When the ‘Mail’ sneered at a dead politician…
The Thatcher fan club (led by the Daily Mail) howls with rage at those who dare ’disrespect’ her memory.
Remember when harmless, decent, old Michael Foot died?
From the Daily Mail (two days after his death):
NB: Wikipedia states that ”at the outbreak of the Second World War, Foot volunteered for military service, but was rejected because of his chronic asthma. It has been suggested (2011) that he became a member of the secret Auxiliary Units.
“In 1940, under the pen-name “Cato” he and two other Beaverbrook journalists (Frank Owen, editor of the Standard, and Peter Howard of the Daily Express) published Guilty Men, a Left Book Club book attacking the appeasement policy of the Chamberlain government, which became a run-away best-seller.”-JD
H/t Sunny at Liberal Conspiracy
Now that Thatcher’s dead…
James Bloodworth (writing at Obliged to Offend in December 2011):
Instead of celebrating … the left should reflect on what a
pig’s ear it’s made of the past 30 years
Ever since Margaret Thatcher stopped appearing in public due to poor health, the
fit and proper reaction to her eventual exit from the earthly realm has been
discussed with increasing regularity by the left.
That rolling news will gloss over her legacy with the empty platitudes of the obsequious is entirely predictable. Nor will it surprise many to see the leading lights of the Labour
Party queuing up to shower the former Prime Minister with praise.
There are, however, plenty of us who haven’t forgotten the lives she destroyed, the
dictators she championed or the unmitigated social disaster set in motion by her
particular brand of finance capitalism. We do not feel the need to do what many
formerly of the left now do, and parrot the dictum that we are ‘all Thatcherites
now’ (just a hint, but when a person says neo-liberal capitalism is ‘inevitable’
what they really mean is that it is desirable). Many of us are not, and never
will be Thatcherites, and we will continue to feel no shame in believing that
there is more to life than the winner-takes-all capitalism she so
unapologetically championed during her lifetime.
There are of course also those, on the other side of the fence, who view Thatcher’s eventual demise as an opportunity to get one over on her family, her friends, and her supporters
in a way that was not possible in an era when her ideas triumphed so
emphatically. In this regard, Margaret Thatcher’s death is not only to be
greeted with sullen contempt, but is to be actively celebrated.
The idea of getting back at this almost mythical figure for the numerous defeats she
inflicted on the left is strong motivation for those planning to crack open the
Champers on learning of her passing. Considering that during her reign she
trounced us at every opportunity, revelled in her victories, and then did it
again, the desire to see the back of the woman is perhaps understandable, even
if the outright celebration of her passing is, to my mind at least, taking
things a bit far.
What we on the left would do well to remember, however,
is that the ideas embodied by Mrs Thatcher are not going to be dented, let alone
killed-off by the departure of their most famous living embodiment. ‘All the
forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come,’ Victor
Hugo once said, and if the left is to recover from the tremendous setbacks it
has suffered during the past 30 years, it is the ideas embodied by Mrs Thatcher
that must be replaced, not the worn-out figure of an elderly lady.
Rather than celebrating the death of a human being, even a not
particularly endearing one, the left should instead examine with
clear-sightedness where it has gone wrong, how it has behaved and how it can do
better – and boy, can it do better. Considering the complete failure to make any
political inroads since the 2008 banking crash, this should be clearer today
than ever.
Time and energy spent celebrating the deaths of those who
popularise ideas we dislike is time that would be better spent popularising our
own ideas. With this in mind, morbid celebrations are better left to the
psychologically unhinged. The media already does an effective job in portraying
us as morally detached from the values of the average person; they certainly
don’t need us serving up ammunition on a plate for them.
Huhne to go to jail
At a time when the revolutionary left is coming in for a lot of stick, it’s worth remembering that many bourgeois politicians are also scum-bags and bare-faced liars. At least Huhne will be going to jail. His perversion of the Course of Justice (bullying his then-wife into taking the rap for a speeding offence) is typical of this loathsome shyster. Back in 2009/2010 he even ripped off the tax payer with the following expenses claim, a £1,500 bill he submitted as part of his parliamentary expenses:
But a bit of petty money-grubbing like that is as nothing to the swine’s treatment of his ex-wife and family, as revealed in court today:
The messages between Chris Huhne and his son Peter that were read out in court:
PH: “We all know that you were driving and you put pressure on Mum. Accept it or face the consequences. You’ve told me that was the case. Or will this be another lie?”
CH: “I have no intention of sending Mum to Holloway Prison for three months. Dad.”
PH: “Are you going to accept your responsibility or do I have to contact the police and tell them what you told me?”
PH: “I don’t want to speak to you, you disgust me, f**k off.”
PH: “You are the most ghastly man I’ve ever known. Does it give you pleasure that you have lost almost all of your friends?”
PH: “You just don’t get it.”
CH: “Happy Christmas. I love you”
PH: “I hate you so f**k off.”
