I am unreservedly delighted at Jeremy Corbyn’s election. He made a quite excellent speech, specifically rejecting an attack on Syria, marketization in the NHS and the new anti-union legislation. Hopefully the scale of his victory will give pause to the Blairites who will realise they are not as all-important as they thought.
There is no doubt whatsoever that the vast majority of the Labour establishment, as represented by the people in that hall, are hostile to Corbyn. The question now is whether Corbyn can overhaul party mechanisms in such a way as to bring the opinions of the membership to bear on policy and override that right wing “elite” who have been in charge of the party.
The first few weeks are key. Most Blairites are above all careerists. If they think Corbyn can carry through his personal dominance into control of policy and party mechanisms, then many of the Blairites will look at their constituency members and suddenly discover they had left-wing principles after all. If the Blairites think that a resistance and undermining campaign against Corbyn will succeed (and there will certainly be one), they will go for that. In short, most “Blairites” are out for themselves and will join what they perceive will be the winning side Corbyn’s winning margin, and the fact he won overwhelmingly among full members, gives him a very strong base.
I have shared anti-war and pro-Palestinian platforms with Jeremy, and have the greatest respect for him. I also expect that he will have the strength to stand against both the smothering blandishments and the attacks of the neo-con establishment. The “Corbyn’s election is a disaster” narrative is being pushed by the BBC relentlessly in every question and comment – for example they just asked Ed Miliband “In retrospect was it a mistake for you to resign the day after the election?”, the clear sub-text being that Corbyn’s election was undesirable.
Ever since I realised that Blair’s New Labour was entirely subservient to the neo-con agenda I have regarded Labour as the enemy, as a fake opposition so close to the Tories as to make no difference. I viewed its leadership as utterly unscrupulous careerists fully signed up to a vicious pro-wealthy agenda at home and completely subservient to US/Israeli foreign policy abroad. This new careerism tied in very nicely with a pre-existing rotten borough corruption in Scotland and Northern England. I utterly detested the Labour Party.
So it is difficult for me to find the Labour Party led by a man whom I know, nuch respect, and with whom I disagree on almost nothing except Scottish independence. I also continue to believe that once consolidated, Jeremy will make it clear he has no hostility to Scottish independence and will support a second referendum whenever the Scottish government wants it.
But the problem is that the Labour Party hierarchy, and particularly their parliamentary party, is still full of people who are neo-cons, Red Tories, appallingly corrupt, careerists and in several cases war criminals. To know what attitude to adopt to the Labour Party must depend on how the battle for control of the party pans out. The scale of Corbyn’s victory, and the total rejection of the direct interference of Tony Blair, give Corbyn a great start. Those Blairite bastions – the Guardian and the BBC – are spluttering incoherently.
Jeremy Corbyn has just won the battle for party leadership. But the battle for control of the Labour Party just started.
Mistletoe
Yes, and there were mining disasters in France, Germany, Poland,Belgium and just about every other country with a coal mining industry in the C19 and C20.
Your point in posting the poem at this juncture in the thread – just to tell us that coal mining was (is) dangerous?
BBC 14 March 2009:
“Former NUM leader Arthur Scargill has paid tribute to the two miners who died during the pit strikes 25 years ago.
David Gareth Jones, from Wakefield, died amid violent scenes outside Ollerton colliery in Nottinghamshire on 15 March 1984.
On 15 June Joe Green was crushed to death by a lorry while picketing in Ferrybridge, West Yorkshire.
At a memorial lecture in Barnsley, Mr Scargill said the men paid the “ultimate price” for their cause.
Wreaths were laid at a memorial for Mr Jones and Mr Green outside the Miners’ Hall in Victoria Road, Barnsley.
About 400 then packed the hall to listen to Mr Scargill.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7943918.stm
“The tide of extremist party members who had joined Labour to make Corbyn leader”
lol, tide of extremist.
*sigh* Who the hell rights this stuff? Pathological profit killers destroying the earth and any chance of good future, with constant war for company..
