My father came from a working class family in London. He was a cockney. His Mum (my grandmother) was Irish and my Granddad was a cockney meat porter in Smithfield market. My Grandmother was very austere and my Granddad like a knees up. Somehow they got along.
My Dad was highly intelligent and hard working. He taught himself after having to leave school at fourteen in order to earn money for the family. He had a place at Grammar School but his parents said they could not afford the uniform so he had to leave.
He taught himself to type and worked for Reuters news agency. Then he moved into Fleet street and worked for the Newspapers. He worked his way up to be manager of a big office of telephone reporters for the Evening Standard. He was brilliant at it. But management did not recognise his talents or reward him because he was not one of them.
He told me not to believe anything in the newspapers – particularly the gutter press. He said they were owned by the rich, they distorted, lied and fabricated stories to suit their owners.
My Dad did not play the game. He did not come from a Public School, did not have the right accent, was not in the Rotary Club or Masons. They treated him like scum. When he died they replaced him with someone doing exactly the same job on three times the salary.
The Express, Mail, Telegraph and Sun are pure tripe in my eyes. They are blatant propagandists and deliberately indoctrinate and incite. I don’t believe anything that’s in them.
You come from Working Class background as I did Opher. I never betrayed my feelings for the Labour Party, they betrayed me when Blair came to power it was no longer the Labour Party. I took young David as he was at the time up to Downing Street the day Labour got in, I remember now with much shame and embarrassment cheering Prescott as he went through the gates, the Labour Party right, more like Tories. As I said I did not leave Labour they left me. Will I vote at the next Election, right now NO. I was born Within the Sounds of Bow Bells, making me a Cockney, I was brought up in Ilford where you once had a room.
Two people of similar age and background.
I’m not sure how I feel about Blair. He and Mandelson orchestrated a move into the middle ground that got them elected. It was basically a watered down Toryism. But it was a damn-sight better than the Tories. He did a lot of good for the economy, public services, the poor and regenerating inner cities. If it hadn’t been for the stupid war and being Bush’s poodle he would be a hero.
The question is exactly the same as with Corbyn. Is it better to stick with principles and be an unelectable opposition with ethics, or to move to the centre and water down your beliefs but be elected and able to produce some degree of fairness.
Blair wooed business and the bankers. It put all our eggs in one basket. Thatcher had destroyed our manufacturing base. She started that trend. Now we are hoisted on that petard.
Life full of different strokes.
Yes – the more the better. Cheers Akeem.