tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post7791636832824893892..comments2023-10-31T14:36:59.054+00:00Comments on anticant's burrow: POLITICAL BASKET CASEanticanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18135207107619114891noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-91352989349890288172007-01-14T16:24:00.000+00:002007-01-14T16:24:00.000+00:00Waging with Blaise and Raging with Dylan...yeah, I...Waging with Blaise and Raging with Dylan...yeah, I like that.<br /><br />Sorry, sometimes I can resist anything except the temptation of linguistically disappearing up my own posterior.Richard W. Symondshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11783091361323437959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-45312044044237906832007-01-14T15:24:00.000+00:002007-01-14T15:24:00.000+00:00Oblivion or the Pearly Gates ?
Personally, I'm wa...Oblivion or the Pearly Gates ?<br /><br />Personally, I'm waging with Pascal...Richard W. Symondshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11783091361323437959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-47174256253921627062007-01-14T14:50:00.000+00:002007-01-14T14:50:00.000+00:00...and any friend of Jose is also a friend of mine......and any friend of Jose is also a friend of mine too - a privilege to meet up with you in your "burrow".<br /><br />I enjoyed your reply very much - food for thought and thought for food.<br /><br />I bow to your greater understanding and knowledge about Nye Bevan...and it looks as though he 'cocked things up' for himself and others....But, perhaps if he wasn't the person he was - at that particular time - far less would have been achieved (at least nothing effective and substantial).<br /><br />I was interested in your comments about The Guardian - what comes to mind is the 'near-forgotten' story about the Encounter Magazine comes to mind - with co-editors Irving Kristol (US) and Stephen Spender (UK)...I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.<br /><br />As for "keeping cool"...indeed yes...but I am mindful of Dylan Thomas : "Rage, Rage...".<br /><br />I do not wish humanity (or myself) to enter possible oblivion with a whimper...Richard W. Symondshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11783091361323437959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-10446288104588099652007-01-14T08:37:00.000+00:002007-01-14T08:37:00.000+00:00Richard, any friend of Jose's is a friend of mine,...Richard, any friend of Jose's is a friend of mine, and I hope we can go on debating these important issues in a calm and friendly way. <br /><br />I sympathise with you and many others on the Left who invested more faith and hope in the Labour Party than I ever felt able to do. I too shared in that moment of euphoria back in 1997 when at long last the tired and discredited Tories were swept away, and we all looked forward to a fresh start. While not denying that this government has done some good and necessary things, I am horrified at their disregard for civil liberties, and all the creepy 1984-type surveillance measures being introduced now.<br /><br />I did not "airbrush Nye Bevan out of history". He was indeed a moving spirit at the start of the NHS. But he was a prima donna and a flouncer rather than an administrator, and he airbrushed himself out of history by quitting at at the wrong moments, for which he paid the political price. <br /><br />Your other points are too important to tackle in a comment, and I shall be blogging about some of them soon.<br /><br />Most Americans regard anyone with a more developed social agenda than Ghengis Khan as a "Communist". That is a big problem for us all.<br /><br />Both the global and national situations are, in my view, even graver than you say. It's not just 'legitimate' big business money calling the global tune, but increasingly semi-criminal, racketeering, and even mafia money.<br /><br />At home, it's not just that people need to rethink. Most of them have never thought at all, and just don't care. The minority of us who do are becoming increasingly frightened, angry, and despondent, and must keep cool if we are to make our voices heard.<br /><br />I agree with Jose that the most hopeful way of doing this is through interaction on the Internet, rather than through traditional political parties. Is there a practical alternative to capitalism?<br /><br />Thanks for the book reference. I'll look it up.anticanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18135207107619114891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-5059355194164918262007-01-14T07:31:00.000+00:002007-01-14T07:31:00.000+00:00I am glad you made it here, Richard, a blog run by...I am glad you made it here, Richard, a blog run by a person who I look up to for his wisdom and knowledge of public matters both in Britain and abroad.<br /><br />History, as you and I have agreed upon on many occasions, is not always credible. Those who are old enough have "lived" that history very closely, some, as Anticant, from their professions, and I have no reasons not to believe what he says. He has been a very active "activist" in his younger days, as you are an activist now too, and that history lived is in my opinion more believable than those textbooks who, having been paid by our taxes, are written by persons designated by interested leaders to the effect.<br /><br />Political parties, as you well know, are the weapons used by those who can to control us, to deliver those solutions sought by active tentacles of capitalism. They must by all means prove to us that their actions match their pretended ideologies and therefore issue laws that meet our needs in social matters, but their last and ultimate target is the enhancement of capitalism which has become the almighty solution in our times.<br /><br />Privatisation is the solution given by political parties of any ideology to an otherwise improductive economic sector. Being run like a private enterprise has proved to be more effective than the former public system. It has also produced setbacks socially speaking.<br /><br />That is the scenario we have been given and which we must live in, and this scenario has not been built up in a few years, it has been built up in decades since World War II.<br /><br />It is, as always, my opinion.Josehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02081096450259201426noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-46406399101933743142007-01-13T23:02:00.000+00:002007-01-13T23:02:00.000+00:00And yes, anticant, "the unbridled power of money i...And yes, anticant, "the unbridled power of money is the problem".