tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post1574509403203018302..comments2024-03-27T09:14:27.496+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: Why the Establishment Fears KeirPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-91673867715674799672021-07-01T22:28:25.191+01:002021-07-01T22:28:25.191+01:00Yes, because you are a boring provocateur. Your co...Yes, because you are a boring provocateur. Your contributions here consist of recycling AWL talking points no one cares about. It's tedious, and a warning to younger comrades reading that decades in sectarian politics rots the brain.Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-77252449174426836162021-07-01T19:28:47.330+01:002021-07-01T19:28:47.330+01:00Phil: do you seriously think "Jim, you know t...Phil: do you seriously think "Jim, you know the answer to that. You really are the most boring provocateur. A left equivalent of Darren Grimes and Laurence Fox, minus the profile" is an answer?<br /><br />And, unlike you it seems, I really couldn't give a fuck about "profile".Jim Denhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01642992463679646250noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-8617107034159805472021-07-01T15:46:03.570+01:002021-07-01T15:46:03.570+01:00I hope Labour win Batley for no other reason than ...I hope Labour win Batley for no other reason than to prevent the devils own choice, i.e. Andy Burnham from becoming Labour leader. But the omens (pardon the pun) all point to this inevitable conclusion. Just look out for unusual objects in the heavens, it all portends to one thing! It was clever of the devil to create a back up should David Milliband not work out! Total respect.<br /><br />Jim Denham is of course part of the Red-Brown movement given his views on Israel and imperialism in general pretty much equate to that of the right and the far right. All those Israeli flags at EDL marches for example. The pro imperialism of every right wing commentator. In fact I would simply say Denham is part of the brown movement.<br /><br />I would certainly dispute the idea that Denham is a left equivalent of Laurence Fox because I refuse to accept Denham is a part of the left wing.<br /><br />Galloway is certainly not Anti Semitic, as for being a misogynist, I suspect its another Denham ad hominem attack, so fashionable in the twitter age.<br /><br />"the Conservative Party cannot keep a lid on the tensions and conflicts endemic to British capitalism indefinitely"<br /><br />Why do I get the feeling leftists have been saying this indefinitely!<br />Incidentally I think we should stop using capitalism and instead talk of an exchange system.<br /><br />For me the only genuine leftist movement is one that aims to dismantle the exchange system. In other words there are no actual genuine leftist movements in the world today, save a few spiritual communists in the environmental movement.<br /><br />This means as things stand the left cant lose because they don't exists but the downside is the right always win!BCFGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-27604405922788565122021-06-30T23:25:09.026+01:002021-06-30T23:25:09.026+01:00Jim, you know the answer to that. You really are t...Jim, you know the answer to that. You really are the most boring provocateur. A left equivalent of Darren Grimes and Laurence Fox, minus the profile.Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-29186450459424981402021-06-30T21:31:24.746+01:002021-06-30T21:31:24.746+01:00Are you soft on the Red-Brown antisemitic misogyni...Are you soft on the Red-Brown antisemitic misogynist Galloway, Phil?<br /><br />"George Galloway appealing to Muslim voters in the constituency on the basis of ... the ongoing occupation of Palestine" ... err ... no! On the basis that Leadbeater is a lesbian and has a Jewish partner.<br /><br />You really need to get wise to what the Red-Brown movement is up to.Jim Denhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01642992463679646250noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-19417937789558550862021-06-30T20:27:48.655+01:002021-06-30T20:27:48.655+01:00I suppose at some point it does become embarassing...I suppose at some point it does become embarassing for a few of the more thoughtful Tories - that their seemingly permanent grip on power isn't a good look as far as democratic bona fides are concerned. There at least needs to be the appearance of pluralism (one ideology multi party state). If the 'system' can't even manage these niceties then as mentioned in this discussion, there is always the threat that frustrations could spill out into more unsavory manifestations.