butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Cool!
what does emily benn tell us about the state of politics
- Thread starter brasicritique
- Start date
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
Do you think Sarah let her babysit the kids and bake some cakes as well?
Bakunin
I am Noodle's bitch.
I can't help thinking that all the Benns are good for now is providing the figleaf of supposed socialism covering the neo-liberal bollocks of New Labour.
They're seemingly impotent in terms of actually pushing Labour leftwards and exist solely to provide the appearance of socialist ideas instead of the reality, IMHO.
They're seemingly impotent in terms of actually pushing Labour leftwards and exist solely to provide the appearance of socialist ideas instead of the reality, IMHO.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
I wonder how many with GGGF, GGF GF & F/uncle MPs won't get through. Must be loads.
Tony certainly attempted to push the party leftwards.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
5, not 3. That it still exists in our meritocracy surely means someone is lying?
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Tony Benn on the democracy: "Would you be happy to fly in an aeroplane if you were told the pilot had been selected on the grounds his father had been a pilot too?"
Bakunin
I am Noodle's bitch.
But he didn't succeed though.
Good intentions are a good start, but they're nothing without actual concrete success.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
5 generations, isn't it?
John Benn (Liberal)
Stansgate (Liberal then Labour),
Wedgie (Labour)
Biliary Henn (neo-Labour party) and
Emily Benn (who knows?)
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
It would have saved us from Tony Blair, mate!
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Says something about the place of personality in modern politics too, unfortunately.
Bakunin
I am Noodle's bitch.
Considering the following election defeat, I would say not. They got the manifesto out, but then steadfastly managed to avoid being actually elected in order to implement it.
I'm not sure if it was the '83 or '87 elections, but does anyone remember the truly cringe-making moment where Kinnock took the stage, raised his arms and said:
'We're alllllrrrriiiighhhht! We're alllllrighhhhht!'
Which probably did as much to torpedo Labour's chances as anything.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
In what sense
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
The tories have been doing it for as long as there's been tories. They just generally mix up their names so that they don't actually sound as if they're their fathers sons.
Bakunin
I am Noodle's bitch.
That's it.
I didn't remember the exact year, but the sight of Kinnock raising his arms and bellowing away like Kenny Everett doing his 'Reverend Brother Lee Love' skit (without the giant hands, obviously) made it clear that Labour were going to lose.
Incidentally, does anyone remember Everett's own little moment of madness during a Tory party conference one year?
Bakunin
I am Noodle's bitch.
Yes, it was 'Lets kick Michael Foots's stick away, lets bomb Russia'
That was it.
I was eight years old and it scared the shit out of me.
Fullyplumped
in a personal capacity
I don't know. Do you? Why don't you do the research and provide a link, since you raised the matter? Or are you too busy with your important role in the class struggle?
Fullyplumped
in a personal capacity
To be able to stand as an MP, you must be at least 18, and be a citizen of the UK, a Commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland.
Anyone in that category - there's about 40m of us in the UK - is qualified.
Fullyplumped
in a personal capacity
She's only 18, just left school after her A levels!
Fullyplumped
in a personal capacity
From all we can tell of Emily, she doesn't fit that profile.
Bakunin
I am Noodle's bitch.
It's also not compulsory to take bribes, fiddle your expenses, have affairs with your colleagues and secretarial staff, act as a consultant for Big Business while pretending to care about providing decent regulation of said industries, have the morals of a randy polecat and the political ethics of Arthur Daley and Machiavelli combined.
Nor do you have to die a humiliating death in a women's underwear and fruit related manner or sire one or more kids by someone who isn't your wife while simultaneously banging on about going 'back to basics' and having a 'return to Victorian values'.
But all of the above certainly help.
Fullyplumped
in a personal capacity
I don't know if many CLPs where the sitting MP is retiring have selected PPCs yet. She's certainly the youngest known Labour PPC, and as I said earlier, she is definitely putting the hours in with the constituency.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Do you or don't you believe that the quality of parliamentary politics has been adversely affected by so many entrants into political life having not actually "lived in the real world" at all?
We've got so many MPs who either went from school to university to a sinecure with a union (especially, for Labour candidates, if they happened to be in the national hierarchy of the NUS) or a job in oil/public relations/"security" if they're a tory, without having done a job where they have to mix with people outside their usual social stratum. I contend that this has some very shitty effects on those of us at the bottom of the pile, because unless you've experienced poverty you're generally unable to empathise, and without empathy we have the Freud Report, and James Purnell's Welfare Reform Act, or at best, the sort of condescension and paternalism of the Victorian era.
Fullyplumped
in a personal capacity
I think you'll fnd that the vast majority of Labour MPs, AMs, MSPs, MEPs, councillors and candidates don't fit that profile either.
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