Mark, you mean ‘we’ don’t realise yet, how longs it been…
Well i’ll leave, perhaps for a few years until some catch up, And decide what example they wana set, that’s clearly tied whose side they promote. Yes we’ve all got more stuff to realise….
that’s clearly tied to* who’s side they promote
From Mark Golding’s link, now this ia fucking disaster, what would the freeloading privateers would do, if the railways were back in public ownership? Oh the humanity!
These tossers are so out of touch that they just don’t get it, the reason people want Corbyn is the extortion rackets that are running under the law. Deregulation of the city has meant loan sharks are no longer operating the in the shadows and are advertising on the telly!
People are tired of crack smoking economic advisors considering the drugs trade and prostitution as part of the GDP!
Talk about fucking degrees of disconnect; Germany 200 Euros (£147) buys a season ticket for national railway network for a month. Here that is barely sufficient to get to London on a single journey. How is that for private company efficiency?
Then there is the gas racket, electricity racket, water racket, insurance racket, ………..
Mistletoe wrote
“Purdon (ex-Durham miner) wrote and sang of many mining disasters, such as Easington, 1961. Almost invariably *cost-cutting* by the mine owners was to blame.”
immediately followed by
“Easington Colliery was one of the most* modern* and productive mines in Europe.”
Billy Bragg is a fraud and a hypocrite. He pretends blue-collar sympathies because it sells his dirge-like music. Where has he been the last 20 years? Demanding more left-wing policies? No, he’s been schmoozing with the champagne socialists and selling out the Palestinians to assure himself regular exposure on Question Time. He’s a talentless media whore who prospers by promoting himself as the champion of the Common Man.
If he was really what he pretends to be, he wouldn’t be the darling of the media that he is.
” economic advisors considering the drugs trade and prostitution as part of the GDP! ”
_____________________
Well, the OECD considers – whether you like it or not – the drugs trade and prostitution as goods and services and therefore part of GDP.
By the way, Fedup, did you know that prostitutes pay income tax in several European mainland countries?
Don’t know though whether they are also liable for VAT.
Sorry, my “a” tags above were ill-formed.
Bolton…
Easington…
Much on the web about these and many others, for the sake of a quick search.
Worst mining disaster in UK history occurred in Senghenydd, Glamorgan, in 1913, killing 439 men and boys.
Worst in Scotland (in which two of my own great-great uncles succumbed as lads) was the Blantyre Explosion in Lanarkshire in 1877 – 240 killed.
Christy Moore and Dick Gaughan and others have sung about this one.
361 killed in 1866 at Oaks Pit, in Barnsley, Yorkshire
295 killed in 1894 at Albion Colliery in Cilfynydd, Glamorgan
270 killed in 1878 at Prince of Wales Colliery, in Abercarn, Monmouthshire
etc. etc.
As Jonas Kaufman sang gloriously tonight: Britons never [never] will be slaves (c) 1895
Well, at least there’s someone now ‘officially’ batting against slavery & endless war, for the time being
(JC not JK, naturlich, tho’ JK is equally as impressive – but domiciled in Zürich, not Islington)
P.s. Mark Golding, when the spooks phone me up they use an 0345 number! I record them, we can trade voice-prints if you like
For people who wish to join-in the fun, just install S/MIME certificates & PGP for your mail, exchange random heavily encrypted shopping lists & opera libretti with family & colleagues and you too can field calls from Gloucestershire.
Babbling Brook… “Almost invariably *cost-cutting* by the mine owners was to blame.” immediately followed by “Easington Colliery was one of the most* modern* and productive mines in Europe.”
Unfortunately for those who died there, Easington Colliery’s modern and productive status didn’t make it immune to costcutting by its owners. Simples, see?
YouKnowMyName
12/09/2015 10:46pm
My brother Peter was playing saxophone and clarinet at that concert tonight! Ever so proud of him.
