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Friday, June 27, 2008
Was Gordon in the Library?
Quote from Stephen Pound MP on hearing the Henley by-election result, with Labour at 3%, behind the BNP...
"My first reaction [to the Henley by-election] was to head to the library with the glass of whisky and a revolver."
This is the Mr Punch lookalike who was given a plant question on the NHS for GB at PMQs. He likes to make out he's a maverick, but he always comes to heel when bidden.
I voted New Labour into power. I did it because the Tories had grown arrogant and a bit sleazy. I voted for Labour because I had supposed they had turned their backs on the lumpenproletariat and were courting the bourgoisie. I did it because, despite Norman Lamont getting his just desserts on Hampstead Heath with Julian Clary, I remembered Black Wednesday, and the crazy civil war with the Conservative party over Europe. Above all, I was sick of their arrogance, exhibited even after the defeat; an outstanding example being Michael Howard on Paxman, and the epithet that will become his political epitaph: "something of the night". It was enough for me to consider a change. How wrong I was!
Little did I know that the ERM fiasco would pale into insignificance in relation to Northern Rock (3 or 4 billion compared to over 100 billion), or that cash for questions would look silly compared to cash for honours or the £1 million bribe Blair accepted from Bernie Ecclestone, etc, etc.
How could I imagine in 1997, that the linqua franca of New Labour would be lies, lies, and newspeak. How could I have known that 9/11 would be (for them) "a good day to bury bad news"?
But it is worse. We bandy about words like "Stalinism" in relation to New Labour. According to "Marxists.org" Stalinism is/was:
"Stalinist policies are quite clear: democratic rights threaten the position of the bureaucracy, and hence democracy is incompatible with Stalinism. So is it fair to call New Labour Stalinist?
In the last decade we have witnessed the erosion of democractic rights on a breathtaking scale, often predicated on lies and newspeak, where a word no longer means what it once did, for example, where the word "Constitution" becomes "Treaty" but the meaning stays the same. "Manifesto" is no longer a declaration of intent for a political party. Recently, The use of Thermobaric weapons in the theatre of war has been authorised by the United Kingdom, except that according to the MOD, they are "no longer classified as such". Dont even mention Iraq.
For those who are literary in any way, I refer you to "The Prelude". Its a long poem about the French Revolution written by Wordsworth.
It describes the youthful enthusiasm of a young romantic, caught up in the first flush of a revolution that looked so right and so refreshing. We know how it ended. We also know that the myth of the French Revolution was that the Aristocrats were the main victims. They were not. The main victims, and by far the most number guillotined were the ordinary French peasantry.
When a regime turns on the very people who brought it to power, its days are numbered. Its not the chattering classes who are suffering now, it is the ordinary working people of this country who are being wrung into poverty and distress by a tyranny that surpasses anything we have seen since WW2.
Perhaps Stephen Pound should do the honourable thing.
And don't despair. I never voted for Blair but I wanted that dreadful Tory government of Major gone. Gone for the reasons you give.And more. It was embarrassing having them around. Like elderly senile relatives, who bickered with each other day and night for no real reason. fighting over the TV times or the seat by the window. It was a kindness to let them go into a home.
Steven Euro MP has was behind the times ( and the Gurdian) when he tried to put his Caholic Roots behind him on Talk Sport week in week out even before George Galloway replced Mike Dickin?
To Stephen Pound. Keep that thought in your head. Can I suggest using a Glock though? More bullets and you can take a few more dead duck Labour MP's with you.
Well now Gordy Broon has another by-election challenge. David Marshall, Glasgow East MP, is going to resign on Monday! What's the betting Jack McConnell goes in Motherwell & Wishaw on the same day....
There is not a lot more to add in this context, since I find that putting an argument together in a space the size of a fag packet, which sometimes disappears into blogger hyperspace is a bit limiting.
I will however correct an error, which is that The Prelude is not just about the French Revolution, but the bit that is, is very relevant.
When WW first witnessed the French Revolution he wrote, in 1790:
"O pleasant exercise of hope and joy! For great were the auxiliars which then stood Upon our side, we who were strong in love! Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very Heaven!" (The Prelude, x, 690-4.)
Was this "Things can only get better" when Blair promised his new dawn?
Things went sour of course.
Upon his return to France in 1802 he wrote:
Two solitary greetings have I heard, 'Good morrow, Citizen!' a hollow word, As if a dead man spoke it.
Coleridge rendered the pragmatic reality of the Revolution thus:
Those feelings and that grand ideal of Freedom ... do not belong to men, as a society, nor can possibly be either gratified or realised under any form of human government: but belong to the individual man.
The latter is an argument not for more of the same, but for Libertarianism. Tories, know your limits.
(I have used quotes and background information from the monograph, "British Poets and the French Revolution - The Death of an Ideal" by Alan Woods)
I can say with great pride that i never voted New Labour because i knew it was Old Labour and a con trick.They were and are well to the left in their policies.
The electorate got what it deserved and more fool you.
