When did the idealism transfer take place? I would, on the manifesto of Keir Hardie, have voted for that.
I no longer will.
The radicalism of that man has been atrophied over generations of greedy little Labour Politicians whose ambition, still is, is to be on the rich side of the fence. If that is your ambition, then abstaining over welfare rights is probably the least of it.
They have bought, through focus groups, that it is the poor that get the blame. This is a complete reversal of reality. Bankers are not prosecuted, bankers are holy men, not just to the true believers in wealth trickling up as a proper and normal way to run a country, but to people who pretend to care about the 'working man'.
They do not care. They have stripped socialism of it's ideals and present themselves, be-suited, as the best you could ever hope for. A few mm. to the West of the Tories, but, for fucks sake, don't rock the boat!
It is what they got for refusing to contest the middle ground. The SNP are now substantially left of centre, because the centre has moved, mainly down to the Blair / Brown axis moving it to the right.
That is the betrayal of us all that the Labour party has become.
There were always good men, but there were always bad men, as there are everywhere, from side to side and (if you will) top to bottom.
The real change came with Blair though. Blair was a Thatcherite, but he was a younger, better looking, better communicating one than Thatcher.
He managed to talk a lot, say almost nothing, charm birds out of the trees and do almost nothing to change what 20 years of Tory rule had done.
Yes, there was a minimum wage, set so low that you couldn't lie on it; Devolution, yes, a pigs ear of a mess that devolution is, with every country having different powers adn England sharing the British parliament, which could only have the effect of making the rest of us look like addendum.
There was almost nothing progressive about him and his government.
He became Mrs Thatcher.
Did oyu know that although at the time Callaghan was still alive, he invited Mrs Thatcher to be his first ex PM guest at No 10?
Scandalous.
No wonder she said that Britain would be safe in his hands.
I refuse to vote Tory for personal reasons. I've been directly affected by their policies twice in 20 years. Plus they have IDS as a minister.
I refuse to vote Labour now because they have no leadership in Scotland (although to be fair I thought Lamont was the best of a bad bunch), and Corbyn in my mind is way too left wing for my liking.
Greens are fruitcakes. Lib Dems are opportunistic.
Leaves the SNP. What other parties do not seem to understand is that despite the Referendum being lost, the SNP have made huge gains in the election. That is down to their policies and how they have governed. Not everyone who voted for them was in favour of independence, and many never will be. But they still voted for a pro-independence party. I voted for them in the last 2 Scottish elections because of how they governed. The fact I'm now in favour of independence is irrelevant. If I think there is a better party for Scotland then I will vote for them.
I'm cynical about almost every politician. In my view, many - not all - politicians are there for what THEY want. Not what WE WANT.
This applies to all parties, even the SNP.
The problem Labour have is that Blair and others who rose to the leadership were self-serving.
The Tories are probably worse, given the number of "chums" that Cameron has in his Cabinet.
The Greens want us to basically live in caves.
The Lib Dems want everyone to be their friend.
The SNP want independence (yes, so do we but not everyone did last year. Look at how some of them might be feeling about talk of a second ref.).
Plaid Cymru want independence.
I'm leaving out Northern Ireland as it is way to complicated.
But hopefully you get my drift. Don't get me wrong, there are very many MPs of all parties who work hard for their constituents. However, once power is attained, both reality and on occasion corruption creeps in.
Classic example is the bedroom tax. Good policy on paper, but totally impractical in reality. Yet IDS decides it is working because of what HE wants. Or more correctly, what Gideon wants as he's fucked up his borrowing yet again.
The modern Labour party politicians will climb onto any policy until they are elected then severe dementia kicks in bar 5% of them.
ReplyDeleteMind you the same could be said for politicians from many parties.
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall a claim that Cameron's would be the greenest government ever....
The Party conference should be interesting.
When did the idealism transfer take place? I would, on the manifesto of Keir Hardie, have voted for that.
ReplyDeleteI no longer will.
The radicalism of that man has been atrophied over generations of greedy little Labour Politicians whose ambition, still is, is to be on the rich side of the fence. If that is your ambition, then abstaining over welfare rights is probably the least of it.
They have bought, through focus groups, that it is the poor that get the blame. This is a complete reversal of reality. Bankers are not prosecuted, bankers are holy men, not just to the true believers in wealth trickling up as a proper and normal way to run a country, but to people who pretend to care about the 'working man'.
They do not care. They have stripped socialism of it's ideals and present themselves, be-suited, as the best you could ever hope for. A few mm. to the West of the Tories, but, for fucks sake, don't rock the boat!
It is what they got for refusing to contest the middle ground. The SNP are now substantially left of centre, because the centre has moved, mainly down to the Blair / Brown axis moving it to the right.
That is the betrayal of us all that the Labour party has become.
I shall never vote Labour again.
The change was incremental, I reckon.
DeleteThere were always good men, but there were always bad men, as there are everywhere, from side to side and (if you will) top to bottom.
The real change came with Blair though. Blair was a Thatcherite, but he was a younger, better looking, better communicating one than Thatcher.
He managed to talk a lot, say almost nothing, charm birds out of the trees and do almost nothing to change what 20 years of Tory rule had done.
Yes, there was a minimum wage, set so low that you couldn't lie on it; Devolution, yes, a pigs ear of a mess that devolution is, with every country having different powers adn England sharing the British parliament, which could only have the effect of making the rest of us look like addendum.
There was almost nothing progressive about him and his government.
He became Mrs Thatcher.
Did oyu know that although at the time Callaghan was still alive, he invited Mrs Thatcher to be his first ex PM guest at No 10?
Scandalous.
No wonder she said that Britain would be safe in his hands.
Two tossers together.
I refuse to vote Tory for personal reasons. I've been directly affected by their policies twice in 20 years. Plus they have IDS as a minister.
DeleteI refuse to vote Labour now because they have no leadership in Scotland (although to be fair I thought Lamont was the best of a bad bunch), and Corbyn in my mind is way too left wing for my liking.
Greens are fruitcakes. Lib Dems are opportunistic.
Leaves the SNP. What other parties do not seem to understand is that despite the Referendum being lost, the SNP have made huge gains in the election. That is down to their policies and how they have governed. Not everyone who voted for them was in favour of independence, and many never will be. But they still voted for a pro-independence party. I voted for them in the last 2 Scottish elections because of how they governed. The fact I'm now in favour of independence is irrelevant. If I think there is a better party for Scotland then I will vote for them.
I'm cynical about almost every politician. In my view, many - not all - politicians are there for what THEY want. Not what WE WANT.
ReplyDeleteThis applies to all parties, even the SNP.
The problem Labour have is that Blair and others who rose to the leadership were self-serving.
The Tories are probably worse, given the number of "chums" that Cameron has in his Cabinet.
The Greens want us to basically live in caves.
The Lib Dems want everyone to be their friend.
The SNP want independence (yes, so do we but not everyone did last year. Look at how some of them might be feeling about talk of a second ref.).
Plaid Cymru want independence.
I'm leaving out Northern Ireland as it is way to complicated.
But hopefully you get my drift. Don't get me wrong, there are very many MPs of all parties who work hard for their constituents. However, once power is attained, both reality and on occasion corruption creeps in.
Classic example is the bedroom tax. Good policy on paper, but totally impractical in reality. Yet IDS decides it is working because of what HE wants. Or more correctly, what Gideon wants as he's fucked up his borrowing yet again.
zog
Corbyn blew his foot off on the Marr show today.
ReplyDelete