Many views have been expressed both for and against Brown in recent weeks (bet you can't guess which side I'm on...). But, in the midst of all the speculation as to whether or not there's going to be a leadership challenge in the autumn (I hope there is!), I notice one piece of unintentional comic relief. Namely, John Prescott's comparison of New Labour to the Titanic (BBC News: Valid point but unfortunate metaphor).
Prescott was intending to say that the Titanic was sunk by the iceberg, not by its captain. Yet what Prescott seems to have overlooked, is that the Titanic was sailing rather too fast in an area known to be hazardous due to icebergs. What's more, there was pressure on the Titanic crew to recklessly increase the speed, in order to cut the journey time and maximise White Star Line's profits.
Likewise, the economic problems of the UK, and the government's seeming inability to deal effectively with them, have been - at best - greatly exacerbated by the New Labour government's commitment to neoliberal free-market policies. Fuel, food and water price hikes are all the product of the free market's pursuit of profit at all costs, and the credit crunch is the result of poverty wages leading people to borrow money which they become unable to pay back. Yet rather than consider renationalisation of the energy companies, price curbs and a decent minimum wage, this government is hell bent on further privatisation (often in the form of PFI) and shifting the tax burden onto the poor. Hardly a recipe for economic stability, let alone social justice!
Back to the Titanic - where the White Star Line rode roughshod over the safety and welfare of its passengers - this has been repeated time and time again. Most obviously, we saw it in the Herald of Free Enterprise sinking in the 1980's, but we have also seen it in Railtrack's many avoidable train disasters, and on countless building sites etc.
But staying with the nautical theme, the film The Perfect Storm has at least one parallel with Titanic. Although it was a hurricane which sunk the Andrea Gail, the crew of sword-fishermen were under pressure to get back to shore as quickly as possible, in order to 'set the market' for the swordfish which they caught. Which is why the Andrea Gail ended up sailing through, and sinking in, a vicious hurricane.
Speaking of perfect storms, the economic gloom and the government's disastrous poll ratings, seem to be combining with an increase in industrial action (such as the recent local government workers' strike) and grassroots protests (such as the recent protests against E-ON's new coal power station in Kent). Hopefully these will come together to create a political hurricane from the left which will not only sink Brown and his New Labour cronies, but also shipwreck the capitalist system which is so beloved by all Establishment politicians :-)
Showing posts with label Gordon Brown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gordon Brown. Show all posts
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Brown's kick in the balls
I was in force twelve gales of laughter yesterday, when I read in the Daily Mirror how Gordon Brown had sent a message of sympathy to Chelsea footballer John Terry (Daily Mirror: Gordon Brown tells sad John Terry: I know how you feel!). Now I'm not the world's biggest football fan (although I have a soft spot for Robbie Fowler when, back in 1997, he was fined £900 by UEFA for wearing a T-shirt supporting the striking Liverpool Dockers). But I think the blunders and savage attacks on working people by Brown and his government, have a rather more serious impact on most people's lives than a f**king missed penalty!!!
A senior Labour spokesman then fawned over Brown, saying this proved that he "believes in standing by people when they are in trouble". Yeah, right. That must be why he has still ruled out proper compensation for everyone who has been belted by the 10p tax fiasco, let alone even considered reinstating the 10p tax rate. And why he has blocked EU laws designed to protect agency workers (Socialist Worker: Gordon Brown leads Europe in blocking agency workers’ rights). And why he has refused to support, and even attacked, striking workers. So, as for Brown telling Terry he has "nothing to be ashamed of"; well, I wish I could say the same about Brown :-(
Small wonder, then, that New Labour got caned in the Crewe and Nantwich by election - and in the council elections at the beginning of the month. Although I have no joy in seeing the Tories take the seat, it's arguable how much it was a shift to the right, at least among the voters. In fact, it did seem kinda surreal that New Labour were attacking the Tories from the right, playing the law and order card, while the Tories were attacking New Labour from the left, over the 10p tax obscenity. (Cue 'Twilight Zone' music ...)
Brown's cynical attempt to look like a 'man of the people' by aligning himself with popular culture like football, kinda reminds me of Tony Bliar's "Cool Britannia", in which Bliar tried to get kudos by associating himself with pop music. Well, on the subject of pop music, my message to New Labour is a line from "Going Underground" by The Jam ...