Even for an old buffer like me it was pretty b*****y obvious from the start. If it smells like a fraud, sounds like a fraud and looks like a fraud (and if anyone looks a fraud it's Bliar), then it probably is a fraud.
And millions upon millions of muppets voted for the fraud not just once, BUT THREE TIMES!
Now I know the education system in this country has been having problems for about 20 years but, let's be fair, we're all born with a few brain cells. May be people should be taught to engage them once or twice in their lives.
And there seems to be 25% of the elctorate who still think ZaNu Liebour are fit for government. Scary - may be it's time to go somewhere with an educated electorate - US of A?? Oh.. sorry!
Gordon ... in the library ? No way. He only 'writes' books on courage. He clearly doesn't read them. So doing the decent thing is completely out of the question.
If he were in the library he'd have been nowhere near the whisky and weapon - hiding away in some dark corner perhaps.
WW and others. It may repay us to reflect on the causes of political revolutions.
It is hard to generalise but they do mainly seem to arise out of a combination of several factors such as autocracy, high taxation and a decrease in domestic living standards.
Their rallying cry is usually built around Freeedom or Liberty but the rebels do not always have identical aims.
This would be the Stephen Pound who will not allow householders to have a revolver to protect themselves from the criminals nulab so like to look after.
Word was he was nearly beaten to the post by agent Malcolm Powers who, no drinker he,relented at the last moment after some encouraging words from Martin Salter...
Is there any truth in the rumour that Labour Agent Malcolm Powers has indicated his intention of leaving the Labour Party, shortly after the next election-which he assumes Labour will lose-with a view to heading off to OZ?He was once heard saying that after running Labour in the SE running a sheep farm in New South Wales would be a piece of piss...
I hope so...
ReplyDeletewho was the fool that had taken out the bullets?
ReplyDeletePound is a legend in his own mind, the biggest bore around and SKY constantly use him!
He wouldn't have the courage.
ReplyDeletewho did he think was in the library ?
ReplyDeleteThis is the Mr Punch lookalike who was given a plant question on the NHS for GB at PMQs.
ReplyDeleteHe likes to make out he's a maverick, but he always comes to heel when bidden.
He was off to shoot that book on COURAGE
ReplyDeleteStephen Pound, in the Library, with the Revolver?
ReplyDeleteI was up for Portillo. In 1997.
I voted New Labour into power. I did it because the Tories had grown arrogant and a bit sleazy. I voted for Labour because I had supposed they had turned their backs on the lumpenproletariat and were courting the bourgoisie. I did it because, despite Norman Lamont getting his just desserts on Hampstead Heath with Julian Clary, I remembered Black Wednesday, and the crazy civil war with the Conservative party over Europe. Above all, I was sick of their arrogance, exhibited even after the defeat; an outstanding example being Michael Howard on Paxman, and the epithet that will become his political epitaph: "something of the night". It was enough for me to consider a change. How wrong I was!
Little did I know that the ERM fiasco would pale into insignificance in relation to Northern Rock (3 or 4 billion compared to over 100 billion), or that cash for questions would look silly compared to cash for honours or the £1 million bribe Blair accepted from Bernie Ecclestone, etc, etc.
How could I imagine in 1997, that the linqua franca of New Labour would be lies, lies, and newspeak. How could I have known that 9/11 would be (for them) "a good day to bury bad news"?
But it is worse. We bandy about words like "Stalinism" in relation to New Labour. According to "Marxists.org" Stalinism is/was:
"Stalinist policies are quite clear: democratic rights threaten the position of the bureaucracy, and hence democracy is incompatible with Stalinism. So is it fair to call New Labour Stalinist?
In the last decade we have witnessed the erosion of democractic rights on a breathtaking scale, often predicated on lies and newspeak, where a word no longer means what it once did, for example, where the word "Constitution" becomes "Treaty" but the meaning stays the same. "Manifesto" is no longer a declaration of intent for a political party. Recently, The use of Thermobaric weapons in the theatre of war has been authorised by the United Kingdom, except that according to the MOD, they are "no longer classified as such". Dont even mention Iraq.
For those who are literary in any way, I refer you to "The Prelude". Its a long poem about the French Revolution written by Wordsworth.
It describes the youthful enthusiasm of a young romantic, caught up in the first flush of a revolution that looked so right and so refreshing. We know how it ended. We also know that the myth of the French Revolution was that the Aristocrats were the main victims. They were not. The main victims, and by far the most number guillotined were the ordinary French peasantry.
When a regime turns on the very people who brought it to power, its days are numbered. Its not the chattering classes who are suffering now, it is the ordinary working people of this country who are being wrung into poverty and distress by a tyranny that surpasses anything we have seen since WW2.
Perhaps Stephen Pound should do the honourable thing.
WW..
ReplyDeleteBrilliant analysis.
And don't despair. I never voted for Blair but I wanted that dreadful Tory government of Major gone.
Gone for the reasons you give.And more.
