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.
Weighing deeds can be too moving Giyane; we must begin while time allows us to perpend, even then absolution is barely reachable.
A short résumé on David Gauke, MP Con SW Herts, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, solicitor and hypocrite.
1.
UK to reject EU plans to combat multinational tax avoidance
David Gauke, financial secretary to the Treasury, insists on tax competition as opposed to Union’s plan to introduce common tax rules
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/18/uk-reject-eu-plans-combat-multinational-tax-avoidance
June 18 2015
2.
UK Treasury minister, Gauke, defends tax avoidance abuse! How many manifesto pledges forgotten now?
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1434808792.html
June 19 2015
3.
The UK is defending tax abuse, not promoting ‘tax competition’ http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2015/06/19/the-uk-is-defending-tax-abuse-not-promoting-tax-competition/
June 19 2015
4.
From his Register of Interests
‘ Sponsorship or financial or material support
Name of donor: PricewaterhouseCoopers
Address of donor:
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: secondment of a member of staff and ad hoc advice from specialists during the Commons stages of the Finance Bill. Value: £22,704.67
Date of receipt:
Date of acceptance:
Donor status: company
(Registered 20 July 2009’
When you see the name PricewaterhouseCoopers, think NHS privatisation and privatisation of other state owned assets.
5.
‘Gauke claimed £10,248.32 in stamp duty and fees involved in the purchase of his second home in London, a flat. A Channel 4 Dispatches programme revealed that he was claiming expenses on the flat in central London despite having a property located only one hour away on public transport.
Gauke sold the flat in August 2012, keeping £27,000, the property price having increased by £67,000 since purchase. He paid nearly £40,000 of this to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) as MPs only have to pay back any profit made in the previous two years. [4]
He told the UK public that negotiating a price discount with a tradesmen for paying in cash for the purposes of evading tax is morally wrong.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gauke
6.
Outed by Andrew Neil pre election on that letter which was supposed to have come from small businesses. Instead it was a Conservative Partei op.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/04/27/watch-andrew-neil-call-out-out-david-gauke-for-telegraph-stunt_n_7150674.html
and a Conservative Friend of Israel to boot.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=11633
Milliband spent all his energy in reducing Union power in labour only to end up with the Cons in power, and the FoI calling the shots in BOTH parties. Surely he deserves a Mount of Olives burial plot like Robert Maxwell, for services rendered to their “nation”. But nobody has yet figured out how 50 Libdem seats ended up in tory hands? Surely this libdem crowd did not vote tory?
It would appear that if we write our memoirs and leave them to a grateful nation, our heirs will save a bomb on Inheritance Tax.
Margaret Thatcher’s Private Papers Donated To The Nation In Lieu Of £1.8 Million Inheritance Tax Bill
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/06/18/margaret-thatcher-papers-donated-to-the-nation_n_7616630.html
18 June 2015
‘Private papers belonging to Margaret Thatcher were donated to the nation on Thursday in lieu of £1 million in inheritance tax.
The documents, which include a previously unpublished 17,000-word memoir of the Falklands War written by the former prime minister in 1983 (a year after the conflict), were hailed by Arts Council England as “the single most significant historical document Margaret Thatcher ever wrote.”
According to The Telegraph, the current £1.8 bill on Thatcher’s £4.7 million estate will be halved, with her children, Carol and Mark, set to benefit.’
YCNMIU
Anon1
You’ve fallen silent. I’ll re-state my question:
Austerity policies result in reduced public services and widening inequality. Why do say you “don’t think they go deep enough.”
From Mr Golding:
“The cause célèbre of the right wing establishment is deafening and the media buttress predictably magnifies the demonisation of Russia over Ukraine into a self-perpetuating dynamic.”
Am I the only one on here to find Mr Golding barely understandable most of the time?
One has the impression that his sentences are just a collection of rather hackneyed phrases and expressions put together with little regard for order and compatibility.
Macky
“@Technicolour, I’ve described you as dim before”
___________________
You have indeed, Macky.
But the problem, you see, is that being called dim by you is a virtual guarantee that the person concerned is actually of above-average intelligence.
Was it not Dreoilin who first identified your cutting powers?
The man (Mr Golding)’s talking in tongues again!
“Weighing deeds can be too moving Giyane; we must begin while time allows us to perpend, even then absolution is barely reachable.”
Node
Anon1 : “No, I don’t think they go deep enough.”
Node: “Please explain your statement.”
Sounds fairly clear, Ganglion. What don’t you understand?
http://rt.com/on-air/anti-austerity-rally-london/
Some of the best live reporting coming from the anti-Austerity March and Rally coming from here .
PS / Don’t attack the messanger but address the message .
So the cost to the already over stretched taxpayer for the refurbishment of Westminster is around £7 bn quid,since that’s a government quote you might as well double it.