Galloway’s Song for Croydon North
I thought this was a nasty, racist spoof created by Galloway’s enemies to make him and ‘Honeyglaze’ Jasper look and sound like a pair of total jerks (not that it’s difficult to do that). But apparently it’s genuine. If you haven’t already seen it, brace yourself and prepare to cringe:
Hopefully, the humiliations at Croydon North and Rotherham, coming hard on the heels of the resignation of Salma Yaqoob, will finally kill off the reactionary, communalist vanity project that is/was ‘Respect.’
Respect at the byelections: no “earthquake”, no-one impressed
From Coatsey:
On the eve of the election this appeared on the Respect Site.
We are on the edge of a political earthquake in British politics. In polling conducted at the weekend, the Respect candidate in the Rotherham by-election, Yvonne Ridley, has the lead over Labour. Labour has panicked and launched a vicious and negative campaign of dirty tricks against Respect but this has been sidelined by our magnificent positive campaign with the Respect battle bus, advertizing truck and campaign groups in every ward.
Polling conducted in the Croydon North by-election suggests that Lee Jasper, the Respect candidate, is now neck and neck with the Labour Party to win the constituency.
This is what happened (including the Middlesbrough by-election),
“Labour has won three by-elections, holding Croydon North, Middlesbrough and Rotherham parliamentary seats.
It increased its share of the vote in all three seats, but its majority was down in Rotherham, where the previous MP had quit over expenses claims.
The UK Independence Party came second in Middlesbrough and Rotherham, and finished third in Croydon North.”
How did Respect fare?
| Rotherham by-election, 29 November 2012 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Labour | Sarah Champion | 9,866 | 46.25 | +1.62 | |
| UKIP | Jane Collins | 4,648 | 21.79 | +15.87 | |
| BNP | Marlene Guest | 1,804 | 8.46 | -1.96 | |
| Respect | Yvonne Ridley | 1,778 | 8.34 | ||
| Conservative | Simon Wilson | 1,157 | 5.42 | -11.32 | |
| English Democrats | David Wildgoose | 703 | 3.30 | ||
| Independent | Simon Copley | 582 | 2.73 | -3.58 | |
| Liberal Democrat | Michael Beckett | 451 | 2.11 | -13.87 | |
| Trade Unionist & Socialist | Ralph Dyson | 261 | 1.22 | ||
| Independent | Paul Dickson | 51 | 0.24 | ||
| no description | Clint Bristow | 29 | 0.14 | ||
| Majority | 10,462 | 27.89 | |||
| Turnout | 21,330 | 33.89 | |||
| Croydon North by-election, 2012 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Labour | Steve Reed | 15,892 | 64.7 | +8.7 | |
| Conservative | Andrew Stranack | 4,137 | 16.8 | -7.3 | |
| UKIP | Winston McKenzie | 1,400 | 5.7 | +4.0 | |
| Liberal Democrat | Marisha Ray | 860 | 3.5 | -10.5 | |
| Green | Shasha Khan | 855 | 3.5 | +1.5 | |
| Respect | Lee Jasper | 707 | 2.9 | +2.4 | |
| Christian Peoples | Stephen Hammond | 192 | 0.8 | N/A | |
| National Front | Richard Edmonds | 161 | 0.7 | N/A | |
| Communist | Ben Stevenson | 119 | 0.5 | +0.2 | |
| Monster Raving Loony | John Cartwright | 110 | 0.4 | N/A | |
| Nine Eleven Was An Inside Job | Simon Lane | 66 | 0.3 | N/A | |
| Young People’s Party | Robin Smith | 63 | 0.3 | N/A | |
| Majority | |||||
| Rejected ballots | |||||
| Turnout | 26 | ||||
Labour won.
This is a good thing.
That is despite (as Toby says) the fact that the Labour winners in Rotherham and Croydon are part of the hidebound right-wing of the party.
It is still an anti-Coalition result.
The sensation of these elections is of course the UKIP vote.
These ‘fascists in blazers’ are the weevils of the British politics.
What for the left?
TUSC (261, 1,22 % in Rotherham and 277, 1,6% in Middlesbrough) and the Communist Party (119 votes) did not do well at all.
Ridley’s votes (1,778, 8, 3,4%) are far too many for any socialist to rejoice about.
Somebody who says this, ““[Respect] is a Zionist-free party… if there was any Zionism in the Respect Party they would be hunted down and kicked out. We have no time for Zionists.” She explained that government support “goes towards that disgusting little watchdog of America that is festering in the Middle East”. She went on to attack the Tories and Lib Dems, saying that all the mainstream parties are “riddled with Zionists”” represents forces that have no part in the labour movement.
Still one cannot but smile as ‘Rapper Jasper’s’ result: a lost deposit.
And at the pitiful attempts to draw comfort from their result by Respect supporters (wonder how long this link will last before these ‘democrats’ take it down).
The obvious fact is that Respect have drawn from the old (and now unused) Liberal Democrats’ by-election strategy: publish boosting made-up door-step reports and ‘polls’ just before an election.
And the truly magnificent score of the Rotherham Liberal Democrats (2,11% below an Independent, 2,73%) brings a spring to the step.