It was embarrassing having them around. Like elderly senile relatives, who bickered with each other day and night for no real reason. fighting over the TV times or the seat by the window.
It was a kindness to let them go into a home.
Of course with hindsight...
Steven Euro MP has was behind the times ( and the Gurdian) when he tried to put his Caholic Roots behind him on Talk Sport week in week out even before George Galloway replced Mike Dickin?
ReplyDeleteTo Stephen Pound. Keep that thought in your head. Can I suggest using a Glock though? More bullets and you can take a few more dead duck Labour MP's with you.
ReplyDeleteWrinkled Weasel
ReplyDeleteApprobation. Agreement. Affirmation.
Sorry, I agree, well put, do continue, you were saying
Well now Gordy Broon has another by-election challenge. David Marshall, Glasgow East MP, is going to resign on Monday! What's the betting Jack McConnell goes in Motherwell & Wishaw on the same day....
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind comments, Bill and tgph.
ReplyDeleteThere is not a lot more to add in this context, since I find that putting an argument together in a space the size of a fag packet, which sometimes disappears into blogger hyperspace is a bit limiting.
I will however correct an error, which is that The Prelude is not just about the French Revolution, but the bit that is, is very relevant.
When WW first witnessed the French Revolution he wrote, in 1790:
"O pleasant exercise of hope and joy!
For great were the auxiliars which then stood
Upon our side, we who were strong in love!
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very Heaven!" (The Prelude, x, 690-4.)
Was this "Things can only get better" when Blair promised his new dawn?
Things went sour of course.
Upon his return to France in 1802 he wrote:
Two solitary greetings have I heard,
'Good morrow, Citizen!' a hollow word,
As if a dead man spoke it.
Coleridge rendered the pragmatic reality of the Revolution thus:
Those feelings and that grand ideal of Freedom ... do not belong to men, as a society, nor can possibly be either gratified or realised under any form of human government: but belong to the individual man.
The latter is an argument not for more of the same, but for Libertarianism. Tories, know your limits.
(I have used quotes and background information from the monograph, "British Poets and the French Revolution - The Death of an Ideal"
by Alan Woods)
The by-election woes just keep on coming for Labour don't they? Apparently David Marshall MP (Glasgow East) is about to retire due to ill health:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/2207911/Labour-MP-David-Marshall-to-quit-causing-Brown-more-by-election-woe.html
I can say with great pride that i never voted New Labour because i knew it was Old Labour and a con trick.They were and are well to the left in their policies.
ReplyDeleteThe electorate got what it deserved and more fool you.
Pound may be a tosser- but at least he's a tosser with a sense of humour.
ReplyDeleteHow wrong I was! Wrinkled Weasel
ReplyDeleteEven for an old buffer like me it was pretty b*****y obvious from the start. If it smells like a fraud, sounds like a fraud and looks like a fraud (and if anyone looks a fraud it's Bliar), then it probably is a fraud.
And millions upon millions of muppets voted for the fraud not just once, BUT THREE TIMES!
Now I know the education system in this country has been having problems for about 20 years but, let's be fair, we're all born with a few brain cells. May be people should be taught to engage them once or twice in their lives.
And there seems to be 25% of the elctorate who still think ZaNu Liebour are fit for government. Scary - may be it's time to go somewhere with an educated electorate - US of A?? Oh.. sorry!
Gordon ... in the library ? No way. He only 'writes' books on courage. He clearly doesn't read them. So doing the decent thing is completely out of the question.
ReplyDeleteIf he were in the library he'd have been nowhere near the whisky and weapon - hiding away in some dark corner perhaps.
ww: I'm just amazed that you remember anything about The Prelude.
ReplyDeleteI suffered it whilst doing Alevel English some 45yrs ago, loathed it then, can't face it now. Perhaps it was just uninspired teaching.
WW and others. It may repay us to reflect on the causes of political revolutions.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to generalise but they do mainly seem to arise out of a combination of several factors such as autocracy, high taxation and a decrease in domestic living standards.
Their rallying cry is usually built around Freeedom or Liberty but the rebels do not always have identical aims.
This would be the Stephen Pound who will not allow householders to have a revolver to protect themselves from the criminals nulab so like to look after.
ReplyDeleteIs this a player in a revamped game of Cluedo?
ReplyDeleteSurely Stephen Pound, a.k.a. Grandpa Munster, would have headed for the crypt and a beaker of smoking dry ice...
ReplyDeleteSo Stephen, what stopped you?
ReplyDeleteWord was he was nearly beaten to the post by agent Malcolm Powers who, no drinker he,relented at the last moment after some encouraging words from Martin Salter...
ReplyDeleteIs there any truth in the rumour that Labour Agent Malcolm Powers has indicated his intention of leaving the Labour Party, shortly after the next election-which he assumes Labour will lose-with a view to heading off to OZ?He was once heard saying that after running Labour in the SE running a sheep farm in New South Wales would be a piece of piss...
ReplyDelete