Friday, July 22, 2016

There was enough said at our Edie's wedding



I just about recall the first referendum on what was then known as the common market. I was still at school, aged about 13 or 14 I think, and considered myself to be a man of the left, and as the left was opposed to it, so was I. In the most recent one, the other week, the left, or what is called the left, were in the remain camp. So was I, but not with any conviction.. Look at the leaders of the outers, Farage, Johnson, IDS, Gove: charlatans, buffoons, racists. You wouldn't want to be in any gang that had that sorry looking bunch as leaders, would you? Not that you could be, because, having won, they all shit themselves, said a big boy did it, and ran away.

I wasn't all that exercised prior to the vote. I still consider the EU to be a capitalist brotherhood, but 30 years of neo liberalism had taught me to be thankful for it, as it acted as a brake on the worst excesses of the the Thatcherites and then the Austerity Psychopaths. While I voted to remain, to come out was/is fine by me. In the end it doesn't really matter, the same as it doesn't really matter if we have a Labour, Tory or coalition government. We will still be ruled by and on behalf of the 1%.

What does matter is that now that we don't, or at some distant point won't, have the EU to protect us,  we have a government that tries to protect us, which means that the Labour Party has to protect us.

Fat chance. Hilary Benn? Owen Smith? Stephen Kinnock? Smug yam yam Tom Winker Watson? Do me a fucking favour. Careerists every single one of them. Their ideology is to be in power, whatever it takes. They have no principles. They are part of the elite, with the same sense of entitlement as the Bullingdon boys.

Even so, the plotters and connivers have taken me by surprise. They really hate Corbyn with a passion and they will do anything to get rid of him. They aren't even pretending to be nice, and are waging a very dirty war. They hate democracy too, not that I'm a great fan of it. They didn't like Corbyn winning the leadership contest and have, from day one, set about undermining him, but it hasn't worked. They have manipulated the rules, they have excluded people, they have suspended party democracy, and still they can't win. And still they cannot accept that they are wrong, that there has been a shift, that the tide is turning, that there has been a groundswell of popular support for Corbyn.

The people responsible for losing 2 elections against a despised bunch of privileged oafs, think they are qualified to give advice on winning elections; telling us that a man who just keeps winning and who has been responsible for a mass mobilisation into the party, rather than the mass exodus the Benn's of this world caused, is a liability. They lie, they make stuff up, and a compliant big media runs their stories, their lies, their made up shit, every hour of every day.

We don't have our big European brother to protect us anymore. The new Tory leader is just as big a bastard as the previous one. What is left of workers rights will go down the shitter, human rights will go down the shitter. Life for the those at the bottom will get a lot worse. All the little things that improve our quality of life, cycle paths, woodland walks, parkland, will fall into disrepair and decay. This is why, on the left, we cannot let the right win, and I don't mean the motherfucking Tories, I mean the placemen, the bureaucrats, the PR merchants, the apparatchiks and the nepotists that make up the current PLP.




Tuesday, July 19, 2016

I Can't Keep It In




There was a time, many years ago, that I started writing a blog. It wasn't about anything, it was mostly random links of stuff I'd come across on the internet; first chapters of books, articles reinforcing my world view, music, assorted quirky shit. The internet was young then, even if I wasn't, and I had an urge to share all this stuff. Then it started to get a bit more personal, which was a huge mistake, and I left Blogger for Typepad and it became quite popular. Then I went back to Blogger and everything I had done on Typepad disappeared, as did most of my readers.


The world didn't then and certainly doesn't now need me or anyway one else to point it in the direction of cool shit. You don't have to look for it, it's there, for anyone to see. The world didn't then and certainly doesn't now need to read my complaints about my job. Which doesn't leave much to blog about, so it sort of died. Every now and then I'd make a lame attempt at a resurrection, but the truth is, if I'm not having  a rant, I cant think of a single thing to say.


So, here we are again, trying to be nice. Looking at the positive. letting the world be what it wants to be without interference or rancour from me.


But. Come on. Fuck me. Have you seen what's going on? How can a man keep it all in? A man can't keep it in, so I'm going to let it out.


I'm going to have my say on Leicester City, on Iceland, on Gary Rowett. I'm going to have my say on Brexit, on Cameron, on Osborne, on May, on IDS et al. I'm going to have my say on Mcdonnell, on Corbyn, on Benn, on Eagle, on Watson et al. I'm going to have my say on the BBC, and the Guardian.


I'm going to listen to music and read books and watch telly and listen to the radio and I'm going to champion the good stuff.


I don't now if it will be any good, I don't know if it will be worth reading, but I'm going to have a bit of fun writing it and I hope it will be a bit of fun for anyone who happens along to read it.