For anybody not wanting to go all teary eyed at Healey's political beatification (ie all those of us who were there). Andrew Roberts' demolition of his record in government is a welcome antidote'
30% inflation,then lies about the actual inflation rate and then going to the IMF with a begging bowl is quite a legacy.
He had more brains and wit than the 2015 commons combined.
For anybody not wanting to go all teary eyed at Healey's political beatification (ie all those of us who were there). Andrew Roberts' demolition of his record in government is a welcome antidote'
30% inflation,then lies about the actual inflation rate and then going to the IMF with a begging bowl is quite a legacy.
He didn't create the 27% inflation. The Barber boom and the doubling of the oil price did it. In fact, he brought down the rate of inflation from 27% to 7%.
For anybody not wanting to go all teary eyed at Healey's political beatification (ie all those of us who were there). Andrew Roberts' demolition of his record in government is a welcome antidote'
30% inflation,then lies about the actual inflation rate and then going to the IMF with a begging bowl is quite a legacy.
He had more brains and wit than the 2015 commons combined.
I'm sure many have a low view of the current intake, but with 650 of them to combine, that is quite high praise there!
Just watched Denis Healey, the best PM we never had.
Labour really died when they failed to attract people like him into their leadership and ideas. He made many mistakes and some uncomfortable compromises but he was a giant. They don't make them like that anymore and Labour in particular is much the poorer for it.
How would the media treat an ex-CP member aspiring to power nowadays?
My personal experience for a long time has been that people treat youthful CP involvement as a curious past eccentricity, like saying you used to be a Zoroastrian or a Monopoly addict. It's at least 20 years since I met anyone who recoiled in horror.
Just watched Denis Healey, the best PM we never had.
Labour really died when they failed to attract people like him into their leadership and ideas. He made many mistakes and some uncomfortable compromises but he was a giant. They don't make them like that anymore and Labour in particular is much the poorer for it.
How would the media treat an ex-CP member aspiring to power nowadays?
My personal experience for a long time has been that people treat youthful CP involvement as a curious past eccentricity, like saying you used to be a Zoroastrian or a Monopoly addict. It's at least 20 years since I met anyone who recoiled in horror.
What took him so long to realise this? Lots of people have been saying it for years. The only difference is that now Tories don't argue about it so much
Does that mean we need a new leader of the British Right?
Just watched Denis Healey, the best PM we never had.
Labour really died when they failed to attract people like him into their leadership and ideas. He made many mistakes and some uncomfortable compromises but he was a giant. They don't make them like that anymore and Labour in particular is much the poorer for it.
How would the media treat an ex-CP member aspiring to power nowadays?
My personal experience for a long time has been that people treat youthful CP involvement as a curious past eccentricity, like saying you used to be a Zoroastrian or a Monopoly addict. It's at least 20 years since I met anyone who recoiled in horror.
There is a serious note here. The CP were the only sizable organisation opposed to the Nazis. The rest were appeasing in one form or another.
The documentary didn't mention him joining the Republicans in Spain against Franco. He was not an idealist only. He actually practised what he preached. He was a Socialist indeed but no pacifist !
I am not sure why many expected him to join the SDP. He had Labour blood running through his veins.
I intend to re-read the "The Time of My Life" - quite easily the best autobiography I have read.
I honestly think Corbyn's biggest problem won't be himself, but those around him. Sure, there is much in his past and present views that provide fodder for his opponents, but tribal loyalty and present skill can get past a lot of that in the minds of the public, and Corbyn does have a reassuring sort of air about him I feel, fairly or not. But he is tightly welded to the sort of vicious, hateful supporter that other leaders are able to distance themselves from but he is not. He will find it harder to contextualise those things he needs to explain away, because it isn't a fringe of loonies on the extreme who do the embarrassing things under his leadership, it's the core of his support that acts way. Perhaps it is a small core, perhaps it is large, but it is the core, and it could hinder damage limitation that his strengths might manage.
Just watched Denis Healey, the best PM we never had.
Labour really died when they failed to attract people like him into their leadership and ideas. He made many mistakes and some uncomfortable compromises but he was a giant. They don't make them like that anymore and Labour in particular is much the poorer for it.
How would the media treat an ex-CP member aspiring to power nowadays?
My personal experience for a long time has been that people treat youthful CP involvement as a curious past eccentricity, like saying you used to be a Zoroastrian or a Monopoly addict. It's at least 20 years since I met anyone who recoiled in horror.
What event led you to abandon the Communist Party?
Just watched Denis Healey, the best PM we never had.
Labour really died when they failed to attract people like him into their leadership and ideas. He made many mistakes and some uncomfortable compromises but he was a giant. They don't make them like that anymore and Labour in particular is much the poorer for it.
How would the media treat an ex-CP member aspiring to power nowadays?