"What you give is what you get, you've made your bed, you'd better lie in it!" :-P
A senior Labour spokesman then fawned over Brown, saying this proved that he "believes in standing by people when they are in trouble". Yeah, right. That must be why he has still ruled out proper compensation for everyone who has been belted by the 10p tax fiasco, let alone even considered reinstating the 10p tax rate. And why he has blocked EU laws designed to protect agency workers (Socialist Worker: Gordon Brown leads Europe in blocking agency workers’ rights). And why he has refused to support, and even attacked, striking workers. So, as for Brown telling Terry he has "nothing to be ashamed of"; well, I wish I could say the same about Brown :-(
Small wonder, then, that New Labour got caned in the Crewe and Nantwich by election - and in the council elections at the beginning of the month. Although I have no joy in seeing the Tories take the seat, it's arguable how much it was a shift to the right, at least among the voters. In fact, it did seem kinda surreal that New Labour were attacking the Tories from the right, playing the law and order card, while the Tories were attacking New Labour from the left, over the 10p tax obscenity. (Cue 'Twilight Zone' music ...)
Brown's cynical attempt to look like a 'man of the people' by aligning himself with popular culture like football, kinda reminds me of Tony Bliar's "Cool Britannia", in which Bliar tried to get kudos by associating himself with pop music. Well, on the subject of pop music, my message to New Labour is a line from "Going Underground" by The Jam ...
"What you give is what you get, you've made your bed, you'd better lie in it!" :-P
Friday, 29 June 2007
Outside the realm of sanity
As the joy of Bliar being forced out ebbs away, I now face the prospect of life under Brown.
I never had any illusions in him - he is a right wing bastard who, as Chancellor, abolished the 10p tax rate and in doing so made poor people pay more tax so the middle class could pay less tax. He also supported Bliar on most issues, notably the murderous Iraq war. So I am not disappointed by his latest move - ie bringing "outsiders" into his government, rather than give an inch to the left within his own party.
The most sickening of these appointment is to award the job of Trade minister - the head of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform - to former CBI chief Sir Digby Jones.
In case you don't already know, the CBI - Confederation of British Industry (or should that be Capitalist Bastards Inc?) - is the organisation of the bosses of big business, the capitalist exploiters in the UK. Not that New Labour has ever given a $h!t about regulating the worst excesses of big business, allowing them to sack workers and move jobs abroad while giving themselves obscene pay rises and bonuses. But now the capitalist Establishment have one of their own in charge of them - er, not to mention a former CBI boss overseeing them - there's no chance of this government doing anything for the increasingly exploited workers.
If you ask me, "outsiders" is perhaps a misleading term. Rather than seeing them as outside the Labour Party, it proves how much the Labour Party is now inside the Capitalist Establishment of which Digby et al are fully paid up members!
The reasons for New Labore (typo) being so in bed with the Capitalist Establishment were made clearer than ever by an article in last week's Socialist Worker. An article about Private Equity Firms (the politically correct expression for Asset Strippers) describes how such firms and their current and former bosses have donated millions of pounds to New Labour. No wonder Brown reckons the Labour Farty can afford to reduce yet forther the (already pathetic) influence of the Trade Union bureaucracy within the party.
Financially, he probably can, with New Labour getting millions of pounds from capitalists - including those with the morals of a Great White. However, in terms of activism, and votes, he may yet regret dissing the millions of workers who put Labour into power in the first place.
The Respect Coalition is attracting an ever increasing number of workers disenchanted with the fake workers party that is New Labour, and has already unseated numerous Labour councillors - and at least one Labour MP - in working class areas. With your help, we can unseat more of these sell-outs!
What the working class needs is a party which will not sell out to a right-wing agenda to gain middle and ruling class votes.
What the working class needs is a party which will not kow tow to the bosses and the capitalist class.
What the working class needs is a party which is run by and for the working class.
The Respect Coalition is that party !!!!!
I never had any illusions in him - he is a right wing bastard who, as Chancellor, abolished the 10p tax rate and in doing so made poor people pay more tax so the middle class could pay less tax. He also supported Bliar on most issues, notably the murderous Iraq war. So I am not disappointed by his latest move - ie bringing "outsiders" into his government, rather than give an inch to the left within his own party.
The most sickening of these appointment is to award the job of Trade minister - the head of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform - to former CBI chief Sir Digby Jones.
In case you don't already know, the CBI - Confederation of British Industry (or should that be Capitalist Bastards Inc?) - is the organisation of the bosses of big business, the capitalist exploiters in the UK. Not that New Labour has ever given a $h!t about regulating the worst excesses of big business, allowing them to sack workers and move jobs abroad while giving themselves obscene pay rises and bonuses. But now the capitalist Establishment have one of their own in charge of them - er, not to mention a former CBI boss overseeing them - there's no chance of this government doing anything for the increasingly exploited workers.
