We don't spend much time praising John McTernan round these parts, but oh boy what a service he has rendered. In discussion with Grace Blakeley and Michael Walker on TyskySour, his centrism was put under the spotlight. And, for his pains, his politics were shown up as an empty posture, drawing in equal measure from wishful thinking and bad faith. Arguments this place, among many others, have made for many years. Go ahead, watch:
They made a desert and called it Blairism.
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Thanks, loved it. 'It doesn't matter what you say, I'm not going to change my mind.' And McTernan called Blakeley 'ahistorical'. Wow!
ReplyDeletePlease take a look at this link. It's only what most of us already know, but it's still worth reading.
ReplyDeletehttps://barbaramckenzie.wordpress.com/2018/02/15/not-liberal-not-left-the-fascism-of-the-fake-left/
McTernan's world view is so partial, each element is piecemeal and not connected to a bigger picture.
ReplyDeleteHe is completely out of his depth with Grace Blakeley.
I didn't like him before, but he comes across very badly here and now I dislike him even more.
McTernan, for whom the sun shines from Blair holy sphincter, criticises Corbyn for being a narcissist? It boggles the mind!
ReplyDeleteI'm in awe of the man. I, for one, had never realised that the Thatcher/Blairite attacks on the unions were, in fact, all about "individual empowerment". Ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha.
ReplyDeleteOf course the attacks on the unions and working class people is all about individual empowerment. We are individually empowered to do ZHC jobs, a plethora of minimum wage jobs, to stare in awe and wonder at the exponential growth of the wealth of the nation's richest and the utter hypocrisy of most privileged people on the 'left' and the metropolitan 'left liberals' and 'guardianista' types obsessing over irrelevant minutiae of all kinds, but who studiously and pathologically avoid talking about growing homelessness, widening economic divisions, a state run media, major tax evasion and an economy geared towards the already wealthy and those middle class poodles and 'New Orthodox' clones who prop them up. Tories wrapped up in vague 'left liberal' clothing.
ReplyDeleteOf course, all the employers, Tony Blair et als and multi millionaires and billionaires have particularly been individually empowered, making tons of money.
judging by the polls Cobynism is dead. Not just lagging the Tories, but support for Corbyn amongst young adults is slowly slipping away.
ReplyDeleteMcDonnell is the Tommy Cooper of economics. He's going to produce a trillion pounds and give everybody a house and public services with no waiting resources Just Like That. No pain anywhere. No-one anywhere believes it.
Corbyn is hopeless. He has to be fed every line he utters, He has gone AWOL on the big issues if the day, because what is really important is Palestine. And marches. And speeches.
Seriously, you guys are watching the biggest opportunity in you political lives slipping through your fingers.
Tmb
ReplyDeleteThat article is utter dross, and screw you for endorsing its contents!
Dipper - no the biggest opportunity in our political lives was 1997 when the population, sick to the back teeth of a failing Tory government, gave Labour a landslide victory.
ReplyDeleteAs discussed in the video, Labour could have rebalanced the political economy back in favour of the vast majority of normal people, but that would have meant challenging some the interests of many people they had become very cosy with.
Corbynism (which is only just 'a thing') is not at all dead. Polls go up and down and are often wildly inaccurate - have you not been paying attention lately?
Dipper
ReplyDelete'Not just lagging the Tories'
Really? The polling data from the last 14 months or so seems pretty inconclusive from what I've seen.
'support for Corbyn amongst young adults is slowly slipping away.'
What do you base this on?
'McDonnell is the Tommy Cooper of economics. He's going to produce a trillion pounds and give everybody a house and public services with no waiting resources Just Like That. No pain anywhere. No-one anywhere believes it.'
Something tells me you made your mind up about McDonnell before Corbyn was in a position to appoint him as shadow-chancellor, so forgive me if I take your judgement with a pinch of salt. I also take issue with your conceited presumption to speak on behalf of the general public, but then, you've made clear in the past that you imagine yourself to speak on behalf of the average non-partisan person, so you have previous form with respect to that kind of arrogance.
Dipper is a troll. As ever, don't feed.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous - "Dipper is a troll. As ever, don't feed."
ReplyDeleteI'm just asking questions and giving opinions, that's all. I'm grateful for replies but no-one is under any obligation.
When I'm not on places such as this I'm elsewhere where my views are quite mainstream, so whilst I don't have statistical evidence, I think if I think something quite a lot of other people will think it too.
I vote Conservative these days. I don't particularly like voting Conservative, and quite a lot of Conservatives are ridiculous. I'd quite like to vote Labour, but currently they are, IMHO, completely unvotable. Modern Labour is simply a coalition of identities who are intent on grabbing hold of the state and looting it on behalf of their supporters. You may think the same of the Tories, but there is more concern for checks and balances against power in the Tory approach than in the current Labour one. Labour's economic policies have no historical basis for presuming they will work as every previous attempt to implement such policies has made the poor poorer. At the heart of this is "Anti-austerity" economics. It is based round falsehoods and fairy tales. But without that, you have nothing, just wishes with no plan, and sitting in a huddle telling each other "this is going to work" is just self-deception.
So feel free to ignore me, but if you are only going to listen to people who agree with you, you will learn nothing.
that last Anonymous was me (Dipper). Not sure why it got posted as Anonymous ...
ReplyDelete'there is more concern for checks and balances against power in the Tory approach than in the current Labour one.'
ReplyDeleteSure, there are, Dippy. Sure, there are.
'Labour's economic policies have no historical basis for presuming they will work as every previous attempt to implement such policies has made the poor poorer.'
Yeah, look at the immiserated state of the poor in Denmark and Norway!
'At the heart of this is "Anti-austerity" economics. It is based round falsehoods and fairy tales.'
It's based on a clearer understanding of how a capitalist economy works than austerity is.
@ David Parry "look at the immiserated state of the poor in Denmark and Norway!"
ReplyDeleteIf Labour were genuinely looking to create a Scandinavian-style economy, I'd support them. But they aren't. McDonnell and Corbyn are a million miles away from those kind of countries.
Please, the photos of Corbyn/Mcdonell with Scandinavian social democrats, the conferences where they meet Scandinavian social democrats, the policies which specifically reference Scandinavian policies.