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Russell Brand on Revolution

I've been voting green for a few years now. I got around to joining the party a few weeks ago and it seems a lot more people have been joining recently too :)
 
elbows said:
The main problem with that prediction is that the greens need to get rather a lot more MPs in order to become a meaningful part of some coalition or agreement to support a minority government, which is likely the only way their word will actually be tested properly in parliament. Its kind of hard to imagine, so they won't be exposed on the national level like the Lib Dems have been.

Obviously they can be tested in the local areas where they've got some power, and the results aren't pretty, but thats going to be easy for many voters looking for a feel good choice in a general election to avoid thinking about.
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But what is being "exposed" when parties fail to deliver or do the opposite to what they said? Is it that they are full of hypocrites, self-seekers and traitors or that they have set themselves (and/or been set by those who voted for them) an impossible task, i.e trying to make the (capitalist) system work for the common good or in the interest of the majority class of wage and salary workers?

What happens in local councils is not really a test of anything since local councillors are little more than elected civil servants who have to carry out the policy of the central government or be disciplined. At the moment this policy is austerity and cuts. So any council, even one run by Greens as in Brighton, has to implement this. If they didn't the central could and would sent in a hit team of commissioners to do this instead. The only defence that a local council can come up with (and which Brighton council and some Labour councils have come up with) is that if they implement the cuts they can soften the blow -- the same argument used by the authorities in Jersey when it was under German occupation.

The lesson is: blame the system and not those who administer it. If you don't do this you maintain the illusion that a different set of politicians could do better. Having said this, parties that do agree to administer the system at national or local level can be blamed for agreeing to do this, even if not for what this involves. Answer: a revolution to get rid of the system.
 
Jean-Luc said:
But what is being "exposed" when parties fail to deliver or do the opposite to what they said? Is it that they are full of hypocrites, self-seekers and traitors or that they have set themselves (and/or been set by those who voted for them) an impossible task, i.e trying to make the (capitalist) system work for the common good or in the interest of the majority class of wage and salary workers?
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a little from column A, a little from column B
 
Shirl said:
I've been voting green for a few years now. I got around to joining the party a few weeks ago and it seems a lot more people have been joining recently too :)
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Natalie Bennetts did a talk down the road a couple of weeks ago. She said 2000+ joined the previous month (November) and quoted a poll where they were given 26% of the vote if people thought they had a chance of winning. Anyone seen it? I may have missed it in the polling thread.
 
Nice one said:
the sentiments are definitely conciliatory but i'm assuming that's because you are speaking to, and would be working with, the brand supporters from new era/e15.

But essentially your saying the opposite of what you actually think of brand. You think he's a liability now (who may well change to become an asset) and we shouldn't trust him. Don't you think the new era people/e15 deserve to know why you think that of brand?
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It's not the opposite of what I said, its a watered down version because I'm speaking at a hypothetical meeting and not in a semi-private discussion on the internet. but yes, if we went down the pub afterwards i'd say he's a shark.
 
Nigel-Farage_2190544a_zps65db967a.jpg
 
smokedout said:
It's not the opposite of what I said, its a watered down version because I'm speaking at a hypothetical meeting and not in a semi-private discussion on the internet. but yes, if we went down the pub afterwards i'd say he's a shark.
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no-one said anything about a meeting - meetings tend to have their own very particular and peculiar dynamics, i wanted to know what you would say to those brand supporters in new era/e15 who'd want brand involved in this conference? And it seems publicly you'd have him on board, privately you'd declare your hostility.

Just for the record - It is the opposite. You think brand is a liability now, this is what you think of brand: he's a liability at this present time (who could become an asset if he changed). What you're telling the new era/e15 people is that he could become a liability (ie he's not a liability at this present time).

No big deal really, more concerning is the fact you're happy to say something to these people in public which is very different to what you'd say to them in private.

But it's not really about brand (he's just a simple conduit in all this, a tool if you will, a weapon) it's about the perception of brand supporters - those so easily taken in (on here in semi-private discusssions) and must be demonised for it, and those in real life who have worked with him on their campaigns, who have nothing but praise for him, and the brand detractors who are giving him way too much credit for the influence he has over these people and thus giving him a status he rarely deserves.
 
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96 in the Telegraph's "Top 100 Britons of the Year"...

96. Russell Brand
He's the man we all love to hate. But in his most recent incarnation as self-declared man of the common people, Russell Brand has helped reignite the debate about our political system. Controversies about his personal wealth aside, he also deserves a mention for inspiring the #parklife hashtag - one of the funniest of the year.
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