<br /><br />There is so much capital sloshing about globally. Money talks, but it doesn't listen - except to puppets who talk about "reform" (aka "privatisation") etc.<br /><br />And, yes, we need to "mobilise more people to engage in the political process" - quite how is the problem, as most are "comfortably numb" with their little expensive boxes to live in, and their mobile 4x4's to play in.<br /><br />Not wishing to sound clever, but a 'paradigm shift' of thinking seems a pre-condition of humanity's survival - on the same scale as Galileo/Copernicus, showing people that the opposite of what they believed to be true, was in fact the truth (the earth went round the sun, not the other way round).<br /><br />This has to happen in the political, moral sphere - and fast - or else we can kiss goodbye to our asses.<br /><br />Have you read "Escaping the Matrix" by Richard Moore ?Richard W. Symondshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11783091361323437959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-67125481686282913332007-01-13T22:46:00.000+00:002007-01-13T22:46:00.000+00:00"Uneven performer" or not, Labour's Nye Bevan made..."Uneven performer" or not, Labour's Nye Bevan made the Report by Liberal Beveridge HAPPEN after the war.<br /><br />Without his "fiery idealism", the NHS simply wouldn't have 'taken off' - and Housing would not have been set in motion at the speed it happened.<br /><br />You and I both know that 'The 1945 Revolution' - Labour's landslide - took 'the powers-that-be' (especially in the US) completely by surprise. Our 'allies' across the pond equated Labour Socialism with Communism - and took every powerful step possible to scupper the Labour movement.<br /><br />In the light of this, it makes Nye's contribution all the more remarkable.<br /><br />Like many other socialists at that time, he needs to be well-remembered - not airbrushed out of official history.<br /><br />Let history speak - and not be silenced - we have much to learn from "uneven performers".Richard W. Symondshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11783091361323437959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-1728696184248558252007-01-13T21:40:00.000+00:002007-01-13T21:40:00.000+00:00Richard, I agree with all of that, and if you had ...Richard, I agree with all of that, and if you had read some of my earlier comments on the 'Guardian' CiF site before I abandoned it in disgust at the hypocritical PC censorship, you would know that my views on the current democratic deficit are as dire as yours. We will soon be way beyond the worst nightmares of 1984 unless enough people wake up and say STOP. <br /><br />One cannot absolve the electorate - quite apart from party politicians - from some of the blame, as they did not vote in sufficient numbers to turn out Blair at the last election. Not that we'd have been all that better off with the Tories....<br /><br />Even if I'm only a Whateverist - whatever that is - my chief concern is to mobilise more people to engage in the political process. Surely we have a great deal in common? The unbridled power of money is the biggest problem. <br /><br />With respect, you are't old enough to remember, as I do, Nye Bevan in his prime. He was certainly a fiery idealist, but a very uneven performer and would not have made a good PM.anticanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18135207107619114891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-75592607893332802072007-01-13T19:48:00.000+00:002007-01-13T19:48:00.000+00:00As someone who has obviously read Orwell "percepti...As someone who has obviously read Orwell "perceptively", you will know that Orwell's last published words - a few months before his death in 1950 aged 46 - were :<br /><br />"Don't let it happen. It depends on you"<br /><br />He didn't "stick everybody into neatly labelled little boxes" - neither do I - but he could spot a Capitalist, Communist, Fascist, Socialist, or Whateverist, at 500 yards in bad light.<br /><br />We all need to wake up out of our own political trances - very fast indeed - to perceive that we are being controlled by a bunch of idealogical fanatics, who seem free to run the world by a morally-bankrupt system of 'Gangster Capitalism'...<br /><br />...and we are pitifully unaware of it.Richard W. Symondshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11783091361323437959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-2970768078184278092007-01-13T18:28:00.000+00:002007-01-13T18:28:00.000+00:00Richard W. Symonds:
"people who knew exactly wher...Richard W. Symonds:<br /><br />"people who knew exactly where they stood politically." How lucky they were!<br /><br />"Socialist ? Capitalist ? Communist ? Fascist ?"<br /><br />None of the above. Why do you have to stick everybody into neatly labelled little boxes? So dull.<br /><br />I suggest you read Orwell rather more perceptively.anticanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18135207107619114891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-73540968411533855102007-01-13T17:58:00.000+00:002007-01-13T17:58:00.000+00:00I'm somewhat bemused, and amused, by the pronounce...I'm somewhat bemused, and amused, by the pronouncements you make against people who knew exactly where they stood politically.<br /><br />These self-righteous, complacent pronouncements come from people who seem to have no idea where they stand politically - or haven't got the guts, or the moral courage, to admit their political affiliation.<br /><br />Nye Bevan was an Old Labour Socialist - and proud of it.<br /><br />Harold Wilson was a wily Old Labour man, whose political wisdom was made manifest when he told the US to 'take a hike' when asked to enter into the Vietnam War.<br /><br />George Orwell, although never a paid-up member of the Labour Party, knew exactly where he stood politically - a democratic Socialist.<br /><br />For God's sake you lot, come off your lukewarm 'know-it-all' political pedastals and make a jump :<br /><br />Socialist ? Capitalist ? Communist ? Fascist ?<br /><br />People who stand in the middle of the road get run over.<br /><br />By the way, I'm with Orwell - an English Socialist.Richard W. Symondshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11783091361323437959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-1730256663589074952007-01-13T00:40:00.000+00:002007-01-13T00:40:00.000+00:00Mr.Trovato.
