So everyone's favourite lefty, Owen Jones, wrote an article today saying, unbelievably, that Labour needs to recalibrate by getting Ed Miliband back!
Now, I may have misread the article. Perhaps it's a level of satire that has eluded me.
But Miliband? The sap that lost Labour the election in 2015 after five years of misery under the coalition? How does that happen? By the way, Miliband has yet to face a tenth of the grief that Corbyn receives for scoring an own goal like this. There's no reason at all for him to have lost other than the fact he's a neoliberal. That is the absolute last thing we need!
Also, to be fair, Jones posits an alternative in the form of Laura Pidcock. A better choice by leagues to be sure, but there's now way that will happen given that she's still too green. Even so...
What is Owen Jones thinking? This is his position following the EU elections. So in truth, he's just another centrist. I think he's pretty feeble to be honest. I pointed out earlier, when discussing his meetings with the Brexit party crowd, that he was completely out of his depth. When they responded to his presence he just bumbled and dodged. Why couldn't he ask more probing questions than "why are you here?". What did he think the answer would be? They are here to "take the country back" to react to the "brexit betrayal". He's face to face with proto fascist thinking, hyperbole and jingoistic bluster (the use of terms like betrayal and treachery), and he has nothing he can think of better to ask?
How about putting to these people the rank hypocrisies of their leader? How about pointing out the hypocrisy of wanting to take the power...only to hand it over to the aristocracy in Westminster? Do they want the NHS privatised? Do they want people starving and living on the streets? We will never know unless people ask.
I just don't get this at all. Of course the real answer is to reject all these politicians. Corbyn's a decent guy, I don't think he's a millionaire psychopath happy to sell guns to warmongers or starve children, but he's also beholden to a system he errantly beleives can be reformed. This won't, can't, and mustn't happen. Instead capitalism should be dismantled. It is the only answer. He will soon find, if he takes office, just how sharp the knives of the capitalist class will be when they cut his ability to achieve anything. Then it wilbe the Tories who swoop back in to 'save' the country from another Labour 'mess'. Mark my words.
Thursday 30 May 2019
Wednesday 29 May 2019
A Very British Armageddon Day 2
Let us turn now to Mr Alistair Campbell. He has recently, by which I mean yesterday, been evicted from the Labour party. Firstly a couple of considerations:
1. Corbyn doesn't get to decide this.
2. Labour must go further. If it only picks on Campbell, however deserved (and it is), then it looks weak in my view.
So by the standards applied here there are few from the old days of New Labour who don't deserve the chop. Of course they are now encircling the wagons. They don't want their seat on the gravy train to be troubled. This means that sooner or later, hopefully the former, Blair has to go. If the standard is voting for a rival party (a reasonable excuse surely) then where does that leave Blair who has openly called for such, perhaps not in so many words.
This of course doesn't begin to address the war crimes of both men. Campbell has, in my view, serious questions to ask. Remember Dr Kelly? Now I don't want to entertain lurid conspiracy theories, but at the very least the pressure exerted on that man, at a time when Campbell was implicit in banging the drum for war, drove him to suicide. That's the best case scenario! Should I speculate on anything further?
However, Campbell, despite his protestations of loyalty (which don't mean much when you're voting for a rvial party), was never elected. He represents no one but himself. He's a spin doctor. He was the inspiration for Malcolm Tucker for god's sake! This man has no business in an organised group supposed to be representing the working class. What part of that does he represent? Elected by whom?
Isn't the era of the spin doctor now over? The media lies so much in general and across the board that these people are largely out of a job now anyway. Youtube propagandists, twitter loons, and facebook groups filled with the dregs of humanity seem to have replaced them. That and the everyday bias shown by the politician class at the BBC. Surely there are better representatives for the Labour party than Alistair bloody Campbell!
1. Corbyn doesn't get to decide this.
2. Labour must go further. If it only picks on Campbell, however deserved (and it is), then it looks weak in my view.
So by the standards applied here there are few from the old days of New Labour who don't deserve the chop. Of course they are now encircling the wagons. They don't want their seat on the gravy train to be troubled. This means that sooner or later, hopefully the former, Blair has to go. If the standard is voting for a rival party (a reasonable excuse surely) then where does that leave Blair who has openly called for such, perhaps not in so many words.
