Forum Topic

Dunwoody...? Dun Governing more like

Start plotting you Socialists because it's time to dump your leader.Whilst contemplating who the next one foisted on us without the benefit of an election will be, answer this question. Q) What’s the difference between Steve Mclaren & Gordon BrownA) One was an understudy to a far better and charismatic leader and who by skulduggery and inside trading took over the top job and in so doing proved that he was a hopeless buffoon, way out of his depth and who became a national laughing stock… the other was the England soccer ManagerI've dumped my middle initials... happy now sweetheart?

Harley Buckner ● 6274d10 Comments

Phil, as far as I'm concerned everyone to the left of Vlad the Impaller is a Pinko liberal subversive ...and everyone who lives over Kew Bridge is a Bloody Northerner!!Why can't life be simple?And fair enough... the first one's on me.

Harley Buckner ● 6274d

Yeah, but I bet to you I'm a bloody socialist.  Mine's a pint, btw.

Phil Andrews ● 6274d

You wrote "In this instance that something is the self-serving machine, seeking power for the purpose of having power.  In terms of engaging the wider community outside the ranks of the Party, such an ambition inevitably leads to the machine becoming a gatekeeper as opposed to an enabler".I bet you're a laugh down the Pub... Look - I didn't go to Politics school and whether the machine to which you refer is a Gatekeeper or a Bloody Goalkeeper... to me they are socialists.

Harley Buckner ● 6274d

HarveyAll I can say in response is to invite you to visit Google and take a look into the lives and thoughts of Keir Hardie, or Robert Blatchford, then compare them with the illiterate vitriolic ravings of Dave Hughes and you will see just how far removed the modern New Labour Party has moved from its noble roots.Whether one actually agrees with socialism or not is fairly much irrelevant here.  I do in parts, probably not in others.  The point I strive to make is that what Labour has become is not a manifestation of a set of values, be those correct values or erroneous values, but an absence of values.  Nature as we know abhors a vacuum, and therefore that absence inevitably provides houseroom for something else to take its place.In this instance that something is the self-serving machine, seeking power for the purpose of having power.  In terms of engaging the wider community outside the ranks of the Party, such an ambition inevitably leads to the machine becoming a gatekeeper as opposed to an enabler.

Phil Andrews ● 6274d

Apologies for mis-spelling your name!

Phil Andrews ● 6274d

Of course they are socialists. Who else would trick us into supporting a bid for the Olympics and once we get it drop on us that in fact it was a ruse to make us pay for the redevelopment of London’s home to the most "underprivileged".And now their wealthy out of touch Champagne Socialists mates have stopped Bank rolling them, they will be more dependent on the Unions for financial support, so expect Bob (I love a Strike) Crowe and Commie Keith Norman to be popping round to see Gordon for a ‘chat’ soon.“Nice place you got ‘ere Gordon… I’d ‘ate to see sumfing ‘appen to it – Know what I mean”

Harley Buckner ● 6274d

Unfortunately, not unless you want to keel over purple-faced!I think the other strange thing about the Labour Party, which I see in several friends who are committed members, is their willingness to forgive or develop selective blindness about, anything proposed/enacted by the Government, no matter how much they are personally opposed to it - Iraq, ID Cards, 10p tax abolition etc etc, simply because they cannot bring themselves to see what the majority of voters are seeing:- ie that this is a government of self-serving power-freaks, none of whom have ever had a real job (university - think tank - MP - Minister) and none of whom have any real connection with the people they purport to represent. They have no vision, no philosophy (other than the maximisation of their control over the population via the surveillance state) and no idea where to go from here.I have no great confidence that the Tories will be much better, but at least they still have a libertarian wing which might keep a rein on any "statist" tendencies. Whereas most of us read Orwell's "1984" as a terrible warning, Blair and Brown have used it as a manifesto and a source of policy!

Mick Brent ● 6274d

MickYou would think that somewhere down the line somebody in the Labour Party, locally or nationally, would analyse the impact of dirty campaigning on the eventual result and draw the conclusion that is gapingly obvious to everybody else, but it simply doesn't happen.In Hounslow they took a pounding but seem to have concluded that their failing was in not being unpleasant enough, and have accelerated their exisiting strategy accordingly (witness the Hanworth Park campaign and Dave Hughes' postings on this forum) rather than question it.It is this smug self-satisfaction with their own stupidity which actually infuriates me more than the negative campaigning itself.  The conclusion they draw from my frustration is that "it must be working", but the truth in actual fact is that I feel overcome by a sense of personal embarrassment when I see people in the political arena which I share inviting scorn and ridicule upon themselves in this way.Labour desperately needs a saviour who will emerge from within and point out the bleeding obvious to his or her colleagues, and convince them that the only future for the party lies in co-operation, honesty, and intelligent engagement.  If such a person is reading this, the time to speak up has arrived.  Should I be holding my breath?

Phil Andrews ● 6274d

Socialist??????The Labour Party haven't been remotely connected with socialist ideas since Harold Wilson.Having said that, it was good to see the most right wing authoritarian government since Thatcher get a good kicking. The unpleasant Labour campaign made Mr. Timpson look like a progressive liberal compared with Ms Dunwoody.

Mick Brent ● 6274d

HarleyAs you know I'm not particularly interested in the parry and thrust of national politics but it is always gratifying to see the now sadly obligatory New Labour dirty campaign achieve its appropriate reward.

Phil Andrews ● 6274d