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BBC - Owen Jones

Smokeandsteam said:
Despite coming from a senior Spiked contributor this is spot on:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/b...tic-tribe-to-be-fawned-over-and-photographed/

"So his starting point is pity, not solidarity, a lofty Dickens-like concern for the down-at-heel rather than any experience or understanding of working people’s resourcefulness. To Mr Jones, the miners of Durham are just more vulnerable people to be fawned over, congratulated for surviving.
Of course, Mr Jones isn’t the only young Leftist who looks upon working people as ordinary yet heroic, savage as well as noble. Who can forget when the radical anti-tax dodging collective UK Uncut invited its impeccably middle-class members to attend one of its demos “dressed as a worker” – a PC version of blacking up. Or when a Royal College of Art Student designed “Arthur Scargill chic” clothes, including a green donkey jacket and tatty bobble hats, for youths to dress up in. It seems that for the new generation of Leftists, born after the political defeat of working-class movements, workers are just odd creatures from a bygone era, whose hilarious styles we should copy and whose sad, little villages we should visit and check into on Facebook."
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I agree, if by 'spot on' you mean 'a laughable caricature'.
 
Smokeandsteam said:
Despite coming from a senior Spiked contributor this is spot on:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/b...tic-tribe-to-be-fawned-over-and-photographed/

"So his starting point is pity, not solidarity, a lofty Dickens-like concern for the down-at-heel rather than any experience or understanding of working people’s resourcefulness. To Mr Jones, the miners of Durham are just more vulnerable people to be fawned over, congratulated for surviving.
Of course, Mr Jones isn’t the only young Leftist who looks upon working people as ordinary yet heroic, savage as well as noble. Who can forget when the radical anti-tax dodging collective UK Uncut invited its impeccably middle-class members to attend one of its demos “dressed as a worker” – a PC version of blacking up. Or when a Royal College of Art Student designed “Arthur Scargill chic” clothes, including a green donkey jacket and tatty bobble hats, for youths to dress up in. It seems that for the new generation of Leftists, born after the political defeat of working-class movements, workers are just odd creatures from a bygone era, whose hilarious styles we should copy and whose sad, little villages we should visit and check into on Facebook."
Click to expand...

Hows that spot on? What has the Royal College of Art Student got to do with the left? Why even bring that totally unrelated issue into it if not to be a crude smear attack? Since when was Durham a "sad little village" and since when was the Durham Miners Gala a event to pity the poor workers?

I listened to Owen's speech and I don't think that characterisation of it is at all fair, but then again that's what you'd expect from a shit, crude anti-left propaganda piece from the in-house newspaper of the Conservative party.

It's incredibly revealing how some people will quite happily buy into this reactionary Tory nonsense because they're so desperate to shit on Owen Jones, straining at the leash to find fault even if it means uncritically endorsing the demonstrable bullshit you find on the Telegraph blogs.
 
Smokeandsteam said:
Despite coming from a senior Spiked contributor this is spot on:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/b...tic-tribe-to-be-fawned-over-and-photographed/

"So his starting point is pity, not solidarity, a lofty Dickens-like concern for the down-at-heel rather than any experience or understanding of working people’s resourcefulness. To Mr Jones, the miners of Durham are just more vulnerable people to be fawned over, congratulated for surviving.
Of course, Mr Jones isn’t the only young Leftist who looks upon working people as ordinary yet heroic, savage as well as noble. Who can forget when the radical anti-tax dodging collective UK Uncut invited its impeccably middle-class members to attend one of its demos “dressed as a worker” – a PC version of blacking up. Or when a Royal College of Art Student designed “Arthur Scargill chic” clothes, including a green donkey jacket and tatty bobble hats, for youths to dress up in. It seems that for the new generation of Leftists, born after the political defeat of working-class movements, workers are just odd creatures from a bygone era, whose hilarious styles we should copy and whose sad, little villages we should visit and check into on Facebook."
Click to expand...

