The BBC and corporate media coalesce around an extremely narrow consensus of political thought, and ensure that anybody who steps outside that consensus is ridiculed and marginalised. That consensus has got narrower and narrower. I was delighted during the general election to be able to listen to Nicola Sturgeon during the leaders’ debate argue for anti-austerity policies and for the scrapping of Trident. I had not heard anyone on broadcast media argue for the scrapping of Trident for a decade – it is one of those views which though widely held the establishment gatekeepers do not view as respectable.
The media are working overtime to marginalise Jeremy Corbyn as a Labour leadership candidate on the grounds that he is left wing and therefore weird and unelectable. But they face the undeniable fact that, Scottish independence aside, there are very few political differences between Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon. On issues including austerity, nuclear weapons, welfare and Palestine both Sturgeon and Corbyn are really very similar. They have huge areas of agreement that stand equally outside the establishment consensus. Indeed Nicola is more radical than Jeremy, who wants to keep the United Kingdom.
The establishment’s great difficulty is this. Given that the SNP had just slaughtered the Labour Party – and the Tories and Lib Dems – by being a genuine left wing alternative, how can the media consensus continue to insist that the left are unelectable? The answer is of course that they claim Scotland is different. Yet precisely the same establishment consensus denies that Scotland has a separate political culture when it comes to the independence debate. So which is it? They cannot have it both ways.
If Scotland is an integral part of the UK, Jeremy Corbyn’s policies cannot be unelectable.
Nicola Sturgeon won the UK wide leaders debate in the whole of the United Kingdom, despite the disadvantage of representing a party not standing in 90% of it by population. She won not just because she is clever and genuine, but because people all across the UK liked the left wing policies she articulated.
A Daily Mirror opinion poll following a BBC televised Labour leadership candidates’ debate this week had Jeremy Corbyn as the clear winner, with twice the support of anyone else. The media ridicule level has picked up since. This policy of marginalisation works. I was saddened by readers’ comments under a Guardian report of that debate, in which Labour supporter after Labour supporter posted comment to the effect “I would like to vote for Jeremy Corbyn because he believes in the same things I do, but we need a more right wing leader to have a chance of winning.”
There are two answers to that. The first is no, you don’t need to be right wing to win. Look at the SNP. The second is what the bloody hell are you in politics for anyway? Do you just want your team to win like it was football? Is there any point at all in being elected just so you can carry out the same policies as your opponents? The problem is, of course, that for so many in the Labour Party, especially but not just the MPs, they want to win for personal career advantage not actually to promote particular policies.
The media message of the need to be right wing to be elected is based on reinforced by a mythologizing of Tony Blair and Michael Foot as the ultimate example of the Good and Bad leader. These figures are constantly used to reinforce the consensus. Let us examine their myths.
Tony Blair is mythologised as an electoral superstar, a celebrity politician who achieved unprecedented personal popularity with the public, and that he achieved this by adopting right wing policies. Let us examine the truth of this myth. First that public popularity. The best measure of public enthusiasm is the percentage of those entitled to vote, who cast their ballot for that party at the general election. This table may surprise you.
Percentage of Eligible Voters
1992 John Major 32.5%
1997 Tony Blair 30.8%
2001 Tony Blair 24.1%
2005 Tony Blair 21.6%
2010 David Cameron 23.5%
2015 David Cameron 24.4%
There was only any public enthusiasm for Blair in 97 – and to put that in perspective, it was less than the public enthusiasm for John Major in 1992.
More importantly, this public enthusiasm was not based on the policies now known as Blairite. The 1997 Labour Manifesto was not full of right wing policies and did not indicate what Blair was going to do.
The Labour Party manifesto of 1997 did not mention Academy schools, Private Finance Initiative, Tuition Fees, NHS privatisation, financial sector deregulation or any of the right wing policies Blair was to usher in. Labour actually presented quite a left wing image, and figures like Robin Cook and Clare Short were prominent in the campaign. There was certainly no mention of military invasions.
