to counter his ridiculous assertions and remind everyone of his promises.
But a few good pics of him and the rusty lady wouldn't be a bad idea.
After watching the media coverage of the launch of Labour's manifesto yesterday and today Cameron's manifesto launch speech it is obvious to me that "They" require Cameron back. And the media and their string pullers will ensure that happens - expect the polls to show a Tory revival in England by the weekend.
ReplyDeleteSo the Labour decision to stick to the right wing policies abandoning any hope of rescuing their vote in Scotland in a desperate gamble to become the largest party in England will have failed.
Hi Kyle ...welcome to the blog.
DeleteI have wondered why anyone would want to vote Tory Lite, when the real full bodied thing is there in all its true blue splendour.
It only really works when even the fairly serious Tory is sick of them (1997) or when they are in complete disarray with complete numpty heads leading (Hague, IDS and Something of the Night)
But as Mandelson said, without the South East they will never have a chance of government.
As we found out this week, it's impossible now to be different things to different people.
I hope it's not the Tories that win, because we'd get nothing, even if we had all 59 seats. They will walk over our faces.
We must hope the hapless Labour leadership stages some sort of revival and squeezes in with a minority government.
Preferably without Murphy, Sarwar, Curran and Alexander. for starters.
Ah superb Tris.
ReplyDeleteNot heard that song for ages and the captions were great.
It's fun watching the Slab members fall over themselves. Dim Jim slapped down yesterday was almost as good as it gets but i know there is much more comedy gold to come.
Vote SNP vote Scotland > The Northern Branch Red Tory's is sinking faster than the titanic.
Loving this.
Thanks Richy.
DeleteI love the song too. Been singing (wailing) it all day since I put this up.
In a way I'm sad to see Labour fall to pieces. In a way of course, I'm glad that this lot of half witted self servers are going, but I wish Labour itself could be saved.
The principles of the party, as it used to be before the warmongers and banksters took it over, are those closest to my heart. Fairness, decency and an acceptance that we can;t all be born with silver spoons anywhere near us, so some of need a little more help than others.
Still, like you say, it's good to watch these creeps fall apart.
Whoever thought Murphy was a good idea is a complete joke. And after Chukka and Ed threw him under a bus yesterday, showing just what a junior branch manager he is, I can only imagine who Johann Lamont must be smiling.
Ah don't worry Tris.
DeleteScottish politics will change over the next few years. New Left leaning parties will form from the ashes of LIEbour. No one can really believe anything they say and they have become irrelevant as a party of opposition .
SNP and Greens do that now. SSP will maybe grow with many ex Labour voters joining but i see the huge numbers of new members to SNP/Greens/SSP keeping the leftish view. They listen to their members and will be kept in check by us.
The SNP have changed over the years and so will the others.
I think the polical landscape will be very different .
A rainbow coalition is on the cards for the SE 2016 and we will see how well these guys do in time. But fair play to the SNP who have done a helloffa job so far considering the obstacles placed in their way.
Who knows they could be something special with "real" powers. They have cracking mp's and the others barring a small few come no where near them . We have a healthy confidence in our Govt in Edinburgh .
I believe the only way for Scotland to grow is to lose LIEbour. They have kept us in check for decades. No more.
P.S. I hope they don't sack Dim Jim. he's the most entertaining looney on tv just now. Hell we even played Murphy bingo last week guessing which phrases would come up.
Loving this :)
Labour in Scotland, could not be resurrected unless it was truly independent, from London labour. Even then, if it just attached it's self to London labour, they would have the same influence they have now, that is to say zero, naught, none.
DeleteThe founding fathers of the labour party, would not recognise the party of today, though they themselves failed to deliver home rule, as did subsequent labour governments, and they sure as hell are trying to back peddle from any form of home rule now.
For too long they have had the power to change society, for the common good, for all but, chose to play the Westminster game of power today and maybe tomorrow for the party not the people; I for one will not weep on the occasion of their passing.
Four non blondes, top tune a great one hit wonder.
Ha ha Murphy Bingo....
DeleteYou're right. All will change now. I don't think they can go back. Murphy was a dreadful mistake, but they can't unelect him. not only Johann must be smiling uip her sleeve as he gets shown up as branch office supervisor, after he said she was lying about that. Findlay must be smiling as he thinks that there is no way he would ahve got Labour into this mess.
Labour are going to get slaughtered, but I'd be careful about writing them all off on the basis of a few polls, however good the analysis. The Labour Party needs a kick up the proverbial. I voted for SNP last Scottish election as I saw them as competent. Not perfect, since a few numpties got elected, but for effective in Government. The SNP will make large (huge?) gains, but unlikely to get 50 seats. (Of course, the last Scottish GE was a major surprise.......)
ReplyDeleteAs to a rainbow coalition. No thanks. The Green Party manifesto is cloud cuckoo politics - except for the major and certainly admirable policy of insulating homes. The rest is pure mince. The danger of the Green party is that they might take voters from Labour when they may have gone to the SNP. That could make the difference in a few seats.
I will vote SNP. My candidate is an unknown quantity but from a non-political background. That is a big plus in my view. My sitting Labour MP is ineffective and at times arrogant. I have no time for such people. If the SNP end up in a pact with Labour, can they ensure that Ed Balls is NOT made Chancellor?
Yes Jim... the problem is that you just cant have two separate Labour parties with separate policies in the UK.
DeleteIn the end Murphy and his likes have to work out whether they want free education or education at £6,000 a year; whether they want free prescriptions of whether £9 an item is a reasonable amount to pay on top of your NI.
For people on low incomes who just stretch the money till the end of the week, a prescription with a couple of items on it could be the difference between eating and not.
I think that MPs from outside the political world of university, spad, assistant, MP is fantastic.
I dunno if they can stop Balls being chancellor. I wonder if Ed will make him chancellor anyway.
Why do we call them chancellor anyway? He's the Finance Secretary...