Lavenderblue is unwell and has taken t...Mr.Trovato.<br />Lavenderblue is unwell and has taken to her bed due to stress.<br />A report will be in front of you later,as dictated to her spokesperson, LatexKate and told to the press.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-49915267049573076212007-01-12T22:25:00.000+00:002007-01-12T22:25:00.000+00:00Are you telling is that yours is the hottest hotli...Are you telling is that yours is the hottest hotline? Is it you who urges your callers to strip Gordon naked? Are you a secret Blairite? Shame on you!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-301326406669251472007-01-12T22:13:00.000+00:002007-01-12T22:13:00.000+00:00Mine?Mine?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-22958382003986647102007-01-12T21:25:00.000+00:002007-01-12T21:25:00.000+00:00What are you on, Zola? Please translate. What has ...What are you on, Zola? Please translate. What has Toby said? What one telephone number?anticanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18135207107619114891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-74278092168745411982007-01-12T15:52:00.000+00:002007-01-12T15:52:00.000+00:00Thank you Toby : We have never had it so good.
Ah,...Thank you Toby : We have never had it so good.<br />Ah, that one telephone number comes again.zola a social thinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14206983697656466653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-67425067522524428202007-01-12T15:49:00.000+00:002007-01-12T15:49:00.000+00:00Tyger, you're very kind! By all means reproduce th...Tyger, you're very kind! By all means reproduce the piece in tygerland - my partner says it isn't one of my best, and despite your encomium he stands by that. Oh well....<br /><br />I've always seen parties as vehicles for principles and policies - not as ends in themselves. It's up to all of us, whether we are party members or not, to keep them up to scratch. <br /><br />In my younger days I was a Churchillian Conservative, because they then had a healthier attitude towards civil liberties than Labour, despite the latter's solid social reform achievements. [For a hilariously funny right-wing critique of the Attlee government, see "Our New Masters", by Colm Brogan.] I resigned from the party in protest over the lies told by Eden before and during the Suez crisis, and have ever since not belonged to any party although temperamentally supporting the LibDems as the best of a pretty dismal bunch. <br /><br />You are of course right about the reluctance on all sides to recognise that we are no longer an imperial super-power. Our great post-WW2 failure has been to stay aloof from the European project, with the result that it is far more bureaucratic now than it would have been if we were in at the centre. <br /><br />I think you are rather unfair to the civil service. They have far more experience of running the country efficiently than most politicians, but can only exercise influence up to a certain point, beyond which they are hamstrung by the party management priorities of their political masters. From my knowledge of them, they are often far more innovative in their thinking than they are given credit for.<br /><br />One huge mistake, on all sides of the political spectrum, is the ingrained delusion that we are somehow 'special' to the USA, when in fact they not only regard us as foreign, but in some ways - because of their history - as more malign and macchiavellian than other nations. See Geoffrey Gorer: "The Americans" [1948] for an excellent exposition of this.<br /><br />I couldn't agree with you more about the need for radicalism!anticanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18135207107619114891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-6263879199997731212007-01-12T11:41:00.000+00:002007-01-12T11:41:00.000+00:00anticant,
Please accept my humblest apologies for...anticant,<br /><br />Please accept my humblest apologies for not commenting on this wonderful essay before now. I have been very busy, but I assure you, this was my loss – what a brilliant essay, and one I’d like to reproduce on tygerland if you would be so kind? Full-accreditation of course.<br /><br />My comment: Firstly, the theme running through your essay that strikes a chord with this reader is the “we know best” superiority of the Labour Party. I think this is best personified in the writings of Guardianista scribe, Polly Toynbee. A well-intentioned mummsy sense of superiority, which believes that we the people are naughty so-and-sos who don’t know what’s best for us, and as such, should allow our elected betters to look after us.<br /><br />My innate Libertarian instincts are far more precious to me than any commitment to the Labour Party, which is why the current manifestation of the Labour Party (New Labour), with all its right-wing Big Brother tendencies, is such a turn off. The reason I’m naturally attracted to the Labour Party is that generally I think that, if we <em>are</em> to have a political establishment, then it should be a force for good. However, as I will outline later, this establishment and the baubles of Empire, is what holds us back.