It was only once Labour were in power that Blair shaped his cabinet and his policies on an ineluctably right wing course and Mandelson started to become dominant. As people discovered that New Labour were “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich”, to quote Mandelson, their popular support plummeted. “The great communicator” Blair for 90% of his Prime Ministership was no more popular than David Cameron is now. 79% of the electorate did not vote for him by his third election
Michael Foot consistently led Margaret Thatcher in opinion polls – by a wide margin – until the Falklands War. He was defeated in a victory election by the most appalling and intensive wave of popular war jingoism and militarism, the nostalgia of a fast declining power for its imperial past, an emotional outburst of popular relief that Britain could still notch up a military victory over foreigners in its colonies. It was the most unedifying political climate imaginable. The tabloid demonization of Foot as the antithesis of the military and imperial theme was the first real exhibition of the power of Rupert Murdoch. Few serious commentators at the time doubted that Thatcher might have been defeated were it not for the Falklands War – which in part explains her lack of interest in a peaceful solution. Michael Foot’s position in the demonology ignores these facts.
The facts about Blair and about Foot are very different from the media mythology.
The stupid stunt by Tories of signing up to the Labour Party to vote for Corbyn to ridicule him, is exactly the kind of device the establishment consensus uses to marginalise those whose views they fear. Sturgeon is living proof left wing views are electable. The “left unelectable” meme will intensify. I expect Jeremy Corbyn’s biggest problem will be quiet exclusion. I wish him well.
Mod: Did you read Macky’s reply? It’s just another opportunity to insult Suhayl, innit.
[ Mod: Yes, and those personal attacks will not be permitted. Thanks. ]
The balance of security vs. privacy needs to be re-evaluated E V E R Y WH E R E , not just EUUKUSA, but yes, also in Russia.
When you consider that even some of the poorest nations on earth, Malawi, Ethiopia etc have recently installed comprehensive citizen tracking, monitoring, censorship – leading to death – systems – then, maybe a few people trusting and using DDG or IQXuick is a good start. It’s not even a matter of trust in a particular entrepreneur , e.g. Amazon have disclosed recently that they have received between zero and two hundred and forty-nine US national security letters. they are a rare company that has the power to state even that much! DDG = NSL = ?
VPN’s are pretty coo, but many implementations have poor/backdoored crypto & the omnipresent agencies actively scour the internet packet stream for VPN start-up data. They have the capability to identify, lock-on to, record then crack most VPNs, automagically.
They have libraries of pre-computed ‘random’ prime-numbers, rainbow tables just for VPNs.
consider yourselves to be rather watched
Youknowmyname and Jon.
So much info. What would be best?
Who to install it for me and tutor me on, troubleshooting?.
I am considering a new computer with all the things suggested and to complete my “boycott”.
I want to put my money in my countryman’s hands, not to be sending out of my country all the time. Or, at least, keep it in Europe.
It seems to me that I am the number one enemy of H M’s government and the American’s.
They and their big businesses are trying to make us poorer every day.
I do not see E.U. countries doing that. In fact I see the opposite, they are great to do business with, as long as I don’t have to pay via an American company.
No way pal!.
Youknowmyname.
That was spooky. I shut it down right away.
There’s probably no problem, although the state(s) are heading for omnipotent powers, they aren’t currently in my view abusing that much. I trust DC & TM & Boris, after all they get watched too!
Get what you can afford, if you choose to give all your data to Google then a cheap Chinese ChromeBook is almost totally virus free & updates itself at every boot. The next Apple OS “El Capitan” is looking great, around sometime in Autumn, Windows 10 might be good. Ubuntu is fairly fun. Use virtual computers.
Even a £25 Raspberry Pi2 is now a useable system. have one Pi2 for secure email & and have another Pi2 for Web-browsing = no phishing problems. The RPi is made at the Old Sony factory in Wales, maybe? Perhaps the only UK made PC, using a UK designed CPU – quad-core ARM7.
always update all progs/Apps/OSes, have different passwords on every site, don’t *actually* be a terrorist, don’t visit craigmurray.org.uk
oops
[ Mod: Please post constructive comments, or do not post at all. ]
what a way to go. He went outside and dropped dead.