My personal experience for a long time has been that people treat youthful CP involvement as a curious past eccentricity, like saying you used to be a Zoroastrian or a Monopoly addict. It's at least 20 years since I met anyone who recoiled in horror.
There is a serious note here. The CP were the only sizable organisation opposed to the Nazis. The rest were appeasing in one form or another.
The documentary didn't mention him joining the Republicans in Spain against Franco. He was not an idealist only. He actually practised what he preached. He was a Socialist indeed but no pacifist !
I am not sure why many expected him to join the SDP. He had Labour blood running through his veins.
I intend to re-read the "The Time of My Life" - quite easily the best autobiography I have read.
I also wonder what it is like to consider defecting. Most people will have been a party member for decades, and to sustain that and then stand for election under that banner and work for it and defend it for who knows how long takes a lot of loyalty and personal investment in that label. Now, I personally think a lot of normal people categorise themselves by party on gut feel rather than policy, that they think they should vote and support a certain way, even if you examined their beliefs and found another party suited them better on the basis of those facts. But someone who had actually served a party for so long, was so connected to it, to come to the conclusion actually it did not fit their views or aims any more, and that their rivals for so long did? That feels like it would be a shattering experience.
I'm not sure many people could make such a leap, even if everything about their beliefs and aims and how the parties now stacked up suggested they should.
Just watched Denis Healey, the best PM we never had.
Labour really died when they failed to attract people like him into their leadership and ideas. He made many mistakes and some uncomfortable compromises but he was a giant. They don't make them like that anymore and Labour in particular is much the poorer for it.
How would the media treat an ex-CP member aspiring to power nowadays?
My personal experience for a long time has been that people treat youthful CP involvement as a curious past eccentricity, like saying you used to be a Zoroastrian or a Monopoly addict. It's at least 20 years since I met anyone who recoiled in horror.
There is a serious note here. The CP were the only sizable organisation opposed to the Nazis. The rest were appeasing in one form or another.
The documentary didn't mention him joining the Republicans in Spain against Franco. He was not an idealist only. He actually practised what he preached. He was a Socialist indeed but no pacifist !
I am not sure why many expected him to join the SDP. He had Labour blood running through his veins.
I intend to re-read the "The Time of My Life" - quite easily the best autobiography I have read.
Though I'd guess Healey strongly supported the Republicans, I'm pretty sure he didn't go to Spain.
Just watched Denis Healey, the best PM we never had.
Labour really died when they failed to attract people like him into their leadership and ideas. He made many mistakes and some uncomfortable compromises but he was a giant. They don't make them like that anymore and Labour in particular is much the poorer for it.
How would the media treat an ex-CP member aspiring to power nowadays?
My personal experience for a long time has been that people treat youthful CP involvement as a curious past eccentricity, like saying you used to be a Zoroastrian or a Monopoly addict. It's at least 20 years since I met anyone who recoiled in horror.
There is a serious note here. The CP were the only sizable organisation opposed to the Nazis. The rest were appeasing in one form or another.
The documentary didn't mention him joining the Republicans in Spain against Franco. He was not an idealist only. He actually practised. He was a Socialist indeed but no pacifist !
I am not sure why many expected him to join the SDP. He had Labour blood running through his veins.
QED. It was perhaps understandable to be communist in the 1930s, confronted with Hitler and Fascism (understandable though still hugely silly and misguided, I'd say).
But how could you be a communist - like so many leading and mediocre Labourites, from Corbyn down - AFTER Stalin's purges, AFTER the Cultural Revolution, AFTER the Khmer Rouge and the Hungarian Represssion and the Gulags and the Terror?
How could you possibly do that, without being, to put it politely, a total c*nt?
Purely out of curiousity, what would have been the impolite version?
How utterly absurd it is to hear people whining pathetically that Corbyn's own words are being used against him. Not words Corbyn never used, but his own actual words.
While at the same time there's been truly nasty people screaming, throwing eggs at, spitting at etc people just for supporting the government. I've been screamed at repeatedly the last few days. Today a woman came up to me and screamed in my face "get out of my city you're not welcome in this city". Which is funny because I live locally and am in Manchester all the time
Has this vile behaviour been condemned by the people now at the top of Labour who've encouraged it for years? No, but someone else quoted words someone else chose to use? Oh how horrific.
The ideology which drives Islamic extremists has significant support from Muslims around the world, Tony Blair has warned.
The former British prime minister said that unless religious prejudice in Muslim communities is rooted out, the threat from the extremists will not be defeated.
This is, for once, a useful contribution. It is just a shame that he played a central role in initiating the removal of those best equipped to protect our interests. I don't hear many castigating Churchill for cosying up to Stalin in the fight against the Nazis. My enemy's enemy and all that.
He looks tired - and old(er). Almost unwell, in fact.