Kind regards,
John
BBC suggesting that JC will “print money” and that may cause inflation. Maybe but George has been printing billions and BBC collude in calling it QE. Subtle signs JC is not approved of. I don’t approve of all his policies (quite a few to say the least) but its gt to see JC break through the barriers. I hope he has got it takes to hold on to his chance and not get squashed by those who piggy back. He looks like a man with some backbone.
Node
Great Stuff
Brag’s Poetry is Crap
Alcyone
Nice swipe at RobG but you really shouldn’t bother. The guy’s not serious and is only on here because he’s bored and looking for a laugh.
Not an Original Troll, just a Poitou-Charentes exile renting out part of his cheap French pad which he bought with the proceeds of the sale of his expensive English one and a lot left over for hectolitres of inexpensive pinard.
A good night to all (except the Original Trolls).
I do actually have some sympathy for the trolls at this moment in time, and the guilt stuff they must be going through. For some reason I’m drawn to the opening part of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. It’s all sung in German, and I’m sure Nige will translate…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1&v=pf4UNJqv_-A
Mistletoe
“Unfortunately for those who died there, Easington Colliery’s modern and productive status didn’t make it immune to costcutting by its owners. Simples, see?”
________________
I see that you might have a point there.
To help me see even better, and since you obviously know quite lot about mining disasters in general and the Easington one in particular, could you go into a little more detail about what costs the owners were cutting and how that cost-cuttint was related to the disaster?
Thanks in advance.
Ever been to Easington?
That village was once a proud community with a purposeful village life, then it was gutted, destroyed, and left to rot! Because MacGregor came to fuck up the steel, coal and shipbuilding, to save the fucking city!
All those thriving communities, Wingate, Easington,…. all were destroyed. Now the coal is imported into Newcastle, there used to be an aphorism; “taking coals to Newcastle”! That has come to pass, and it happens weekly now! The communities paid for the City to remain safe from any ambitious European.
These tossers are talking as though we the people have not seen the fucked up privatisation and have not come to suffer because of it.
John Spencer-Davis …Orgreave…
It’s good to see that slowly inching towards honest investigation. Eventually truth will out, Murdoch or none.
” Purdon (ex-Durham miner) wrote and sang of many mining disasters, such as Easington, 1961. Almost invariably cost-cutting by the mine owners was to blame. ”
As already mentioned 1951 not 1961.
Like every other British coal mine Easington was nationalised in 1947.
With Tom Watson the new deputy leader of Labour, the Westminster pedophiles — and Murdoch too, for that matter — may have a great deal more reason to feel uneasy.
“But the fact that most of the murder theories seem to involve Robin Janvrin certainly helps persuade me they are not true.”
If it had been tabled at the Way Ahead Group meeting, would he have refused to put Queen and Country first? Resigned? Reported the crime of incitement to murder?
The ‘queen’ even stopped off at the Fort before going up to Balmoral.
Adams, McGuinness, Kirchner and Hamas all backing Jeremy now. Worse still, Ed Miliband has offered his full support.
I’m not sure how anyone here could knock Billy Bragg.
(close your ears)
I first saw this bloke at the Hammersmith Odeon back in the 1980s. One guy on stage, on his own with a guitar. It was some of the best performances I’ve ever seen.
Island Of No Return (when no one else was doing this stuff)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCnLkQsuBfE
Meanwhile pro-Corby demonstrators demand thousands more migrants. This isn’t going to end well.
Anon1 and Kempe, not to mention Habba, you do realise that you are comic book characters, don’t you?
RobG
He wasn’t supported by “Porky the Poet” (now Phill Jupitus), was he? That’s where I saw him myself.
Kind regards,
John
“I’m not sure how anyone here could knock Billy Bragg.”
I could. He espouses socialism for the masses whilst living in an extensive seaside mansion in Dorset.
From the same dm farticle as before!
Oh the humanity!
One direction leaving ……. that is it, my hear ti brok………
“With Tom Watson the new deputy leader of Labour, the Westminster pedophiles — and Murdoch too, for that matter — may have a great deal more reason to feel uneasy.”
Just as long as it’s not Labour pedophiles or Mirror Group hacking we’re dealing with, eh Tom?