Tuesday, 5 March 2013

The Star Rises

How does an ILP man mark today's sixtieth anniversary of the death of Stalin? Remember Barcelona.

Why, by having a letter published in the Morning Star which twice uses the word "conservative" as a term of approbation, and which calls for a Shire Tory Council Leader and an Eton Sixth Former to address the People's Assembly Against Austerity alongside Tony Benn and Owen Jones.

Of course.

As for the rather more dramatic way in which someone else has marked this anniversary, here is one for all you Leftists, traditional Tories and American paleocons alike: Chávez calling Bush "The Devil" and being applauded by the UN General Assembly.

For all the scaremongering by his enemies on the American and wannabe American Right, who themselves have done absolutely nothing about abortion, Chávez never did introduce it in Venezuela, although Benedict XVI was successfully lobbied to lobby against any such introduction by people who were either misled or misleading. Unlike those enemies, Chávez never started any wars, either.

And, like Ahmadinejad, Chávez had more electoral legitimacy than Bush in 2000 or Cameron (outside Witney) today. Chávez, who had at least won an election, had any. Cameron, whom the electorate has explicitly rejected, has none.

9 comments:

  1. Ian Smith's Ghost6 March 2013 at 02:18

    How does Cameron not have legitimacy?

    He commands a majority of MPs in Parliament. That's how the system works.

    You're confusing a presidential system with direct elections to a Westminster one. Quite the gaff for an "academic" to make.

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  2. Oh dear Lord, Lindsay has sunk to the level of defending Chavez.

    Chavez, the ally and confidante of the world's most vicious dictators, from Fidel Castro to Vladimir Putin and Ahmadinejad (who executes 15-year old homosexuals and rape victims).

    Chavez, the totalitarian French Revolutionary who packed the judiciary and the media with his friends and family.

    Viva Bolivar indeed.

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  3. Sectarian Leftists and the neoconservatives call Chavez a “Bonapartist,” which is really not much of an insult in this case. Chavez was probably a good representative of the old Left Bonapartist tradition That Sectarian Leftists and neoconservatives see it as an insult tells us all we need to know about them.

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  4. Ian Smith's Ghost, that one has touched some very raw nerves wherever I have posted it. Including here, I see.

    Anonymous, look up Uzbekistan. For a start. Peter Hitchens is good on this. And ask the judiciary in this country about the present Government here.

    John, I have just put up a post on the Bonapartist question.

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  5. Ian Smith's Ghost6 March 2013 at 23:32

    It's not touched a nerve. It's a bit of a stupid point.

    Using that logic, Brown (who I note you're a supporter of) had no legitimacy. That's nonsense. Again, a majority of MPs supported him which made him legitimate.

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  6. Keep proving my point.

    Of course I know all of this. But it really gets to you that Cameron didn't win. It really, really, really gets to you.

    And he never will win. He has none of the popular appeal of Chávez or Ahmadinejad, his democratic betters.

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  7. Ian Smith's Ghost7 March 2013 at 00:12

    Not really. Shameron's destruction of the armed forces and capitulation to the EU means nothing has changed regardless of whether he or Brown won.

    "Ahmadinejad, his democratic betters."

    You're good at satire. Better than as an academic I imagine.

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  8. Cameron didn't win the election. Correct. But, if coalitions aren't democratic, most of Europe's Governments for the past half century are undemocratic.

    And you support an undemocratic, unaccountable Euro-elite making our policies for us (as you showed, over the bankers bonus caps).

    So where's your consistency in backing democracy?

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  9. Oh, this is such fun!

    Ian Smith's Ghost, it's a fact. A sorry fact in many ways, mostly for Britain. But a fact, all the same.

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