Labour Shame

[johnnystress]

cool- missed this story but RTE radio1 will be interviewing this geezer in a while..

and so a hero of the common people is born

[johnnystress]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/johnnystress/Wolfgang.jpg">

[Noisybast]

In loosely related news, did anyone see the Tony Blair impersonator that wants to be the new Tory leader?
Spooky. He's obviously been studying Blair for quite some time, and he's got all the mannerisms down pat...

[Will I. Cooling]

"In loosely related news, did anyone see the Tony Blair impersonator that wants to be the new Tory leader?
Spooky. He's obviously been studying Blair for quite some time, and he's got all the mannerisms down pat..."

Its funny because its true!!!


" he was also then questioned by police under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. "

This is the important bit; everyone's naturally treating this as a slightly amusing story but the actions of the police were disgraceful. To act in such a political motivated way to spare our blessed leaders from any criticisms shows why they shouldn't be trusted with any of the new powers they would dearly like to have. I'm eagerly awaiting how Blair manages to force through the new anti-terrorism legislation on the grounds the "police want it" and it won't be misused.

Will

[Generally Contrary]

A few points; you do realise how widely defined terrorism is in British law?  Basically, it includes any form a protest that is disruptive.  This grants the police tremendous powers, but we are reassured that they won't be using them against all actions that can be defined as terrorist.  So the police not only have tremendous powers, but are encouraged to arbitrarily apply them.  And that is generous; a cynic would suggest that there will be nothing arbitrary about the use of these powers.

Bah!

Aside from that, we have Labour ministers basically saying that they don't want unions making policy, that union ties are old-fashioned.  Fine, but this is the Labour Party - the clue is in the name.  And then they say that they are not keen on the (rapidly falling) membership deciding policy, with goons like Patricia Hewitt disregarding the conference vote.  So what is the wheeze to make up for all the troublesome members who have left (or been expelled)?  Create new 'members', call them supporters, take their money and demand their help but give them no say in the running of the party.  What crap.

Why did these people join the Labour Party - a socialist party organised around unions?  Where is the party for me?  And more, haven't they missed the point about the tradition of the Labour Party - it was a means of introducing participation in democracy to the ordinary man and women by union and party membership?

Bah! and double Bah!

Link: http://bartlettsbizarrebazaar.blogspot.com/2005/07/arbitrary-law.html" target="_blank">Arbitrary Law

[Dudley]

My big question is: what the fuck are the unions playing at?  Why not give the money to the Greens and shaft Blair where it hurts?

[opaque]

Maybe the unions should just support (and also tell their members to support) the Lib Dems next time round, give the Labour party a kick up the arse?

[Steve Green]

I watched Blair being interviewed after this incident, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A question came up that he didn't like or disagreed with the interviewer, and rather than argue the point he just dismissed it with "Whatever..."

This is supposed to be the leader of our country, not some disinterested teenager.

And Ian McCartney looks like a hobbit.

- Steve

[Will I. Cooling]

"Maybe the unions should just support (and also tell their members to support) the Lib Dems next time round, give the Labour party a kick up the arse?"

And lose their precious voting rights? Never! This is where the Brown/Blair split really benefits New Labour; Brown keeps the Unions and the left in the "big tent" as they all desperately hang in expectation of the inevitable Brown Government. The Unions will never leave a Blair led Government because they want to maintain influence for when he leaves. What's more Blair could/would probably just retaliate by either getting more bussiness support or introducing state funding of political parties.

I think the tragedy of the 2005 election was that it didn't produce the hung parliament that the public voted for. If that had have happened we'd have probably seen Blair do a "Loyld George/MacDonald" and take a section of his party to form a coalition with the Tories. Then the left-wing of Britain and right-wing of Britain would finally see they've been run by a class of professional politicans who believe in nearly the same damn things.

Will