Not sure I can be arsed watching all 55 minutes.
Given the opportunity he has been given, I thought Cameron took it well. It was the most "social" Tory leader's speech I have heard. There is a paternalistic Tory about him - like the Whitelaws and Carringtons.
However, his personal attack on Corbyn by deliberately half quoting is truly unpardonable.
But the biggest mistake of the premiership is coming. The benefits cut could be his poll tax. When the going gets tough, don't expect the Unionists from NI would bail him out.
I also wonder what it is like to consider defecting. Most people will have been a party member for decades, and to sustain that and then stand for election under that banner and work for it and defend it for who knows how long takes a lot of loyalty and personal investment in that label. Now, I personally think a lot of normal people categorise themselves by party on gut feel rather than policy, that they think they should vote and support a certain way, even if you examined their beliefs and found another party suited them better on the basis of those facts. But someone who had actually served a party for so long, was so connected to it, to come to the conclusion actually it did not fit their views or aims any more, and that their rivals for so long did? That feels like it would be a shattering experience.
I'm not sure many people could make such a leap, even if everything about their beliefs and aims and how the parties now stacked up suggested they should.
People could console themselves that they'd won the argument. Cameron's speech today would have been unthinkable under Thatcher or even Major.
Even though, as expected, it was long on motherhood and apple pie and short on details, if the Tories can execute even half of Cameron's agenda, it could be genuinely transformative.
How utterly absurd it is to hear people whining pathetically that Corbyn's own words are being used against him. Not words Corbyn never used, but his own actual words.
While at the same time there's been truly nasty people screaming, throwing eggs at, spitting at etc people just for supporting the government. I've been screamed at repeatedly the last few days. Today a woman came up to me and screamed in my face "get out of my city you're not welcome in this city". Which is funny because I live locally and am in Manchester all the time
Has this vile behaviour been condemned by the people now at the top of Labour who've encouraged it for years? No, but someone else quoted words someone else chose to use? Oh how horrific.
Except David Cameron is the prime minister and the lady who screamed at you is not. Not only did he deliberately tried to mislead people about Corbyn's views, he did it whilst maxing out on his phoney heart on sleeve sincerity.
What took him so long to realise this? Lots of people have been saying it for years. The only difference is that now Tories don't argue about it so much
Does that mean we need a new leader of the British Right?
Maybe not! It seems Cam is the one person in history who can manage to be all things to all people
By having such a ridiculous student left wing, that sees anyone that doesnt want the entire 3rd world imported to england as hitler, Cameron gets to be called a vicious right winger while actually behaving like a moderate lefty. The tory badge kissers just want their team in charge even if they are new labour, so accept whatever he says, while the opposition maintain his right wing credentials for him by being to the left of Ryan Giggs... The perfect storm
How utterly absurd it is to hear people whining pathetically that Corbyn's own words are being used against him. Not words Corbyn never used, but his own actual words.
While at the same time there's been truly nasty people screaming, throwing eggs at, spitting at etc people just for supporting the government. I've been screamed at repeatedly the last few days. Today a woman came up to me and screamed in my face "get out of my city you're not welcome in this city". Which is funny because I live locally and am in Manchester all the time
Has this vile behaviour been condemned by the people now at the top of Labour who've encouraged it for years? No, but someone else quoted words someone else chose to use? Oh how horrific.
Except David Cameron is the prime minister and the lady who screamed at you is not. Not only did he deliberately tried to mislead people about Corbyn's views, he did it whilst maxing out on his phoney heart on sleeve sincerity.
He did not mislead people at all. Reconcile yourself to the fact that Labour have elected a loon as their leader.
The only way for David Cameron to be the leader of the British left would be a total change in fiscal policy. Don't forget the cuts still to come, with large areas ring-fenced, to all parts of the public realm.
I haven't worked out yet what Cameron speech was a signifier of. It felt like he was putting on a cloak of invisibility. His opponents can fire bullets at him but they've no idea whether he's on the right centre or centre left. My guess though is that he's assuming there will be difficulties to come and he's trying to soften the ground. Imagine your significant other has a birthday coming up and you realise a few weeks beforehand that, horror of all horrors, you have no money to buy them anything nice. So what do you do? Well you could try being as nice as possible to them up until the day in the hope that when they end up with nothing they don't go completely beserk.
The only way for David Cameron to be the leader of the British left would be a total change in fiscal policy. Don't forget the cuts still to come, with large areas ring-fenced, to all parts of the public realm.
I haven't worked out yet what Cameron speech was a signifier of. It felt like he was putting on a cloak of invisibility. His opponents can fire bullets at him but they've no idea whether he's on the right centre or centre left. My guess though is that he's assuming there will be difficulties to come and he's trying to soften the ground. Imagine your significant other has a birthday coming up and you realise a few weeks beforehand that, horror of all horrors, you have no money to buy them anything nice. So what do you do? Well you could try being as nice as possible to them up until the day in the hope that when they end up with nothing they don't go completely beserk.