And here from the arch Tory shire, the loss of one of their greats, our local county councilor Derek Blake.
The erstwhile dancer and lover of the Korean cuisine and culture, used the term G&T at the last parish council meeting, when talking of Gypsies and Travelers.
Do read the eulogising article to the full and then compare it to the many( none) supporting comments from the public, which apparently loved him so much according to his buddy DC Fuller, the waster of taxes on useless court cases, bungled evictions and such like.
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/tributes_paid_to_norfolk_county_councillor_derek_blake_who_was_found_dead_by_police_1_4124139
Youknowmyname.
Thanks for all that.
Too late, visited it already.
Might as well be hanged for a sheep than a lamb.
Disgusting crippled welfare-junkie plebs invade hardworking family doubleplusgood Commons:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/24/disability-campaigners-clash-with-police-inside-commons-over-benefit-cuts
What audacity. Says still undead Norfolk MP, George Freeman (in tweet):
Disability rights campaigners dont help their cause +let down disability campaign w violence +public disorder.
Errr, is anything else likely to get your attention, George?
[ Mod: Please do not refer to your fellow correspondents in such derogatory terms ]
Interesting comments at the end of RT’s thread about Janner raping and torturing children inside the Houses of Parliament. http://rt.com/uk/269329-lord-janner-sexual-abuse/
Freeman’s philosophy…
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/03/03/mnimum-wage-george-freeman-envy_n_6790120.html
There they are, happily employed on zero-hours contracts, penalised for being unavailable and paying for their own travel….and they have the absolute coruscating gall to want enough money to live on? They’re jealous, that’s what it is. Jealous. Of wealthy businessmen tied to the healthcare industry. Who, on their behalf,
Voted very strongly for reducing central government funding of local government,
…Voted very strongly against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability
and
Voted strongly for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits.
(TheyWorkForYou)
and are paid, by the public, nearly 90 grand annually to come away with this shite.
I wouldn’t be surprised if George was right.
Not that we’re suffering this much (yet):
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/news/today-i-saw-a-weeping-palestinian-man-holding-a-plastic-bag-of-meat-it-was-his-son
Can’t improve on what Brian Eno says, so won’t try.
Moderation: If it’s derogatory for me to say what I said about our troll, why is it not at least equally derogatory for him to put words in my mouth on the basis of nothing more than my silence?
Lysias – Please do not feed the mods…. 🙂
“Lysias – Please do not feed the mods…”
Same thing perhaps ?! 😀
https://squonk.tk/blog/2015/03/15/the-general-discussion-thread/comment-page-46/#comment-18403
Comical to see the monarch obedient press,launch a scathing attack on Scotland, at the first hint of withholding monies for the infamous benefit scroungers, known as the Royal family.
Every national newspaper, yelled that Scotland won’t pay its fair share to upkeep of the leech like Royals.
Oh how they must have been sorely disappointed, when Sturgeon said we would pay our fair share to keep the parasites, in the manner they’re accustom to, mores the pity.
The Queen currently gets around £36 million quid from the taxpayer,and that state benefit handout will rise to £42 million quid come 2016/17.
She’s also looking for another £1.5 million of state benefits to repair her palace.
It would appear to me anyway that the Queen is taking the piss, forget Benefits Street,there’s a whole series waiting to be set in to production called,
The Royals: A Life on Benefits.
Re My last comment,this is how the Times sees the story “Insurrection” reading the bonkers article, it’s painfully apparent that, the Times, still sees Scotland as part of the empire, a empire that only exists in the minds of the deluded.
http://wingsoverscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/timesinsurrection.jpg
I wonder if the place in the Houses of Parliament where Janner tortured children was the chapel. It certainly appears that that is where he raped at least one boy. The Daily Beast: Lord Accused of Raping Boys at Parliament, as U.K. Abuse Scandal Widens:
Anyone who commits such a dastardly act in a holy place cannot be other than a sociopath.
“Anyone who commits such a dastardly act in a holy place cannot be other than a sociopath.”
You mean it wouldn’t be so bad, done somewhere else – the basement of a pub maybe?