This of course doesn't begin to address the war crimes of both men. Campbell has, in my view, serious questions to ask. Remember Dr Kelly? Now I don't want to entertain lurid conspiracy theories, but at the very least the pressure exerted on that man, at a time when Campbell was implicit in banging the drum for war, drove him to suicide. That's the best case scenario! Should I speculate on anything further?
However, Campbell, despite his protestations of loyalty (which don't mean much when you're voting for a rvial party), was never elected. He represents no one but himself. He's a spin doctor. He was the inspiration for Malcolm Tucker for god's sake! This man has no business in an organised group supposed to be representing the working class. What part of that does he represent? Elected by whom?
Isn't the era of the spin doctor now over? The media lies so much in general and across the board that these people are largely out of a job now anyway. Youtube propagandists, twitter loons, and facebook groups filled with the dregs of humanity seem to have replaced them. That and the everyday bias shown by the politician class at the BBC. Surely there are better representatives for the Labour party than Alistair bloody Campbell!
Tuesday 28 May 2019
A very British Armageddon, Day 1
My last post was over two months ago. This is pathetic.
I actually find it genuinely difficult doing this, which isn't a good look for someone who wants to do this and thinks he's good at writing. But that's the nature of mental health and how it can affect people. It doesn't inhibit their aspiration, but their function. When that fact goes up against the prevailing culture, it's values of effort and particular work ethos, there is a disconnect. This doesn't help.
Anyway, if you're reaidng this then I'm very grateful.
Where are we now? Something big just happened, what was it again?
Oh that's right. Britain and the world continues its shift to the right. The collapse of capitalism seems historically commensurate with the rise of fascism. Or fascism and crisis are intertwined. A simplistic analysis to be sure, but one look at the Guardian video of Owen Jones' encounter with the Brexit Party shows this. Unfortunately Owen handles this poorly: he's easily rebuked (by idiots, to be sure) and doesn't really ask any insightful questions. Louis Theroux (or even Louis Thorough) he is not. But that's not really the issue: I'm pointing to the attitudes of these people. Their sense of oppression and highly emotive angular responses point to the same kind of attitudes you saw in Germany. Perhaps we aren't quite that bad, but the point is made. These people see 'the left' as a monolith, they all but use the phrase 'cultural marxism' (a code for anyone opposing their views). They feel beleaguered. The EU wants to do them down. The left wants to do them down. They can't speak their mind (say racist/regressive shit)?
These are not reasoned positions, they are the product of propaganda and coercion. The Brexit Party campaign was based around hysterical tropes, and the Brexit campaign was fought using lies and racism. There's no easy way out of this, but surely we don't have to support and give succoour to these deeply embedded roots. This very English racism.
I see this as a new start. Not perhaps in the positive way one normally associates with that phrase, but something has shifted. Not perhaps Brexit itself, which is still a monorail to disaster. I don't think we can realistically leave, despite recognising how dis-empowering the EU is. It's a bosses club - but look who we give power to if we leave. Look who it will be now that professional scarecrow and compassion-free reactionary, Theresay May, is on the way out; her demise greaased by a sudden, uncharacteristic moment of tears. Something must have gotten into her withered eye sockets, dust in a Dalek's eyestalk, because she found nothing similar when working class people were burned to death, nor at the plight of child poverty, nor Windrush. You get the (horrific) picture.
It's a new start, hopefully for this blog, and me. That's weird, but I'm trying to put words to a feeling. It's a bit like turning off the main road and coming on to the motorway. The final stretch you mght say. I'm alluding to Brexit, but also, perhaps, the demise of not just the Tories (please god), but our horrific political system. Something has shifted with these election results and it may get worse before it gets better. The centre is evaporating (which is amusing if you're a CUK schadenfreude enthusiast like me). Unfortunately though that does mean, it seems, an emboldening of fascism, of the rise of the far right.