Why don’t they just demolish Westerminster,and save the poor taxpayer a fortune,l mean it’s not as if it would be missed,afterall it’s not the building per se that count but the decisions made in them.
I’m sure we could find a good use for the land,social housing perhaps and show the people of London that politicians really do care.
I’m sure a petition on 38 degrees would gather enough signatures to warrant,the arrival of the bulldozers.
“You’ve fallen silent. I’ll re-state my question:”
____________________
Node.
Don’t you recognise when someone (in this case Anon1) is taking the piss.
Tell him to f*ck off pronto.
HABBintascoobydoo.
You owe me a answer,with your prickish insinuations,prove your accusations,or apologise.
Well, I don’t understand what you mean by “they don’t go deep enough”. Although it sounds suitably sinister, like Christopher Lee (RIP) in a pair of black marigolds. What else would you cut? And no vague replies, like “hopes, dreams and futures” please. Be specific.
“Some of the best live reporting coming from the anti-Austerity March and Rally coming from here .
PS / Don’t attack the messanger but address the message .”
___________________
Monteverdi
The first mush you see is that of gatekeeper Russell Brand,just look what he did for Ed Milibands career.
He looks pretty pissed off at the event,still, if the multi-millionaire Brand can curry some favour with Joe Bloggs,who knows how much merchandise he could sell.
Here’s a little squib on one of the guilty men (no, he’s not a private banker, just a Greek top civil servant).
“Stournaras to face panel on Siemens, but not on Monday
Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras is willing to appear before Parliament’s institutions committee following the panel’s decision to summon him to testify in connection with the Siemens cash-for-contracts scandal but not on Monday, as requested, because emergency talks on Greece will require him to be on standby, sources close to Stournaras indicated over the weekend.
According to those sources, Stournaras cannot appear before the panel on Monday as he will need to be monitoring the progress of an extraordinary Eurogroup summit in Brussels, followed by a meeting of eurozone leaders and an emergency session of the governing council of the European Central Bank to discuss the state of Greek banks.
The panel decided to call Stournaras, at the recommendation of House Speaker Zoe Constantopoulou, as he signed an out-of-court settlement with the German firm during his stint as finance minister in August 2012.
ekathimerini.com , Saturday June 20, 2015 (18:38)”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ah, Mr Stournaras! I remember him well…..
Of course, he was a lot younger and cockier back at the time when Greece was busily cooking the books in order to meet the Maastricht criteria.
Of course Yiannis – an Oxford DPhil in economics and the then Chairman of the Greek PM’s Council of Economic Advisors – was well-placed to assist the Greek govt’s efforts. And to give the Greek govt. lots of good advice on how to run the economy once in the Euro.
He did quite well (for himself) even later as well – perhaps that was his reward. Finance Minister for a couple of years and then, instead of the sack, translation into the Governor of the Central Bank of Greece.
This is the sort of person who contributed to dragging Greece down into its present crisis. He exemplifies the utter failure of the various Greek elites over the past three and a bit decades.
“So the cost to the already over stretched taxpayer for the refurbishment of Westminster is around £7 bn quid,since that’s a government quote you might as well double it.”
It’s a very old building, given us nearly 200 years of service, bound to need a few repairs.
If it had only been 20 years old and ready for demolition now that would be a scandal.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/cheaper-to-tear-down-scottish-parliament-by-2020-1-3265721
Fred.
It may come as a surprise to you but the Scottish Parliament building is one ugly duckling, I’d be more than pleased to save the taxpayer a few quid by demolishing it,Enrique Mirrales design is hellish looking.
I for one preferred the General Assembly Halls in Edinburgh,located on the mound.
If the Holyrood parliament becomes a “white elephant” to the taxpayer then yes by all means it must go,as I said about Westminster it’s not the building that counts but the decisions made within.
Thanks for all the concerned support, my health is fine, it is that of another person and his needs that needed a hand. But there are tens of thousands of people on the streets marching.
Thanks for the link Mark G. at least you get the flavour of it. Looks like the police has been told to behave themselves, the elections are over.
O/T but pressing are the neocon moves to change US capabilities here in Europe. He says to show support to the fearty Baltic states. With Finland Sweden and Norway next door, all capable of helping out, why should we allow US forces to once again sink us into a cold war situation over which they have no control whatsoever, isn’t that right Bibi?
So lets see whether Merkel will allow this nudging up, is it worth the third water melon? I don’t think so.
If the US wants to tangle with Russia, please use the Bering straight, don’t devastate Europe, fight your fkucing war in your own back yard, you cowards.
How could weapons stationed in Germany be defending Latvia? false, what it will do is target Germany.
Maybe the idea is to cut German economic prowess down a little, some sort of global game.
