Despite the madness in the Tory Party Labour are trailing in the polls. Yet never have we needed them more desperately. After years of Tory austerity and their war against public services and the poor it is time Labour took over and set an agenda for fairness and equality. But right at the moment we most need them they are busy tearing themselves to bits yet again. We have had the Foot controversy and the Blair/Brown divisions. We have had the terrible division that led to the ridiculous Lib/Dem fiasco that allowed the years of Thatcher devastation. What we desperately need is for Labour to put aside its senseless squabbles, bury the hatchet metaphorically instead of battering away at each other with it, and agree on a compromise agenda that will put the country first and the Nasty Party as the real enemy.
The Tory Party sorted its leadership crisis with ruthless efficiency. Labour need to do the same.
Right now the grassroots are at odds with their own parliamentary party. The Trade Unions are also at war with the MPs. The leadership is beleaguered and does not have a viable shadow cabinet. The media are loving it and stirring the pot with delight. The electorate watch on in disbelief and don’t see an electable party.
Angela Eagle is not a viable candidate.
Is Corbyn capable of leading and forming a viable cabinet?
Let us get the leadership election sorted quickly, all gather around the winner and take the battle to the real foe!
This is a mess of our own doing. The worst that can happen would be another split which lets the tyrannous Tories off the hook as it did in the Thatcher years.
In this crisis the country surely has to come first?
One would hope they’ve learned that’s what has to happen, that the country has to come first. But that must be the hardest lesson in the world to learn. I was suggesting to “Me In The Middle” this morning that we should elect only historians to our government positions. If anyone has a chance of pulling our keisters out of the fires of our own making, you’d think they would. Although when the US sent history professor William E. Dodd to Berlin as the first American Ambassador under Nazi Germany (because politicians wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole), the government didn’t even listen when he told them what was going to happen. He wasn’t stupid. He packed up his family and got out of Dodge. (But not before his 20+ year old daughter became a Russian spy!)
I used to have a poster on the wall in my office that read:- ‘Teach history in the morning before something else happens!
LOL! LOVE it! So true, isn’t it? 😀
Trump is a populist in the same mold as Hitler, Stalin and Mao. He says what people want to hear. He promises greatness and an end to all their problems. He blames ISIS, immigrants, Latinos and stirs up the fear and hatred. I find some of the videos from his rallies really frightening. He is kicking a hornets nest.
But all those people who aqre in despair turn to him as the panacea. They think it can’t get worse. Unfortunately they are wrong. It can get a lot worse. Already Bexit has poisoned the ethos of the country and given succour to the racists and xenophobes. When the economy is hit for six the very ones who voted for it will suffer the most.
We never learn from history do we?
No. At least not until we get un-too-big for our britches and realize we don’t know everything… I find his rallies frightening, too.
Still – life is about making the best of the hand you are dealt. Hopefully you won’t get trumped.
Funny man! 😉
I do my best.
Yes, I think so. I used to have a History teacher who argued that History was the most important subject because if we did not learn from our mistakes we had no future. I told him that Biology was the most important. History was merely one element in our complexity.
Curious… Do you still feel that way?
Of course. Every subject is merely an aspect of biology. Geography is where different forms of life live and the substrate they live on. Maths is necessary to be able to count the number of specimens and do the statistical analysis. We need languages so that Biologists in different countries can share their love of living things. Chemistry enables us to see what our bodies are made of………………..
Gotcha!
Hm… Second thoughts… Wouldn’t they actually be co-creators of this world because without history biology has no context? 🙂 Just supposin’ here.
Hmmmm. History is only what we chimps having been getting up to over the years. It’s only what happened to us yesterday.
Well maybe we screw up when we don’t take the long view then, eh? 😉
Yes we certainly need to apply intelligence to experience when making a decision. History should provide that perspective. Unfortunately we are all too often led by greed, self-interest, lust for power and emotions. We need to apply more brain and less gland. The Brexit was a good example of that. The things many of the Brexiteers voted for will not be solved, indeed they will be exacerbated. The whole thing was manipulated by a group through ambition, self-interest and ideology. The result is a disaster. It is pretty much the same as Trump – stir up the hate, fear and emotions – ISIS – terrorism – racism, xenophobia, nationalism – and garnish the reward regardless of the cauldron of hatred and division left behind. Cynical and stupid.
I so agree, Opher, and I’m very much afraid the US will experience the same chaos here that you have if Trump is elected. He simple has no clue how to run a country. He can’t even run his own businesses. The tide is starting to turn here, but I fear it may be a little too late for this election.
Unfortunately, it seems every generation has to make its own mistakes, as we know with our children, telling them about yours doesn’t get the message across. I am in despair with the current state of the Labour Party, I remember very well the wilderness years of the 1980’s. I agree with many of Corbyn’s policies, however, I watch Sanders in the U.S. and I compare him to Jeremy. Jeremy just doesn’t have that sort of strident approach and confidence. I hate to say this but it is true, people want a sort of authoritarian approach in times of insecurity, with all the will in the world I just can’t see it in Corbyn.
I think the timing of the labour coup has been a disaster at a time when there could have been a strong and sensible response. Unfortunately I think it is going to take time to rebuild Labour. So please no general election yet and let’s keep the Brexit plans under full scrutiny.
I agree Georgina. They need to get their act together. It’s a mess at the moment.