Again, not everything is about money, or requires money to be thrown at it in order to solve it.
What event led you to abandon the Communist Party?
I was a Eurocommunist in my teens - the idea being to get the ideals without the totalitarianism (which is why SeanT ranting about Pol Pot etc. isn't too relevant). "from each according to ability, to each according to need" seemed to me exactly how one should try to live (I haven't changed that belief), and as far as possible I wanted to help organise society on that basis.
It seemed possible for a while, and then it became evident that it wasn't going to work: too much bleak history in Eastern Europe casting its shadow. I'm not sure there was a specific event, merely that I grew up, looked around, and decided social democracy was a more viable ambition. I joined Labour on my 21st birthday.
Incidentally, I don't think Corbyn was ever a Communist. Bit of a right-winger really. :-)
What event led you to abandon the Communist Party?
I was a Eurocommunist in my teens - the idea being to get the ideals without the totalitarianism (which is why SeanT ranting about Pol Pot etc. isn't too relevant). "from each according to ability, to each according to need" seemed to me exactly how one should try to live (I haven't changed that belief), and as far as possible I wanted to help organise society on that basis.
It seemed possible for a while, and then it became evident that it wasn't going to work: too much bleak history in Eastern Europe casting its shadow. I'm not sure there was a specific event, merely that I grew up, looked around, and decided social democracy was a more viable ambition. I joined Labour on my 21st birthday.
Incidentally, I don't think Corbyn was ever a Communist. Bit of a right-winger really. :-)
Isn't this a bit of a problem? You're basically admitting that your values are those of the hard left. IMO it's not enough for Labour to say that such ideas don't work. Most of the the public believe they are wrong in principle - that people should be rewarded proportionate to their contribution. It also shows a dismaying lack of interest in freedom.
I do wonder if Labour wiping out the liberals was the worst thing that could have happened to this country and we'd have been better off with bleeding heart liberals as the main opposition to the dominant Tories of the last century. At least in the US they are dominant within the democrats.
Comments
In fact, he brought down the rate of inflation from 27% to 7%.
The documentary didn't mention him joining the Republicans in Spain against Franco. He was not an idealist only. He actually practised what he preached. He was a Socialist indeed but no pacifist !
I am not sure why many expected him to join the SDP. He had Labour blood running through his veins.
I intend to re-read the "The Time of My Life" - quite easily the best autobiography I have read.
I'm not sure many people could make such a leap, even if everything about their beliefs and aims and how the parties now stacked up suggested they should.
While at the same time there's been truly nasty people screaming, throwing eggs at, spitting at etc people just for supporting the government. I've been screamed at repeatedly the last few days. Today a woman came up to me and screamed in my face "get out of my city you're not welcome in this city". Which is funny because I live locally and am in Manchester all the time
Has this vile behaviour been condemned by the people now at the top of Labour who've encouraged it for years? No, but someone else quoted words someone else chose to use? Oh how horrific.
Even though, as expected, it was long on motherhood and apple pie and short on details, if the Tories can execute even half of Cameron's agenda, it could be genuinely transformative.
By having such a ridiculous student left wing, that sees anyone that doesnt want the entire 3rd world imported to england as hitler, Cameron gets to be called a vicious right winger while actually behaving like a moderate lefty. The tory badge kissers just want their team in charge even if they are new labour, so accept whatever he says, while the opposition maintain his right wing credentials for him by being to the left of Ryan Giggs... The perfect storm
I haven't worked out yet what Cameron speech was a signifier of. It felt like he was putting on a cloak of invisibility. His opponents can fire bullets at him but they've no idea whether he's on the right centre or centre left. My guess though is that he's assuming there will be difficulties to come and he's trying to soften the ground. Imagine your significant other has a birthday coming up and you realise a few weeks beforehand that, horror of all horrors, you have no money to buy them anything nice. So what do you do? Well you could try being as nice as possible to them up until the day in the hope that when they end up with nothing they don't go completely beserk.
Can't believe I am going to admit to this but........
Outlander (series) on Amazon is the best tv I have ever watched (and it's not my normal type of viewing)
It seemed possible for a while, and then it became evident that it wasn't going to work: too much bleak history in Eastern Europe casting its shadow. I'm not sure there was a specific event, merely that I grew up, looked around, and decided social democracy was a more viable ambition. I joined Labour on my 21st birthday.
Incidentally, I don't think Corbyn was ever a Communist. Bit of a right-winger really. :-)
I do wonder if Labour wiping out the liberals was the worst thing that could have happened to this country and we'd have been better off with bleeding heart liberals as the main opposition to the dominant Tories of the last century. At least in the US they are dominant within the democrats.