Friday 24 July 2015

One last throw of the dice?

The Labour Party and I parted company back in 1991. In the meantime we've seen New Labour, Blair, the ditching of Clause 4, a couple of illegal wars, breaking the Trade Union link and countless other acts of betrayal that would get Nye Bevan spinning in his grave.

So it was with some deliberation that I paid my £3 and registered as a 'Labour supporter' in order to be able to vote for Jeremy Corbyn. 

He's a rare thing in politics generally these days, a decent guy who still  has some fundamental socialist values. But even so I have no illusions about him or his potential to reverse the party's downward spiral. Should he actually win the leadership I fear that he is so out of sync with the rest of the repugnant parliamentary Labour Party, that within a few weeks  there will probably be a palace  coup amongst the  MPs to oust him.

But despite all this, when I saw that acting party boss Harriet Harman had instructed Labour MPs to abstain on the most vicious piece of Tory legislation since the days of Thatcher, whilst the Lib Dems and even some rebel Tories were voting against the Welfare Reform Bill, I thought it was worth one desperate last throw of dice ...

Saturday 18 July 2015

Life is good

Blogging has been sparse for the past few weeks - largely due to the teacher's curse of end-of-term-exhaustion syndrome.

So just to reassure any readers that I am still here - and whilst I have been resting the world seems to have continued to move in a depressing direction: Much like Jack Jones  in the 1970s, Tspiras has led Syriza and the Greek masses to the precipice of revolution, had a peek over the edge and not fancied the look of what he saw. And back home, the Tories have started to introduce the most vicious anti-trade union legislation since Thatcher. And imposed a 1% cap on public sector pay rises whilst giving themselves a fat 10%. I take both of these things personally.

But this morning the sun is shining and life is good:

I woke up to the news that the Sun has got hold of some  old footage of the royal family in the 1930s having some jolly japes giving each other Nazi salutes led by unrepentant fascist fellow-traveller Edward VIII.

And most of all - to the surprise of many old friends who are gathering in North London, myself and Ms Journeyman are marking 30 years as a couple by actually getting married....