<br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09564365447448767192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-9230236693941654922021-06-30T19:39:40.710+01:002021-06-30T19:39:40.710+01:00I always take an interest in Blissex’ analysis and...I always take an interest in Blissex’ analysis and on this occasion he’s quite right.SimonBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-30051745767369385482021-06-30T18:55:39.304+01:002021-06-30T18:55:39.304+01:00[i] Personally, I've long thought that it woul...[i] Personally, I've long thought that it would have been a lot better if Respect had managed to get Salma Yaquoob elected to parliament rather than Galloway[/i]<br /><br />Absolutely. Galloway is a demagogue with a dubious moral compass. Salma on the other hand would have made an excellent MPRoberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18097624792336619525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-81459739579075815352021-06-30T16:53:52.883+01:002021-06-30T16:53:52.883+01:00«I don't think the Tories play 13-dimensional ...«<i>I don't think the Tories play 13-dimensional chess. I think that they are pleased that Starmer won because he got rid of Corbyn, yet apprehensive that he might somehow cobble together a more successful coalition than Corbyn could.</i>»<br /><br />This seems to me an ever more "optimistic" notion than our blogger's, because it seems based on the fantasy that all there is to Conservative Party politics is electoralism.<br />But the tories and the whigs, the two right wings of the elites, do include many “establishment figures who look to the <i>longue durée</i>”. Their point of view has been well summarized here:<br /><br />https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/owen-jones-working-class-toryism-dying-and-it-s-taking-party-it-7851880.html<br />«<i>When I was at university, a one-time very senior Tory figure put it succinctly at an off-the-record gathering: the Conservative Party, he explained, was a "coalition of privileged interests. Its main purpose is to defend that privilege. And the way it wins elections is by giving just enough to just enough other people".</i>»<br /><br />Part of that “<i>wins elections is by giving just enough to just enough other people</i>“ is the concept of "conservative social-democracy", where the servant classes are pacified with less (the "Poor Laws" reforms of 1834 and 2010) or a little more (the Speenhamland system), and when there they feel they have to appease mobs of trained veterans, a bigger slice (Butskellism).<br /><br />Those “<i>establishment figures</i>” seem to look at much to give “<i>just enough to just enough other people</i>” under the guises of the Conservative, Liberal, New Labour parties as a trade-off about the frequency of riots and the expense of putting them down. That is applying to England the same attitude that the East India Company had to their indian subjects, or more historically, applying in India the same attitude they had applied in England for 800 years.<br /><br />That I think is the background for understanding the arguments in this post.Blissexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-51982751562131780772021-06-30T15:32:01.538+01:002021-06-30T15:32:01.538+01:00«The Labour party has nothing to say about the UK»...«<i>The Labour party has nothing to say about the UK</i>»<br /><br />that is the usual myth that fails to recognize the bold leadership and decisive political positions by Keir Starmer and almost wholly endorsed by his (New) New Labour MPs:<br /><br />* “<i>Labour wants to get Brexit done</i>” including the vote to fully endorse the "hard brexit" designed by the tory ERG, strongly rejecting the previous Corbyn compromise of EFTA/EEA ytyle association with the EU.<br /><br />* The vote for the right of government ministers to grant immunity from criminal law to government agents committing crimes under government orders.<br /><br />* The full endorsement of property interests and NIMBYs as in “<i>Labour will attempt to heap pressure on Boris Johnson over his planning reforms [...] by giving communities greater oversight of planning applications.</i>”.Blissexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-60629252385219951572021-06-30T15:21:37.553+01:002021-06-30T15:21:37.553+01:00«It's taking to the streets, finding expressio...«<i>It's taking to the streets, finding expression in other parties, and is going to be spending the next few years manifesting in ways utterly dysfunctional to if not corrosive of the establishment set up. A lot of this might have been pacified had Keir stuck to his Corbyn-lite pledges</i>»<br /><br />As usual I admire our blogger for his optimism, here that many in the english elites care very much about what they see a few "trots" agitating here and there. Most of the english elites know well that they managed to keep the servant classes down for 900 years using two simple tricks that they learned on the Internet (the ancient version called "Literae Humaniores"):<br /><br />* Compromise or simply squash the would-be leaders of "hoi polloi".