If you ask me, "outsiders" is perhaps a misleading term. Rather than seeing them as outside the Labour Party, it proves how much the Labour Party is now inside the Capitalist Establishment of which Digby et al are fully paid up members!
The reasons for New Labore (typo) being so in bed with the Capitalist Establishment were made clearer than ever by an article in last week's Socialist Worker. An article about Private Equity Firms (the politically correct expression for Asset Strippers) describes how such firms and their current and former bosses have donated millions of pounds to New Labour. No wonder Brown reckons the Labour Farty can afford to reduce yet forther the (already pathetic) influence of the Trade Union bureaucracy within the party.
Financially, he probably can, with New Labour getting millions of pounds from capitalists - including those with the morals of a Great White. However, in terms of activism, and votes, he may yet regret dissing the millions of workers who put Labour into power in the first place.
The Respect Coalition is attracting an ever increasing number of workers disenchanted with the fake workers party that is New Labour, and has already unseated numerous Labour councillors - and at least one Labour MP - in working class areas. With your help, we can unseat more of these sell-outs!
What the working class needs is a party which will not sell out to a right-wing agenda to gain middle and ruling class votes.
What the working class needs is a party which will not kow tow to the bosses and the capitalist class.
What the working class needs is a party which is run by and for the working class.
The Respect Coalition is that party !!!!!
Tuesday, 17 April 2007
No confidence in any Establishment politician
So Gordon Brown has survived the vote of no confidence against him. I'm hardly over the moon, as I am one of the losers from Brown's recent budget. His stupid idea of scrapping the 10p tax rate is to sting everyone earning 12000-18000 a year - myself included :-( - while reducing the tax of higher earners. So much for any illusions that Brown may have been any better as PM than Bliar!
But my disappointment is tempered by the fact that the motion of no confidence was moved by Cameron and his Tories. They $#at on me from a great height while in power during the 80's and early 90s with such delightful policies as the poll tax, mass redundancies throughout the public sector (including BBC Transmission), the scrapping of student grants and their replacement with loans. On a wider level, my own local area suffered badly under the Tories as they closed the local coal mines, causing mass unemployment with all that entails. Many of the job losses happened under the premiership of John Major, who has joined in the slagging off of Blair and Brown.
At the same time, Blair and Brown have been no defenders of jobs - many jobs were lost locally when the local Ericsson mobile phones factory closed in 2001, and the government did nothing to help. Civil servants have fared even worse; a few years ago Brown threatened thousands of civil service workers with redundancy. Under the guise of the "war on bureaucracy". (Seems a bit rich for a government which has crap-flooded the legal system with thousands of petty laws since 1997 to talk about a "war on bureaucracy", but that's another story!)
I'd love to see a vote of no confidence in Blair and Brown, they've both sold the Labour Party and its supporters down the river. But the Tories have no need at all to talk, they're just a nuisance and I wish they'd keep out of it.
As for the next Labour leader, I'd love to see John McDonnell win on a left-wing platform. Better still, I'd love to see an end to the Labour-Tory duopoly on power.
Which is why I'm backing the Respect Coalition.
But my disappointment is tempered by the fact that the motion of no confidence was moved by Cameron and his Tories. They $#at on me from a great height while in power during the 80's and early 90s with such delightful policies as the poll tax, mass redundancies throughout the public sector (including BBC Transmission), the scrapping of student grants and their replacement with loans. On a wider level, my own local area suffered badly under the Tories as they closed the local coal mines, causing mass unemployment with all that entails. Many of the job losses happened under the premiership of John Major, who has joined in the slagging off of Blair and Brown.
At the same time, Blair and Brown have been no defenders of jobs - many jobs were lost locally when the local Ericsson mobile phones factory closed in 2001, and the government did nothing to help. Civil servants have fared even worse; a few years ago Brown threatened thousands of civil service workers with redundancy. Under the guise of the "war on bureaucracy". (Seems a bit rich for a government which has crap-flooded the legal system with thousands of petty laws since 1997 to talk about a "war on bureaucracy", but that's another story!)
I'd love to see a vote of no confidence in Blair and Brown, they've both sold the Labour Party and its supporters down the river. But the Tories have no need at all to talk, they're just a nuisance and I wish they'd keep out of it.
As for the next Labour leader, I'd love to see John McDonnell win on a left-wing platform. Better still, I'd love to see an end to the Labour-Tory duopoly on power.
Which is why I'm backing the Respect Coalition.
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