<br /><br />In practice, this Labour Government has invested money but lacked the management ability (or commitment) to reform the public services; the changes needed to ensure the public saw returns on investment. In light of this failure it has sought to legislate itself out of trouble, which has failed (as it obviously would). Going forward the government is now essentially broke, with little chance of instigating further change. The civil services see no reason to change, and the government doesn’t have the political capital to force them to do so (it would also open them up to media criticism – slashing services and rising unemployment). <br /><br />But all this is fiddling while Rome burns…<br /><br />Britain has many virtues. We still have intelligent, innovative, and entrepreneurial people. We still excel in arts, science, and for an itsy-bitsy country, we don’t do too badly at sports. But a staid and regressive establishment, that rues the demise of The Empire, hamstrings us. It cannot face up to the fact that we are not, and probably never will be again, a super power. Economic realities demand that we should look to other Northern European neighbours, not America, for inspiration. Sweden and Norway accept their place in the world and make economic decisions accordingly. <br /><br />I’m rambling a bit I know. <br /><br />We need to usher away the cobwebs of Empire, which still almost fifty-years after its collapse, still hangs around our neck like the Mariner’s albatross. We need to deconstruct the establishment – we, more than any developed country in the world, are desperately in need of radicalism. This, I hope, is where we come in.Aaron Murin-Heathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11519231609156056620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-22161648326062083732007-01-12T10:35:00.000+00:002007-01-12T10:35:00.000+00:00By Labour being proper socialist I was meaning the...By Labour being proper socialist I was meaning their 1983 attempt under Michael Foot. Probably not quite right use of words, but it was the closest they got to presenting a socialist agenda to the electorate.<br /><br />New Labour shows compassion. It's easy to forget life with massive VAT on heating fuel, pensioners cold weather allowances, no minimum wage etc.<br /><br />There are many Labour initiatives which show an interest in compassionate policies. Whether or not they are effective is neither here nor there. We are not discussing competence.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-60539291563276588482007-01-12T08:30:00.000+00:002007-01-12T08:30:00.000+00:00The Ice Man Cometh !
A dose of whisky needed
Then ...The Ice Man Cometh !<br />A dose of whisky needed<br />Then we take Berlin...zola a social thinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14206983697656466653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-67162318639911694042007-01-12T08:07:00.000+00:002007-01-12T08:07:00.000+00:00Well, that's more sense than some of Nye Bevan's u...Well, that's more sense than some of Nye Bevan's utterances.<br /><br />If you don't stop this disrespectful knicker-waving, Zola, the burrow will be up for inspection by Nanny Hewitt's heavies [Gauleiter Reid being fully occupied just now cleaning up yet another mess in his own back yard].<br /><br />And you will be sentenced to attend a series of seminars on liberty by Isaiah Berlin's ghost.anticanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18135207107619114891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-88953848336495380542007-01-12T06:15:00.000+00:002007-01-12T06:15:00.000+00:00In more serious mode now : Lord Such screamed as m...In more serious mode now : Lord Such screamed as much sense as NyLabour spins.zola a social thinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14206983697656466653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-86530426104335967952007-01-12T06:12:00.000+00:002007-01-12T06:12:00.000+00:00No maybe about it.
Anticant IS Right.
Clip his win...No maybe about it.<br />Anticant IS Right.<br />Clip his wing I will.zola a social thinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14206983697656466653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-25295435792078224552007-01-11T21:17:00.000+00:002007-01-11T21:17:00.000+00:00You may be right.You may be right.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-634496984020324532.post-451464055291335602007-01-11T18:00:00.000+00:002007-01-11T18:00:00.000+00:00When you've been around as long as I have, you kno...When you've been around as long as I have, you know that there was a time when there was quite a lot to be said for the pre-Thatcher Tories.<br /><br />I have a theory - strictly copyright, no syndication - that Thatcher was a trotskyist mole slipped in to derail the Tories, while Blair is a capitalist mole planted to derail [or derange] the Labour party.anticanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18135207107619114891noreply@blogger.com