Jew-baiting in football
Example #1 (lovingly reported on 18 June at Socialist Unity, who prevent us linking):
According to the Sunday Herald:
“It wasn’t much fun being an Israeli footballer at Tynecastle yesterday. Lashed by the rain, barracked by pro-Palestinian demonstrators – and seven goals down at half-time…against a noisy backdrop of protests about the imprisonment of Palestinian footballers. The Israeli national anthem was jeered, and the players booed…the demonstrators’ chants for Scotland to score 10″
2 Responses to PRO-PALESTINIAN ACTIVISTS SCORE AGAINST APARTHEID AT TYNECASTLE PARK IN EDINBURGH
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Link only goes to homepage.
Link to story: Signeul’s side inflict rout on suffering visitors
Posted by skidmarx 18 June, 2012 at 10:34 am -
absolutely brilliant protest.reminded me of similar protest some years back at a men,s U21 game between the two in Livingstone(or was it Hamilton?). on that occasion we were frisked and scanned and all palestinian flags/posters were confiscated by the police.inside we were constantly filmed and photographed by special branch goons. however we managed to get a few flags in thanks to female protesters who had secreted them in their undergarments.best of all, scores of balloons were blown up inside and formed to make Palestinian symbols. throughout,there was non stop chanting,so important as the game was being broadcast live in Israel. well done everyone. couldn,t make it myself due to going to the well attended and important REFUGEES ARE WELCOME/STOP THE EVICTIONS demo in Glasgow.
Posted by iain brown 18 June, 2012 at 11:22 am
A couple of weeks later the same fans chanted “Hamas, Hamas, Jews off to the gas” to fans from Lodz, a city whose population was a third Jewish before the second world war. Lowles says it is not just the supporters who are prone to nationalism. Jan Tomaszewski, a former Polish goalkeeper, said last August he was ashamed of the current Polish team which was made up of players who were not “true Poles”. Tomaszewski, now an MP for the rightwing Law and Justice party, said: “This hotchpotch lacks only a cannibal from Africa, who once ate a Polish missionary. This is not a Polish team. There are Colombian and German stray dogs.”
Bolting the stable door
Rebekah Brooks is among six people arrested by Scotland Yard detectives on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, as part of the investigation into phone hacking.
The former News International chief executive was arrested at her home in Oxfordshire by detectives from Operation Weeting. Sources also said that her husband, racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, was arrested.
Topical song:-
Mr Ed sings – about Rebekah?
Thanks Rebekah: any excuse to revisit Mr Ed:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/horsegate-twitter-jokes-rebekah-brooks-746351
The Sun has got its balls kicked, Hip-hip-hip Hooray
You couldn’t make it up. In fact, I did, when I quoted Trevor Kavanagh in yesterday’s edition of your soaraway Shiraz:-
“I am seriously thinking of bringing this case to the European Court of Human Rights.”
This was more prediction than fiction, as it happens.
Here’s an exclusive that I’ve lifted from The Independent.
The crisis in Rupert Murdoch’s news empire deepened last night when Sun journalists began planning legal action against their employer with the help of two things they have previously shunned – the Human Rights Act and the National Union of Journalists.
The Sun’s employees were not, of course, always such lily-livered liberal leftists as that.
‘I am happy to point out the cases where the Act has been used to right a real wrong… Except that I can’t think of any’
Jane Moore, 27 April 2011”Soft judges must not put the human rights of dangerous fanatics above the right of decent citizens to live in safety’
Trevor Kavanagh, 28 may 2007‘We’d love to see Britain ignoring orders from Strasbourg judges that stop us deporting foreign killers’
Sun editorial, 21 September 2011‘How truly awful … Is belonging to Europe a price worth paying for allowing creeps like this to hide behind the Human Rights Act?’
Kelvin MacKenzie, 6 November 2008
Of course the journalists that the police have been snatching may plead that they didn’t write the anti EuroBureauFuroreLaw pieces of their colleagues. But if you are only in the brothel to do the books, don’t be surprised when people think you are a whore.
As for the hapless Sun employees, what more can we expect?
Sun journalist seeks asylum in France
Sun journalist claims that living on benefits means “poverty”
Sun journalist says “my sex life is my own business”
“Murdoch is a love rat,” sobbed a betrayed Kavanagh. “I thought we were close, and all the time he was running a love nest with Fox News and News International.”
(Turn to page 3 for picture of glum girl with her top on)
Dawn raid on The Sun
EXCLUSIVE*
Trevor Kavanagh, the Sun’s associate editor is outraged at the police raid on The Sun’s journalists.
“The police are a bunch of bully boys who misuse their powers,” said bearded Mr Kavanagh (63). “The laws are far too draconian and the police and courts come down too hard on criminals.”
“We should never jump to conclusions about those who are suspected of crimes,” said the father of seven.
Red with anger, the Wapping wizard declared, “Loyalty prevents me from saying what I think of the News International “family”, but I do have to say Murdoch (85) is shafting his employees to save his own skin.”
“I am seriously thinking of bringing this case to the European Court of Human Rights.”
Your Fun in The Sun fisking here of Mr Kavanagh’s words.
Page 3 girl declined to appear today, saying she heard prison was a bad place to get a manicure.
*Except for smart arses as below.
