First they came for disabled people
Then they came for the unemployed
After which they targeted the working poor
And the young they disabled with debt
The middle class had their incomes undermined
And their professions demeaned
But the bankers? They believed them invincible
Until they crashed again
And then there was nothing left
But start again
To build a country in which we all can share
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And the young they disabled with debt. That is the most tragic for me amongst your always pertinent observations
I think Robert Peston put it the right way at his last public service appearance, namely that the Chancellor has moved into the middle ground as a huge fan of Blair. He is free to do whatever he wants and probably enjoys it as well!
Her Majesty’s opposition today was poor to say the least. We need an opposition in a democracy and not someone reading the Little Red Book. John McDo had nothing to say, probably because he ended up reading a back-up speech he had prepared if the government found again a way to run circles around him. Labour has to have people who can stand up in Parliament and cut into a debate as important as this one!
The country is rudderless without an opposition that works properly. If we have to suffer this for 4 years, we’ll end up as poorly managed as Belgium!
Ideas can be good, but a country, as well as a business need to be managed. Give it another couple of years and Labour will have alienated each and every talent in its ranks that could stand up for the country and manage it in the (now very unlikely) event it comes to power.
I am getting desperate by JC’s team performance…
Can’t agree with that Lucas-the economics we have now is a colossal failure of the Left throughout Europe who adopted a cringing kow-tow to the financial sector. Corbyn is an an almost impossible postion-David and Goliath with David armed with a feather. You are talking about nigh on 40 years of financialisation and myths/fairy tales about economic choices, even if Corbyn were simultaneously a saint and genius it would be a vast task.
The real failure of the left is that it hasn’t come up with a convincing and simple narrative that offers hope to people in difficult circumstances – the vast majority. People want an alternative. They’re sick of party politics but ready to vote for something that gives them an opportunity to change their own lives for the better, and the lives of those around them.
The New Cooperative Movement coming out of Manchester should sort that. Politically neutral; based on business processes and procedures; membership based and an empowering force for good.
Manchester gave birth to steam – powering the world in the first industrial revolution. Then, the first stored memory computer to power the second industrial revolution. Now, the power will come from people working together for their own sakes and the sake of the common good. Motive power.
Manchester is on the cusp, once again, of great things.
Can’t agree with that, Simon.
This Tory regime has the support of what was it? 24% of the eligible voting population (something like that). Its moves on tax credits and the NHS are hugely unpopular (to name just two), it has no strong or charismatic leadership figures. Viewed externally and objectively it is potentially vulnerable, highly vulnerable and reliant on the weakness of its opposition.
Don’t get me wrong. I like Corbyn, McDonnell and Watson and I realise that they need to take some time in creating a new and effective identity – but do that they must. They need to become more expedient, which they probably will but they also need some fire and determination. They need to be more like Trudeau.
Not in what they do necessarily, but in the way they go about it.