There is still nothing to persuade me to let Ukraine slip into the EU by the back door entrance of Victoria Nuland….fascist we have a plenty, they are beating up migrants in Athens and they are building fences in Hungary, Europe’s future needs a decisive peace and defense force to sort out this tribal racism, we can’t let these idiots destroy what it took decades to build up.
Those who want to go back to the cold war, please stand up so Putin can see you, you deal with him, don’t expect other countries to field the brunt of war so you can live in platitudes. The last thing Germany wants to do now is follow these psychopath and warmongers like Perle, Jeb Bush and others, these crazies should be put in prison.
Well folks, I’m not playing!
“For German Chancellor Angela Merkel, this prospect is not a pleasant one. She shies away from publicly criticizing her American allies, but Merkel is loathe to do anything that might heat up the conflict with Moscow. Furthermore, a new debate on rearmament would hardly be winnable on a domestic front. The chancellor would potentially look like a puppet of the United States, one who not only allows herself to be spied on, but who also stands by as her carefully established link to Putin is damaged.”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-danger-of-a-new-arms-race-in-europe-versus-russia-a-1039724.html
Question:
In order to stop and then reverse growing earnings disparities, would commenters on here favour
– going down the income tax route to achive a salary ceiling (ie, tax earnings above £x p.a. out of existence or as near as dammit)
or
– applying a system whereby the top salary in any company cannot exceed the (bottom)(average) salary in that company more than x times ?
Technical assistance required, please.
In colour terms my gravatar looks distressingly like that scarf thingy Yasser Arafat used to wins round his head and neck.
That won’t do, of course!
How do I get back that rather fetching (Israeli)blue and white gravatar I used to have?
Thanks.
used to WIND round….
Watching ITV’s national news, the propaganda machine,carried the 250,000 protesters in London story,almost at the end if the programme,the story got about the same airtime as,two clowns tangling up their parachutes,which incidently was the last story.
******************
HABBtheliar.
I’m still waiting.
Habbabkuk, you have just been granted an honorary keffiyeh. Wear it with pride.
“Say it loud! I’m Palestinian and I’m proud!” 🙂
*************
“… but like I said you are exceptionally stupid.” Macky, re. Technicolour.
Macky, that kind of statement has absolutely no basis in reality.
I’m sure it’s water off a duck’s back for Technicolour, who has had much, much worse. It’s fine to be obnoxious to anyone and everyone, to pop people into neat little boxes labelled, ‘Now Hate This!’ and repeatedly to misrepresent people’s views whenever it suits, especially if one is posting anonymously – it really doesn’t take very much courage or thought. But the one thing that can serve as a saving grace is a sense of humour and crucially, a projected insight of one’s own lack of infallibility. Even ‘Larry from St Louis’ had a sense of humour.
There you go, Macky, you’ve been told! 🙂
(Cue: stream of insults from Macky directed against Suhayl)
Republicofscotland
“I’m still waiting.”
___________________
Don’t tell me you’ve missed the bus yet again! 🙂
That’s it. I’ve had enough reading the sick bastards on this blog and thous who entertain them.
Money from nothing, cheques for free
We need austerityyyyyy
Money from nothing.
And i’m sick of all you fucking wana be politicians, who never mention the mention the fact of this slave system because it’s in your interests, (along with the banks and press). Not to.
Truth is your both as bad as eachother, Banks and politicians living off public degradation. Pretending like your doing some good, do us all a favour and put a fucking gun to your head. As if your couldn’t spill the beans and at least act like it’s intolerable. But again, you must see a future and don’t have to live with nothing, no home, no further expect what can sustain life from day to day. “In your limbs, as in a cell, For the tyrants’ use to dwell”.
I’d put you all in a factory, take always your home and any family prospects, then we’d see some action. Sick of you so called left (all you can hope for is incremental “progression”) wankers.
And no you don’t understand, your not part of my class, or so you think.
As if anyone with any self respect would continue entertaining the fucker on this blog, like life’s clear injustice. It’s not like society is a bit wrong it’s upside-down.
Dear CM. Off point but your web site gets a lot of traffic and I think it might be helpful to describe Trident as the 21st Century MAGINOT LINE, which it most surely is, this is a reference that would be well understood by many of the population who think nuclear subs have any value. If the comparison could gain any currency it would be helpful.
Goodbye Ishmael.
Scotland voted for the “genuine left wing alternative” precisely
because they knew it would have no consequences. They did not vote for
independence because they knew that independence would have drastic consequences.
The SNP’s success in the general election represents Scotland’s
embracing of its victimhood while it continues to take English money.
A Union with this whiny and selfish country is of dubious value; like
Mr Murray, I look forward to Scotland’s departure, though for rather
different reasons.