Bad anywhere, certainly, but this shows a peculiar desire to mock all standards. The fact that Janner apparently tortured, as well as sexually abused, shows that love had nothing to do with what he did either. He merely wanted to exercise power, and on the most helpless.
By the way, I wonder if the chapel where he raped the boy was the Chapel of St. Mary Undercroft, a former crypt below St. Stephen’s Chapel, whose use seems to be limited to MP’s and peers.
3Moderation: If it’s derogatory for me to say what I said about our troll, why is it not at least equally derogatory for him to put words in my mouth on the basis of nothing more than my silence?3
——————
I think I should be allowed to reply to that accusation.
If I remember correctly, I was responding to a post of Mary’s by saying that the manner of Tariq Aziz’s death (in prison and presumably of natural causes) was a sight kinder than the deaths which were “enjoyed” by many of the victims of the Saddam Hussein régime, of which Mr Aziz was the long-serving foreign minister.
I went on to recall that Hitler’s long-term foreign minister died on the gallows after the Nuremberg trials. The implication of that observation was that Mr Aziz might count himself lucky to have been imprisoned and not hanged.
That elicited a what I thought was a diversionary post from our friend Lysias, who told us that he thought the days when Saddam Hussein was compared to Hitler were long over.
Bow, of course, my comment had not made such a comparison.
Therefore I thought it might be useful to say as much, which I did by writing that Saddam Hussein and Hitler were at least similar in that both were tyrants but that our friend Lysias might well not agree with me at least as far as Saddam Hussein was concerned.
Conscious, however, that I might have misread our friend Lysias and done him an injustice, I added that our friend was of course most welcome to correct me (by confirming that Saddam Hussein was indeed a tyrant.
And reply came the none except to say that he did not respond to “trolls”.
Consequently, I think it is not a case of putting words into someone’s mouth but rather that someone condemned himself by his silence.
And again my silence is used to impute a belief to me that I never espoused.
sorry about the misprints, I have to dash out to buy my copy of Neues Deutschland before the newsagent closes.
Macky, I’ve not read your comments at Squonk’s, but I do hope you can find a way to communicate productively. I do not read anything remotely “sly” in his questions to you, and I too would happily read what you have to say about white supremacy. Race and racism come up on the board frequently, as you know, and though I don’t think you’ve been called a racist, I don’t think it’s a big deal. Insults received are as counterproductive as insults given, and they are best ignored.
I chat on the web a fair bit, and I’ve developed a pragmatic and nearly Zen-like approach to it (Villager, once a regular in these parts, would approve!). I had someone here a month ago suggest that I am a male feminist “because he thinks it will get him laid”. I congratulated them for their small amusement, and re-iterated my question. I do the same elsewhere too, and it quite bamboozles insulting opponents. So, to reiterate, if you think you’ve been insulted, ignore it, and press on with the matter at hand using great civility.
And the matter at hand: gun violence, racism, white supremacy, privilege, poverty, the media, capitalism, American cultural theory, masculinity and machismo – whatever you think. Engage, at all costs.
Lysias
If your post at 17h07 is a grudging and rather convoluted way of saying you agree that Saddam Hussein was a tyrant then I think you have given me satisfaction and we can let the matter drop (to everyone’s relief, no doubt).
Grateful if you could confirm.
(should be “I do hope you can find a way to communicate productively with Suhayl”, of course. Autopilot!)
And it seems to me that statement imputes to me another belief besides the one that Saddam was not a tyrant which it is even more outrageous to impute to me.
You know very well that I refuse to feed the trolls, and insist on drawing unjustified conclusions from that. Your debating trick is merely an attempt to use intimidation and false logic to force people to answer you who do not want to answer you.
“You could for instance discuss his belief that Saddam Hussein was not a tyrant.”
____________________________
Lysais.
Saddam was a tyrant,but in your defence,he was,a user friendly western puppet tyrant,when the US wanted to see Iran destroyed,Saddam and Iraq were used as a kind of proxy army, the west armed him with the latest weapons, but Iran proved more resilient than the west expected.
Saddam,Gaddafi,and several other tyrants,have been,useful to the west,until that is they outlive their usefulness.