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Labour Party Suits

Zabo

Zabo

Well-Known Member
I was listening to Chuka Umunna on the radio this morning. After a few minutes I thought to myself he's yet another of those fucking suits - just like paste-a-pic Purnell.

A quick Google confirms what I thought. With people like him in the party I don't think any of us will ever see a party in our lifetime that would re-nationalise all the things that Thatcher and those that followed sold off - e.g. energy, rail.

'Responsible Capitalism' my arse.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16454102

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuka_Umunna

I truly despair. There has to be something better. Leaving aside those from the real world of work, how many more lawyer members does the Labour Party want?
 
Hocus Eye. said:
I was thinking that just the other decade or two ago. C'est fini.
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Is it not possible that the Labour Party could at some point in the future be reclaimed by the traditional left? I'm not talking about swivel-eyed militant types (no offence to the swivel-eyed), I'm talking about people with a straight forward approach to the economy that doesn't fetishise the market. Am I being naive?
 
ItWillNeverWork said:
Is it not possible that the Labour Party could at some point in the future be reclaimed by the traditional left? I'm not talking about swivel-eyed militant types (no offence to the swivel-eyed), I'm talking about people with a straight forward approach to the economy that doesn't fetishise the market. Am I being naive?
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I would love to live long enough to hope so. It needs to start at a local level - especially the candidate selections with an end to 'helicoptering in' as was Purnell and I'm sure others.
 
You want the same people who have created the labour party of today to reclaim it (for kinder capitalism) whilst making reference to, and dismissing, what was the last stand of the labour left as 'swivel eyed'.
 
He hasn't said or done anything to piss me off especially yet. Haven't read the links though. There will always be room in the political market place for sell outs of a mild left tilt. It's nothing new.
 
Proper Tidy said:
You want the same people who have created the labour party of today to reclaim it (for kinder capitalism) whilst making reference to, and dismissing, what was the last stand of the labour left as 'swivel eyed'.
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Hmm....yes, because that's exactly what I said. :hmm:
 
Zabo said:
I would love to live long enough to hope so. It needs to start at a local level - especially the candidate selections with an end to 'helicoptering in' as was Purnell and I'm sure others.
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There's definitely truth in that. Although I'm lost as to how a local base can gain strength without a large industrial base around which to organise. What can be done in a post-unionised society? Where does that base spring from?
 
Proper Tidy said:
So what did you say then?
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That it would be nice if the Labour Party went back to being a democratic, parliamentary socialist organisation. No-one should realistically expect it to be a platform for revolution, and any attempt to change it into that is bound to fail.

The most that can be achieved through the LP is a mixed economy model which, as I said above, does not bow down to the idea that markets are the cure to everything. Nationalisation should not be a dirty word.
 
Lo Siento. said:
the left in the Labour Party do the "reclaiming the party" bit, but it's never happened anywhere.
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True, but trying it during the so-called 'boom' years of an economy is different to trying it during an economic depression. This is where we are headed, and I cannot see the current neoliberal narrative surviving the coming few years.
 
ItWillNeverWork said:
True, but trying it during the so-called 'boom' years of an economy is different to trying it during an economic depression. This is where we are headed, and I cannot see the current neoliberal narrative surviving the coming few years.
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even in depressions it hasn't happened. People have formed and won support for new parties, but turned existing ones left? No sir.
 
ItWillNeverWork said:
No-one should realistically expect it to be a platform for revolution, and any attempt to change it into that is bound to fail.
The most that can be achieved through the LP is a mixed economy model which, as I said above, does not bow down to the idea that markets are the cure to everything. Nationalisation should not be a dirty word.
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And how could your more "realistic" approach succeed then?

How could the party be reclaimed in your terms?

At the moment you lot are the ones who seem swivel eyed tbh.

PS - I don't think it would be a revolutionary platform either, so don't try and claim I do.
 
Spanky Longhorn said:
And how could your more "realistic" approach succeed then?

How could the party be reclaimed in your terms?
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No idea. All I said was that it isn't beyond the imagination. Maybe my imagination is particularly vivid though, who knows.

What I do know is that we are entering very different times than have been known by most people under 30. Given the massive changes in society that are ahead, it seems inevitable that there will be a change in the political mood as well. How that manifests itself I do not know.

At the moment you lot are the ones who seem swivel eyed tbh.
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Who are my 'lot'?

PS - I don't think it would be a revolutionary platform either, so don't try and claim I do.
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I would never do such a thing.
 
ItWillNeverWork said:
That it would be nice if the Labour Party went back to being a democratic, parliamentary socialist organisation. No-one should realistically expect it to be a platform for revolution, and any attempt to change it into that is bound to fail.

The most that can be achieved through the LP is a mixed economy model which, as I said above, does not bow down to the idea that markets are the cure to everything. Nationalisation should not be a dirty word.
Click to expand...

Do me a favour.

And you ask if you're naive.

The 1970s aren't coming back.
 
ItWillNeverWork said:
As I said above to Spanky, the economic times are changing. Change of that type has a tendency to ripple out into politics and wider society. How could it not?
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As it stands, following thirteen years in office, the labour party looks likely to only spend one term in opposition. Who knows, perhaps that will result in a Greece type scenario whereby the nominally leftwing major party undermines its own electoral base by forcing severe austerity measures through. Perhaps it won't. It's a mystery.

Either way, the labour party is not going to be won over to social democracy. For a start, Michael Foot is dead and Tony Benn is old.
 
ItWillNeverWork said:
No idea. All I said was that it isn't beyond the imagination. Maybe my imagination is particularly vivid though, who knows.

What I do know is that we are entering very different times than have been known by most people under 30. Given the massive changes in society that are ahead, it seems inevitable that there will be a change in the political mood as well. How that manifests itself I do not know.
Click to expand...

images


Magical thinking as politics.

Who are my 'lot'?
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You know... You lot. The ever decreasing circle of people who believe the Labour party can be turned into a fantasy left reformist party with a Keynesian programme.
 
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