Alex Callinicos/SWP vs Laurie Penny/New Statesman Facebook handbags

[frogwoman]

Our guest writers and contributors include:

Iain Duncan Smith

Laurie, Laurie, Laurie

 

[DotCommunist]

opinion was already formed. Thats why we all laughed at his crying to music

 

[Tom A]

People from poorer background give more proportionally to charitable courses than the affluent. They're also more likely to donate.

I used to be quite charitable, once upon a time, buying the big issue, dropping the odd pound into a tin (of course these days it's all about chuggers badgering you to set up regular direct debits ), and such like. Then my income plummeted dramatically after leaving uni, so charity began at home. Then I realised that a lot of these charities aren't really all they are cracked up to be, with all the "pity porn" designed to guilt trip you into giving "just twooooo pounds a month... pleaaaaase, open your heart!", yet the problem continues as it has done for decades. It's almost like... the charities don't want to solve the problem... because that would put them out of business.

 

[frogwoman]

OMG, listen from 5 mins on - the ambitious. Jesus fucking christ.

people like us, who expect to be in the global 10% to 1% of global society

plainly not one of the "99%" then

 

[Firky]

I used to be quite charitable, once upon a time, buying the big issue, dropping the odd pound into a tin (of course these days it's all about chuggers badgering you to set up regular direct debits ), and such like. Then my income plummeted dramatically after leaving uni, so charity began at home. Then I realised that a lot of these charities aren't really all they are cracked up to be, with all the "pity porn" designed to guilt trip you into giving "just twooooo pounds a month... pleaaaaase, open your heart!", yet the problem carries as it has done for decades. It's almost like... the charities don't want to solve the problem... because that would put them out of business.

I got people to sponsor a holiday in a developing country in the name of charity. It's great. I really discovered myself.

Got some of my mates to take a photo of me being hugged by scruffy local kids for extra kudos.

 

[sihhi]

Cowabunga and labour leaders there.

"Rachel Johnson may not seem the most likely person to offer a searing indictment of the class system. But that is what she does." (Owen Jones, Chavs)



Rachel Johnson, family connections aside, editor of the Lady (sits on a board room) novelist and married to boss of the National Trust's media and communications division Ivo Dawnay, also sits on a board room, both accepting of free trips just like that to Colombia by the Daily Mail:

To cope with Rachel’s social withdrawal symptoms, I indulgently allowed her to set up a Miami dinner with a Caribbean legend, Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, the founder of Sandals, who just happened to be in town.
Then I discovered she had already wheedled a night in the uber-fashionable, newly-opened, seven-star luxurious Soho Beach House. We had a penthouse suite the size of a tennis court.
To my relief, an evening stroll through the bar revealed no one she knew. But at breakfast Tom Parker Bowles, food guru and stepson of the Prince of Wales, strolled over for a chat.

Over the next ten days, we flopped from boutique-hotel to boutique hotel, sampling the relaxed lifestyles of the old Spanish caudillos.
We stayed at the impeccable El Marques, the startlingly pretty Ananda and, my favourite, the ancient Casa Pestagua. Each had once been the private home of a colonial grandee and now offered five-star luxury. So what to do — apart, that is, from checking the ME-dia (Rachel’s joke for news alerts about herself)? In truth, the sights are the city itself.

In fact a front row of :

L-R

Camille Batmangelidjh onetime mates with Cameron, still a panhandler to private schools and financial firm foundations network for her efforts for working class youth vanity project, Businesswoman of the Year 2009 apparently.

Tessa Jowell, voted for invasion of Iraq, "would jump under a bus" for Blair-level of Blairite, a governor of the Ditchley Foundation ie on its boardroom.

Michael Beloff, a Master of the Bench, also a friend of Blair, guest at Chequers level, supporter of Iraq invasion

Cindy Gallop, advertising executive, formerly US operations chief of Bartle Bogle Hegarty - an important advertising agency famous for doing massive multinational Unilever's account, inlcuding Axe (Lynx in the UK) - with the notoriously sexist advertising, now CEO of her own firm Cindy Gallop LLC

"Madam President" (note, not just President) of the Oxford Union

Edwina Currie, helped Norman Fowler murder the NHS under Thatcher, Ayn Rand fan etc

Rachel Johnson [see above]

Natalie Bennett, former editor of the Guardian Weekly, GMG's product for Europe, now full-time politico on the subs of Green Party members as its Leader (no longer the Principal Speaker), on the right of the party

Laurie Penny

Nearly every single companion has been or is currently in a board room.

 

[sihhi]

people like us, who expect to be in the global 10% to 1% of global society

plainly not one of the "99%" then

No it's specifically saying 90-98.9% - ie don't worry you aren't the real elite.

 

[Tom A]

I got people to sponsor a holiday in a developing country in the name of charity. It's great. I really discovered myself.

Got some of my mates to take a photo of me being hugged by scruffy local kids for extra kudos.

Up against the wall with you, you scummy trustifarian voluntourist!