<br />* Accept that every now and then "hoi polloi" will "let off steam" by rioting,<br /><br />Many of those “establisment figures who look to the <i>longue durée</i>” know that after WW1 and WW2 they had to appease with "socialdemocracy" the veterans (very reluctantly and partially after WW1, more generously after WW2), but after 75 years of "Pax Americana" they agree with the <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-new-statesman-s-miserable-editorial.html" rel="nofollow">notorious Jason Cowley (a sterling mandelsonian)</a> editorializing on the "New Statesman" in 2014, attacking Ed Miliband for his extremist leftism:<br /><br />“<i>Miliband has a deterministic, quasi-Marxist analysis of our present ills. [...] And he might have to accept before long – or the electorate will force him to – that <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/11/ed-miliband-s-problem-not-policy-tone-and-increasingly-he-seems-trapped" rel="nofollow">Europe’s social-democratic moment, if it ever existed, is fading into the past</a>.</i>”<br /><br />The difficulty for the left is the same as always, since Richard II reminded us that “Villeins ye are, and villeins ye shall remain”, how to organize in the face of ruthlessly clever and brutal extractive elites:<br /><br />“<i>the rebellion’s leaders, who included Wat Tyler, did not want to remove King Richard II of England (r. 1377-1399 CE) but they did want massive social changes which included a removal of the poll tax, an end to the cap on labour wages, redistribution of the Church’s wealth and the total abolition of serfdom. The revolt, which lasted only four weeks, <a href="https://brewminate.com/the-peasants-revolt-in-medieval-england-1381/" rel="nofollow">was put down by Richard, first by negotiation and then through ruthless persecution of the ringleaders</a></i>”<br />“<i>The principal causes of the Peasants’ Revolt were:<br />* a new poll tax imposed on all peasants irrespective of wealth (the third such tax since 1377 CE).<br />* the limit by law on wages after labour costs had risen dramatically following the Black Death plague. <br />* unscrupulous landlords trying to turn free labourers back into serfs (aka villeins) to save money on wages.<br />* a general feeling of exploitation by local authorities during a time of economic decline.</i>»<br /><br />Poll tax, "labour market reform"/"breaking the wages-prices spiral", landlordism, ... the servant classes have seen it all before in various degrees.Blissexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-74396519480106240412021-06-30T08:56:33.759+01:002021-06-30T08:56:33.759+01:00Lacking any real knowledge of the situation, I sti...Lacking any real knowledge of the situation, I still find your argument unconvincing. I don't think the Tories play 13-dimensional chess. I think that they are pleased that Starmer won because he got rid of Corbyn, yet apprehensive that he might somehow cobble together a more successful coalition than Corbyn could. Hence they have a split position on the leadership of Labour and this surely accounts for differing perspectives. More to the point, any support for Starmer from the Tories will help split Labour, and any opposition to Starmer from the Tories will help unify the Tory base, so almost anything they do or say at the moment can be spun as good for them. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-35355224914095416072021-06-30T07:12:57.786+01:002021-06-30T07:12:57.786+01:00The Labour party has nothing to say about the UK s...The Labour party has nothing to say about the UK so it talks about Kashmir. <br /><br />It has lost its working class base by taking it for granted and it is now taking the muslim vote fro grsnted.<br /><br />Complete political and moral bankruptcy.<br />Grahamnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-48437216463913189962021-06-30T02:16:33.451+01:002021-06-30T02:16:33.451+01:001) Keir Starmer's resignation can't come s...1) Keir Starmer's resignation can't come soon enough. The only question is if the Labour-left have anyone who might concievably win a challenge for leadership of the party.<br /><br />2) Geogrge Galloway's continued career in politics is nothing more than a "morbid symptom" of the weakness of the British left. This politically-idiosyncratic and self-promoting clown should have been put out to pasture long ago. He's had his moments, but they're ever fewer and further between. Personally, I've long thought that it would have been a lot better if Respect had managed to get Salma Yaquoob elected to parliament rather than Galloway.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com