It's happening in Italy it seems (where the EU has fucked over their budget, the sort of politics that plays into fascist notions of sovereignty and oppression). Here it manifests with the darkly fascinating rise of the Brexit Party. Specifically, who is funding them. I have no doubt Farage is being funded by some throughly dodgy specimens, one of which we surely know about, Arron Banks. A grotesque little tyrant. The sort that can only exist under capitalism.
We must resist. We must recognise that neither Westminster nor the EU are desirable options, and we must not give our power over to tyrants from either side. It's only the working class - the people - who can save us now. I think what Labour needs to do is fight for working class internationalist interests, a lexit. A second referendum will not produce a decisive result and further deepen an already wounded working class.
I actually find it genuinely difficult doing this, which isn't a good look for someone who wants to do this and thinks he's good at writing. But that's the nature of mental health and how it can affect people. It doesn't inhibit their aspiration, but their function. When that fact goes up against the prevailing culture, it's values of effort and particular work ethos, there is a disconnect. This doesn't help.
Anyway, if you're reaidng this then I'm very grateful.
Where are we now? Something big just happened, what was it again?
Oh that's right. Britain and the world continues its shift to the right. The collapse of capitalism seems historically commensurate with the rise of fascism. Or fascism and crisis are intertwined. A simplistic analysis to be sure, but one look at the Guardian video of Owen Jones' encounter with the Brexit Party shows this. Unfortunately Owen handles this poorly: he's easily rebuked (by idiots, to be sure) and doesn't really ask any insightful questions. Louis Theroux (or even Louis Thorough) he is not. But that's not really the issue: I'm pointing to the attitudes of these people. Their sense of oppression and highly emotive angular responses point to the same kind of attitudes you saw in Germany. Perhaps we aren't quite that bad, but the point is made. These people see 'the left' as a monolith, they all but use the phrase 'cultural marxism' (a code for anyone opposing their views). They feel beleaguered. The EU wants to do them down. The left wants to do them down. They can't speak their mind (say racist/regressive shit)?
These are not reasoned positions, they are the product of propaganda and coercion. The Brexit Party campaign was based around hysterical tropes, and the Brexit campaign was fought using lies and racism. There's no easy way out of this, but surely we don't have to support and give succoour to these deeply embedded roots. This very English racism.
I see this as a new start. Not perhaps in the positive way one normally associates with that phrase, but something has shifted. Not perhaps Brexit itself, which is still a monorail to disaster. I don't think we can realistically leave, despite recognising how dis-empowering the EU is. It's a bosses club - but look who we give power to if we leave. Look who it will be now that professional scarecrow and compassion-free reactionary, Theresay May, is on the way out; her demise greaased by a sudden, uncharacteristic moment of tears. Something must have gotten into her withered eye sockets, dust in a Dalek's eyestalk, because she found nothing similar when working class people were burned to death, nor at the plight of child poverty, nor Windrush. You get the (horrific) picture.
It's a new start, hopefully for this blog, and me. That's weird, but I'm trying to put words to a feeling. It's a bit like turning off the main road and coming on to the motorway. The final stretch you mght say. I'm alluding to Brexit, but also, perhaps, the demise of not just the Tories (please god), but our horrific political system. Something has shifted with these election results and it may get worse before it gets better. The centre is evaporating (which is amusing if you're a CUK schadenfreude enthusiast like me). Unfortunately though that does mean, it seems, an emboldening of fascism, of the rise of the far right.
It's happening in Italy it seems (where the EU has fucked over their budget, the sort of politics that plays into fascist notions of sovereignty and oppression). Here it manifests with the darkly fascinating rise of the Brexit Party. Specifically, who is funding them. I have no doubt Farage is being funded by some throughly dodgy specimens, one of which we surely know about, Arron Banks. A grotesque little tyrant. The sort that can only exist under capitalism.
We must resist. We must recognise that neither Westminster nor the EU are desirable options, and we must not give our power over to tyrants from either side. It's only the working class - the people - who can save us now. I think what Labour needs to do is fight for working class internationalist interests, a lexit. A second referendum will not produce a decisive result and further deepen an already wounded working class.
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