 

[frogwoman]

.

 

[muscovyduck]

.

Just a question about the forum in general, why do people post full stops every now and again?

 

[weepiper]

Just a question about the forum in general, why do people post full stops every now and again?

It means they've though better of a post and edited it. I think you should put it back though frogs, it was good and extremely relevant

 

[cesare]

it's like they gathered up the very worst of the guardian readership, and made a magazine just for them.

The Guardian predates the Fabians, never realised that until just now.

 

[rekil]

people like us, who expect to be in the global 10% to 1% of global society

plainly not one of the "99%" then

"We! Are! The 9.9%!"

 

[Firky]

It means they've though better of a post and edited it. I think you should put it back though frogs, it was good and extremely relevant

The days when you couldn't edit a post you made the night before when you were drunk... aaggghh!

 

[Firky]

I have been reading though that media pack for the NS and it's demoralising.

 

[cesare]

I have been reading though that media pack for the NS and it's demoralising.

Why?

 

[Firky]

Probably reading too much into it, but it makes me angry that such a powerful demographic of readers are looking at Nick Lezard, Laurie Penny, et al and thinking they're the voice of the left, that they're the catalyst for change. And as this thread demonstrates, it's far from it - and yet when they see real ordinary people like the people on this thread, they just dismiss them entirely or insult them. I find it depressing.

 

[sihhi]

I have been reading though that media pack for the NS and it's demoralising.

"77% of readers are more likely than average to spend £2,500+ per person on a holiday abroad"

Says it all. Three quarters of readership are middle-class, one-quarter not.

 

[Firky]

"77% of readers are more likely than average to spend £2,500+ per person on a holiday abroad"

Says it all. Three quarters of readership are middle-class, one-quarter not.

Were those your photos of the adverts in NS, sihhi? I am quite curious to see what else they have.

The helicopter advert may have had something to do with the recent privatisation of the RAF Sea King rescue helicopters.

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/british-searchandrescue-a-billion-pound-partnership-02271/

March 26/13: SAR-H winner. The UK’s Department for Transport awards Bristow Helicopters Ltd. the SAR-H contract, a GBP 1.6 billion deal to replace the British Armed Forces’ Sea Kings with a privately-operated service of 22 SAR helicopters from April 2015 – 2026. The service won’t become fully operational until summer 2017. Bristow will continue to operate S-92 helicopters as their long-range fleet, but their other fleet will eventually replace CHC’s contracted 7-tonne AW139s with their own 8-tonne AW189 machines. The AW189 is a new type, launched in June 2011 as a bigger and more robust offering for the oil and gas industry, SAR roles, etc. The AW189′s assembly center will be at Yeovil in Somerset facility, and Bristow expects to have 350 jobs in its SAR-H team.


Bristow Group Inc. in Houston, TX has a long history of SAR services through its UK subsidiary, beginning in 1971 and extending to 2007, when CHC took the Coast Guard’s contract away from them. Over that history, their helicopters have flown more than 44,000 SAR operational hours in the UK, and conducted over 15,000 SAR missions. UK Government

| UK Dept. for Transport

|AgustaWestland

| Bristow

,

 

[sihhi]

Were those your photos of the adverts in NS, sihhi? I am quite curious to see what else they have.

A mate's camera from a public library - all from the centenary issue - features proper articles from Boris Johnson, Vince Cable, Douglas Hurd, Zac Goldsmith and Michael Gove. Most of it not online turned it into some kind of bumper issue.

I too doubt the NS was giving much space to anticapitalists? J18 types in the mid-90s like what treelover seemed to suggest, but it's becoming something else now in the midst of this recession.

 

[J Ed]

A mate's camera from a public library - all from the centenary issue - features proper articles from Boris Johnson, Vince Cable, Douglas Hurd, Zac Goldsmith and Michael Gove. Most of it not online turned it into some kind of bumper issue.

I too doubt the NS was giving much space to anticapitalists? J18 types in the mid-90s like what treelover seemed to suggest, but it's becoming something else now in the midst of this recession.

I wonder how much of that is down to the people who buy it, surely most people who read the NS are commuters and/or people who frequently travel by plane... people don't but stuff like this anymore I don't think, why would you?

 

[Brainaddict]

people like us, who expect to be in the global 10% to 1% of global society

plainly not one of the "99%" then

tbf, most posters on this thread probably are, or have been, or will be, in the top 10% globally at some point in their lives. I seem to remember the level is around $30,000 a year. Within the boundaries of britain it's not a particularly elitist category.

As an aside, one of many things the 99% idea obscured was that we workers in the top 10%-15% globally can't necessarily easily aligned our interests with the global working class - who support our lifestyles as well as those of our masters.

I've made a comment about class so now butchersapron will come and be mean to me.

 

[equationgirl]

"77% of readers are more likely than average to spend £2,500+ per person on a holiday abroad"

Says it all. Three quarters of readership are middle-class, one-quarter not.

How much???!!!