In the mid/late 90s, I was a union activist in an unrecognised, white collar workplace with pretty bad terms and conditions and rubbish, vinidictive management. We were trying to recruit members in anticipation of the union recognition rules coming in (and in fact it was one of the first places that won recognition via a ballot :cool:) and as part of this, we were organising a social event with a few other workplaces -- normally it'd be a room in pub with a few sarnies and whatever. A TUC-sponsored union organiser suggested we could entice people along/attract attention by staging a mock picket line outside the venue while wearing flat caps and stuff. To say we were astounded by the shitness of the idea would be an understatement. Believe the person who suggested this has since risen through the ranks. :rolleyes:
 
Delroy Booth said:
Hows that spot on? What has the Royal College of Art Student got to do with the left? Why even bring that totally unrelated issue into it if not to be a crude smear attack? Since when was Durham a "sad little village" and since when was the Durham Miners Gala a event to pity the poor workers?

I listened to Owen's speech and I don't think that characterisation of it is at all fair, but then again that's what you'd expect from a shit, crude anti-left propaganda piece from the in-house newspaper of the Conservative party.

It's incredibly revealing how some people will quite happily buy into this reactionary Tory nonsense because they're so desperate to shit on Owen Jones, straining at the leash to find fault even if it means uncritically endorsing the demonstrable bullshit you find on the Telegraph blogs.
Click to expand...
Especially as the Brendan O'Neill stuff isn't really aimed at Owen Jones, it's aimed at perpetuating the idea that all left-wingers are Hampstead liberals who exoticise the working class. It's about claiming authenticity as the sole preserve of "common-sense" right-wingers.
 
"Mr Jones heaps opprobrium on these folk in his book, accusing them of having been won over by Thatcherite “dog-eat-dog individualism” and failing to celebrate their “working classness” (oh, Jesus)."

The book is written from a middle-class perspective with a middle-class audience but both of those quotes are - massively - out of context. The Blears quote is included with criticism later of how difficult her policies made life for working-class people, how hard retaining pride was after 11 years of Labour as it was when written.

His real-life examples are
1. A single media stunt by one local UK Uncut group outside Nick Clegg's Sheffield home (not a mass protest calling for fancy dress) - a crass action but still one playing to positive attributes of workers unlike the right-wing fancy dress parties full of worker caricatures as feckless alcoholic and lazy.

2. A capitalist firm Burton (part of tax-dodger in chief Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group) using an apolitical rightist fashion designer students to bring out a range of fashion that reappropriates working-class culture for consumption and profit purposes.

And err that's it.

This mountain of evidence gives us the following conclusion which I can't even understand, can you Lo Siento. ?

"for the new generation of Leftists, born after the political defeat of working-class movements, workers are just odd creatures from a bygone era, whose hilarious styles we should copy and whose sad, little villages we should visit and check into on Facebook."
 
sihhi said:
This mountain of evidence gives us the following conclusion which I can't even understand, can you Lo Siento. ?

"for the new generation of Leftists, born after the political defeat of working-class movements, workers are just odd creatures from a bygone era, whose hilarious styles we should copy and whose sad, little villages we should visit and check into on Facebook."
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why he needs to add "for the new generation", people have been running this "Hampstead bleeding heart liberal" schtick for a long time. Nobody in opposition to capitalism is allowed to be "authentic"... if you're middle class, you're a naive idealist (or cynical manipulator), if you're working class, you're self-interested, greedy, envious, violent, chippy etc.
 
Smokeandsteam said:
Despite coming from a senior Spiked contributor this is spot on:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/b...tic-tribe-to-be-fawned-over-and-photographed/

"So his starting point is pity, not solidarity, a lofty Dickens-like concern for the down-at-heel rather than any experience or understanding of working people’s resourcefulness. To Mr Jones, the miners of Durham are just more vulnerable people to be fawned over, congratulated for surviving.
Of course, Mr Jones isn’t the only young Leftist who looks upon working people as ordinary yet heroic, savage as well as noble. Who can forget when the radical anti-tax dodging collective UK Uncut invited its impeccably middle-class members to attend one of its demos “dressed as a worker” – a PC version of blacking up. Or when a Royal College of Art Student designed “Arthur Scargill chic” clothes, including a green donkey jacket and tatty bobble hats, for youths to dress up in. It seems that for the new generation of Leftists, born after the political defeat of working-class movements, workers are just odd creatures from a bygone era, whose hilarious styles we should copy and whose sad, little villages we should visit and check into on Facebook."
Click to expand...

