Morning thoughts 😉
Did you watch any of the Alan Bennett airings last weekend on UK TV? We caught some including replays. A couple of things must have implanted on my brain one being Alan Bennett singing They Fuck You Up Your Mum and Dad, from a Philip Larkin verse, to the theme tune of Last of the Summer Wine, which after an unsettled night I woke up singing Tuesday. The mind is very strange or at least mine is. Bennett talked in a documentary about various things including Miss Shepherd the real Lady in the Van. If you have seen the film or read the book you will know that she was from genteel stock but lived a hand to mouth existence. Turns out she was also a Tory supporter. But she had her own views on who should lead the country politically and politics did not always come into it. Tall herself she thought a shorter person did a better job. So she preferred Harold Wilson Labour to Ted Heath Tory but simply on height - yes size matters to some. This moved my ponderings onto a former work colleague at the NHS. This person tried giving me a friendly lecture of sorts in the run up to the 2010 General Election; she was voting Liberal Democrat as Gordon Brown and the Labour Party was ruining this country and she thought I should too. I asked her what she meant by "ruining the country" and went on to ask her why SHE was bothered after she talked a great deal about our banking system. It was post the financial crisis and it seemed the mainstream media and election campaigners had sucked her in. She was adamant. It was hard not to gloat post election after the Lib Dems agreed to form a coalition government with the Tories. She had put her faith in Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and he had let her down miserably. The point is this person lived in social housing, was a single parent, needed income tops from the DWP and had a child claiming Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA). EMA was scrapped pretty quickly and this woman felt the pinch pretty sharpish. She learned the hard way that your vote matters and should never be squandered. That woman faced a tough future but who was to blame for that - in the end herself? But it highlights how some ordinary people with plenty to lose and lots to potentially gain vote in weird, wonderful and lunatic ways at times. We can never take election success for granted. The best person for the role of British Prime Minister at this time is Jeremy Corbyn leading a Labour government. Having to convince those who should already know that may still be a sad fact of life. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/15272526/what-impact-has-scrapping-ema-had http://www.npr.org/2015/12/12/459212329/for-15-years-the-real-lady-in-the-van-lived-in-this-playwrights-driveway Op-ed; This will be brief but it will not pull its punches.
So you are a flip flop voter, a former Tony Blair supporter or something similar and you are hoping if not pushing for some sort of political alliance that will remove the Tory Party from office. You may even hope politicians will do a deal of sorts perhaps so that Green Party leader Caroline Lucas' Brighton seat is not contested by the Labour Party. Well it is time you got real. If you want a Labour government, and the Tories truly trounced, work your little socks of helping secure a Labour Party victory. The Green Party as our electoral system stands cannot oust the Tories. Neither can the SNP, or UKip the latter being a half ass Tory Party anyways. As for political opportunists or is that political prostitutes the Liberal Democrat Party put nothing past them. This general election they are hoping to ride on the BRemain crest of a wave and win seats. Lib Dem leader Tim Farron has already refused to rule out another ConDem government this time wth Farron sat alongside Theresa May or another Tory Party leader. That new leader could come in the shape of a Tory BRemainer. So just why would the Laour Party want an alliance with Timmy or others? THE ANSWER IS IT DOES NOT -END OF STORY. On September 12, 2015, Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party and that should have been the end of the story but it was not.
Even before he won, with a huge mandate, enemies within the Labour Party were trying to stop his leadership campaign in its tracks. With friends like some of them who needs enemies? But he won and there was a flurry of shadow cabinet resignations as inflated egos tootled off to the backbenches of the Labour Party in the House of Commons. They did not resign their well paid jobs, with all the associated perks, but took to the ranks in some cases began to spread their poison. This led to an orchestrated coup with the main players opting to humiliate Jeremy Corbyn by any means available. Resignation letters followed at a fast and furious pace, pinned to Twitter timelines for maximum impact. Those of us who had been watching from day one were not surprised. It was rather shocking though to see Corbyn isolated in the House of Commons as some Labour MPs sat behind him and chanted resign and "sit down man you are a disgrace." Months of social media interactions that may as well have been by Tory MPs had hinted at what was now unfolding. It was the Labour Party at its most petulant. Jeremy Corbyn is not just any party leader. He is a man of harmony but when parliamentary enemies attacked he stepped up to the mark and some. While Labour Party plotters enjoyed a summer of relaxation Jeremy took a "road trip" mostly by train around the UK. Corbyn spoke at packed rallies in cities and towns across the UK. He was and is an inspiration. He undertook a schedule that would have floored many younger men and he did so with good grace and time for others. When he addressed a packed rally in the Northern City of Kingston-Upon-Hull the sun shone and those who turned up to listen were not disappointed. Imagine if the Labour Party had accepted Corbyn as party leader in September 2015 and worked together toward election success. But even as Corbyn worked his socks off addressing rallies in Leeds, Cornwall, Brighton, Hull, York, Liverpool and more enemies in the party were undermining his leadership. Leaked stories by anonymous sources dominated news headlines as the mainstream media eagerly grabbed what was on offer and spun the story to within an inch of its life. Unlike Mr Corbyn plotters work to various agendas which rarely include ordinary working and middle class voters struggling to make ends meet. The Labour Party has an identity crisis but Mr Corbyn can restore old new Labour to true Labour values if his MPs will let him. 2016 could have been a successful year for the Labour Party but it was not. In order to try and remove Corbyn there was a challenge but no challenger. Finally, when pushed Angela Eagle launched a challenge but she was quickly pushed back as Owen Smith stepped into the fray. His dismal attempt at relaunching old new Labour failed miserably. As soon as it was clear he would not win people were purged from the Labour Party for various reasons; from real abuse to pure nonsense. Plotters in the party were determined Corbyn would not win. They made themselves and the party look ridiculous and unelectable in the eyes of many and for nothing. Jeremy Corbyn was re-elected leader with 62% of the vote. But once again the story does not end here. Some people will never accept Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader and too many of them are IN the party. Can the Labour Party get back to business or will 2017 be squandered too? |
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