I can think of many things to do with that kind of money before blowing it on a holiday.

 

[Steel Icarus]

Hello there.
Sometime lurker, first time poster.

Here is Laurie Penny speaking truth to power at the Oxford Union:



Trigger Warning: she's pretty radical, you might not be able to handle it. She also swears at one point.

That's pretty fucking vile. From the Sarah Teather school of comedy, and the Steven Fry school of in-depth political insight. "People like us". Look at them. Look at them cheering her claim to be a revolutionary socialist as she bangs on about getting to the top of society. It's embarrassing.

 

[equationgirl]

Point to note: There's a ton of bribery accusations surrounding both Finnmeccanica and Agusta Westland over alleged bribes for Indian govenermnet helicopter sales. Also joint venture negotiations with Embraer have been abruptly terminated:

http://australianaviation.com.au/2013/04/embraeragustawestland-cancel-joint-venture-negotiations/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/23/finmeccanica-results-idUSL6N0DA4KO20130423

 

[rekil]

"Madam President" (note, not just President) of the Oxford Union

Maria Rioumine - "Oxford PPE student, @OxfordUnion President, Muscovite"

Rich Ambitious Russian parents?

 

[andysays]

OK, I know I got into trouble the last time I made allusions/extrapolations on the back of that you-tube vid, but if Laurie's going on about ambition, does anyone think she's a fan of Subway Sect?



"And I won't be tempted by vile evils. Because vile evils are vile evils..."

 

[rekil]

John Flansburgh from They Might Be Giants has a brother called "Paxus Calta".

Calta authored a pamphlet about polyamory which has been translated into 5 languages. Calta considers himself an anarchist and is the principal organizer of the Fingerbook Propaganda Project, which produces and distributes "Fingerbooks" (small handbooks) on consensus decision-making, designing revolutions, polyamory, and intentional communities.

He has also been a member of Twin Oaks Community since 1998, serving as the community's recruiting manager, manager of outside work and a general manager of Twin Oaks Hammocks, Inc. He has appeared on both CNN and Voice of America videos discussing the community.

I didn't know this. Last one to Twin Oaks Community is an uptight heteronormative sheeple.

 

[treelover]

Rhian E Jones grew up in south Wales and now lives in London, where she writes on history, politics, popular culture and the places where they intersect. She has been a student politician, receptionist, data enterer, welfare adviser, shop assistant and freelance historian. Find her blog here

December 12, 2012
Class, feminism and other intersections.

This is a now outdated post written for Bad Reputation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/26/peoples-assembly-revive-chartist-spirit

http://rhianejones.com/about-rhian-e-jones/

new working class interesting face on the block?

be good to see her on here

 

[sihhi]

Rich Ambitious Russian parents?

I think we have found a new male version of LP, he's the successor to the current Oxford Union president, Birmingham Joseph D'Urso, P-P-E student, former student at Sixth Form College Solihull, middle-class Birmingham place, 52 choices for A-Level plus International Baccalauerates, resident of King's Norton south of Selly Oak, fairly middle-class area.

Away from Cambridge, Joseph D’Urso, aged 17, from Kings Norton, keeps Oxford in the frame after getting an A* in politics, as well as A grades in modern history and mathematics to secure a place at New College to study economics.
Over the past 10 years, nearly 100 students from The Sixth Form College, Solihull have secured Oxbridge places. College Principal Paul Ashdown explained that the competition has got tougher and tougher.
“We start preparing students for Oxbridge applications about halfway through their first year with us,” he said. “It is vital that they do extra work over the summer to set themselves apart from the crowd."

A contributor at Left Foot Forward

Here he is fighting against "the gratuitous and undemocratic austerity reforms imposed by Brussels"

The key issue underlying the current Eurozone crisis seems to be that setting fiscal and monetary policy in different places is fundamentally inconsistent. The political will to keep the failing Euro project ongoing is proving resilient. The Spanish left ought to find a voice independent of the bellicose trade unions and accept the need for labour market reform, before fighting against the gratuitous and undemocratic austerity reforms imposed by Brussels which are failing to help elsewhere. These vital structural changes must come about before arguments against Rajoy’s other reforms are taken seriously.

'a voice independent of the bellicose trade unions'

Good at reporting on riots:

Joseph D’Urso, a second year PPE student at New College who lives in Birmingham, described Monday night’s riots in his home town, saying, “a huge number of people gathered, and started rampaging through the city centre, smashing up shops and looting. Public transport was cut at about 10pm and it was impossible to get taxis so the entire inner ring road was like a warzone, poorly policed and with no transport. Looting continued until 3ish.”

Here he is buttering up David 'shell-suited hippos' Aaronovitch:

Joseph D'Urso
@DAaronovitch are you still in Oxford? disappeared after the debate, I meant to give you a termcard, come back for whatever you like!

David Aaronovitch ‏@DAaronovitch 26 Nisan
Gone ! 1000 word review to finish. Thanks again.

Joseph D'Urso ‏@jmdurso best of luck with it!