See bold.

Anybody else remember that story of a couple of RCP members donning nurse's uniforms when attending a NHS demo back in the day?

O'Neill is ex-RCP.
 
I was thinking in terms of Which appearance was this? Is this slander or truth?

"No, trolling would be going on national TV & blaming Islamism purely on foreign policy."
from @__Hari__ #Antitheist. Pro #EU. #LGBT Ally. Social #Liberal. #Feminist. #Secularist.
missing out by not being on twitter to ask :mad:
 
Whether or not one subscribes to Jone's particular brand of old labour reformism I think he is sincere and honest in his beliefs whereas James Bloodworth is a fraud of the highest order. He's a rightwing contrarian piece of tory shit posing as a leftist about as convincingly as that Brandon o'Neil (?) twat.
 
Bloodworth is the Independent's new Hari. A plagiarist. Spot the difference.

James Bloodworth (2010):

It may sound far-fetched today, but when troops and tanks suddenly appear at Heathrow, when private armies are openly talked about; and when the support of the Royal Family is being canvassed, we are not far from the abyss.
Click to expand...

http://socialistunity.com/when-democracy-goes-too-far/

John Booth (2006)

When troops and tanks suddenly appear at Heathrow, when private armies are being openly talked about and the support of the Royal Family is being canvassed, we are not far from the abyss.
Click to expand...

http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/mar2008/wilson_1974.html
 
sihhi said:
I was thinking in terms of Which appearance was this? Is this slander or truth?

"No, trolling would be going on national TV & blaming Islamism purely on foreign policy."
from @__Hari__ #Antitheist. Pro #EU. #LGBT Ally. Social #Liberal. #Feminist. #Secularist.
missing out by not being on twitter to ask :mad:
Click to expand...

Someone said Bloodworth's piece was just trolling OJ, then this hari person defends bloodworth. It's nonsense.
 
Jeff Robinson said:
Whether or not one subscribes to Jone's particular brand of old labour reformism I think he is sincere and honest in his beliefs whereas James Bloodworth is a fraud of the highest order. He's a rightwing contrarian piece of tory shit posing as a leftist about as convincingly as that Brandon o'Neil (?) twat.
Click to expand...


He's certainly an odd one, although is adamant that Brendal O'Neill is the troll and not him:

http://www.leftfootforward.org/2013...ll-the-five-stupidest-brendan-oneill-articles

This article to extend grammar schools and free schools takes the biscuit:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices...-got-it-wrong-on-grammar-schools-8448381.html
 
 
smokedout said:
was just going to mention that
http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/hounslow-council-run-foodbank-shuns-undeserving-poor/

http://www.leftfootforward.org/2013/06/hounslow-foodbank-rejects-undeserving-poor/
Click to expand...

A recently formed foodbank - jointly run by Hounslow Council - have rules stating they will not help people with ‘chaotic’ lifestyles or those who have had benefits sanctioned.
Click to expand...

A new council-run foodbank in Hounslow has rules stating that they will not give food to people with “chaotic lifestyles” or those who have had their benefits sanctioned.
Click to expand...


Hounslow Community Foodbox was established as a partnership between local tenants and residents groups and Hounslow Council, and is chaired by Labour Party Councillor Steve Curran.
Click to expand...
Hounslow Community Foodbox was recently set up in a partnership between Hounslow Council and local tenants and resident groups. It is chaired by Labour Party councillor Steve Curran.
Click to expand...



Hundreds of thousands of benefit sanctions are currently being handed out every month with Jobcentre staff believed to be working to unofficial targets to stop as many claims as possible. Claimants can be sanctioned for something as simple as missing a meeting, being unable to attend workfare or in many cases not fully understanding the endlessly complex and draconian Jobseeking Activity conditions.
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A large number of benefit sanctions have been handed down already by Jobcentre staff who are believed to be under pressure to meet unofficial targets to reduce claims. Claimants can be sanctioned for things like missing meetings, turning down jobs and failing to attend workfare placements.
Click to expand...


he can copy and paste thats for sure
 
If only there was a journo that some of us know who sometimes posts here and has previously played a sterling role in exposing another journalistic fraud at the Independent...
 
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