tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25656996.post3653577924771131933..comments2024-03-27T20:14:40.376+00:00Comments on David Lindsay: Potentially Transformational, IndeedDavid Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839882674758833524noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25656996.post-41990344517996821112023-03-31T21:18:45.878+01:002023-03-31T21:18:45.878+01:00"To have Cabinet Ministers who were Communist..."To have Cabinet Ministers who were Communist sympathizers at the time of the Cold War is appalling and deeply shocking."<br /><br />To whom? The Tory Governments of the period were far more conciliatory towards the Soviet Union than the rarer right-wing Labour ones were, anyway. And that is before mentioning dealings with the unions at home.<br /><br />"I can't think of any former Tory Minister in the Thatcher years who had any remotely equivalent connections to the Far Right."<br /><br />Then you don't know what you're talking about.<br /><br />Prayer?David Lindsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06839882674758833524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25656996.post-41218430176216742722023-03-31T20:51:15.724+01:002023-03-31T20:51:15.724+01:00To have Cabinet Ministers who were Communist sympa...To have Cabinet Ministers who were Communist sympathizers at the time of the Cold War is appalling and deeply shocking.<br /><br />I can't think of any former Tory Minister in the Thatcher years who had any remotely equivalent connections to the Far Right. Nobody in their right mind has ever lost a moment's sleep worrying that the Tory Party has suddenly become too Right wing. The very thought is laughable. They are now effectively the Blairites at prayer.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25656996.post-56957490842015459792023-03-28T22:09:56.838+01:002023-03-28T22:09:56.838+01:00Well, yes, but it's not news. They could have ...Well, yes, but it's not news. They could have just asked him.David Lindsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06839882674758833524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25656996.post-15052749139590828222023-03-28T21:27:35.354+01:002023-03-28T21:27:35.354+01:00https://youtu.be/ZxaQFpkBoNohttps://youtu.be/ZxaQFpkBoNoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25656996.post-5074279902627211622023-03-28T14:37:11.610+01:002023-03-28T14:37:11.610+01:00It is not a double standard. You just do not under...It is not a double standard. You just do not understand how it works. I wonder if you have ever been to Britain?<br /><br />Mick McGahey used to be on <i>Any Questions?</i> in the Thatcher years. The <i>Morning Star</i> is in the Lobby. And so on. It has never worked like that. It just hasn't.<br /><br />That said, especially of the 1980s student generation, it is perfectly normal for very senior Conservative politicians to have the most deeply dodgy Far Right connections.David Lindsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06839882674758833524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25656996.post-59218072017783616712023-03-28T14:15:59.441+01:002023-03-28T14:15:59.441+01:00What of it? Well, put it this way, if any similarl...What of it? Well, put it this way, if any similarly senior Tories were ever outed as former members or sympathisers of Far Right equivalents of the IMG or Young Communists, there’d be unending uproar. The double standard is disgusting.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25656996.post-12883813571043364662023-03-27T19:38:12.523+01:002023-03-27T19:38:12.523+01:00The Morning Star is not distributed like that. It ...The <i>Morning Star</i> is not distributed like that. It is sent out to subscribers and sold in shops. It is part of the Parliamentary Lobby, briefed twice daily by the Prime Minister's Press Secretary. MPs write for it. But Mandelson did used to sell whatever the YCL was putting out at the time. What of it? Everyone has always known that.David Lindsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06839882674758833524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25656996.post-77038497212672341092023-03-27T19:28:24.671+01:002023-03-27T19:28:24.671+01:00Mandelson used to sell the Morning Star newspaper ...Mandelson used to sell the Morning Star newspaper outside tube stations as a teenager. I remember watching a tv documentary on him the presenter asked two young girls who were selling the same newspaper outside a tube station about who used to do the same 20 years earlier. The look on their faces when he told themAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25656996.post-85153973202057461802023-03-27T16:34:09.240+01:002023-03-27T16:34:09.240+01:00Oh, he would win. But you are right that he has be...Oh, he would win. But you are right that he has been far too sentimental about the Labour Party.<br /><br />The rest was never any kind of secret. The right-wing papers screamed it all for years. The electorate just shrugged its shoulders at academically highfalutin formulations of what Middle England thought anyway. From opposite sides of the old Tankie-Trot split, that was what Eurocommunism and Pabloism were, and are.David Lindsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06839882674758833524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25656996.post-48299135500680431172023-03-27T16:24:38.608+01:002023-03-27T16:24:38.608+01:00He is too decent to stand against his own party, a...He is too decent to stand against his own party, and he'd probably lose. <br /><br />New Labour Ministers went to great lengths to conceal their radical leftwing pasts and were only outed by newspapers and ex friends or colleagues. George Galloway 'outed' Alastair Darling as a (former?) active sympathiser of the International Marxist Group in Edinburgh in the 1970s (of which Bob Ainsworth was also a former 'candidate member'). Stephen Byers was outed by the Guardian in January 1999 as a one-time supporter of the Trotskyist Militant tendency. <br /><br />Blair himself only recently admitted long after leaving office that he'd been a Trotskyist at Oxford. We know Peter Mandelson was definitely a Young Communist but he's never revealed whether he was a member of the adult Communist party, and we may never find out.<br /><br />They didn't want people to know about the extent of the Far Left's links with New Labour, but it would undermine their claim to be 'centrists.'Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25656996.post-17107130735146333192023-03-27T15:55:05.990+01:002023-03-27T15:55:05.990+01:00Oh, I reckon he'll stand. He would certainly b...Oh, I reckon he'll stand. He would certainly be the First Past the Post. Look out for Labour guff about physical fear being the reason why they couldn't find a candidate against him. No, dears, you just didn't fancy coming fourth or below in an English seat.<br /><br />Blair never hid his past. It was reported endlessly while he was Leader of the Opposition, and later. It was just that nobody cared. Eurocommunism was really what most middle-aged, middle-class people thought in the 1990s and 2000s, as Pabloism is today.David Lindsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06839882674758833524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25656996.post-56746913152957874912023-03-27T14:47:50.081+01:002023-03-27T14:47:50.081+01:00Corbyn won’t stand at all.
Yes in the sense the ...Corbyn won’t stand at all. <br /><br />Yes in the sense the Blairites are more leftwing on many issues than Corbyn, but Corbyn’s at least honest about his views. Whereas, (just as Blair tried to hide his CND past and much of his Cabinet tried to hide its eurocommunist past), his opponents pretend to be ”centrists” when they’re nothing of the sort. I prefer Corbyn’s sort of leftist and it gives me no pleasure to see him go.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25656996.post-65865414913220709812023-03-27T13:54:25.410+01:002023-03-27T13:54:25.410+01:00Announced again. How very Starmer. Corbyn will eas...Announced again. How very Starmer. Corbyn will easily hold the seat, of course.<br /><br />I thought you regarded the Government as "Far Left"?David Lindsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06839882674758833524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25656996.post-30064328323067176292023-03-27T11:07:07.788+01:002023-03-27T11:07:07.788+01:00The jig is up for Corbyn. Starmer is to officially...The jig is up for Corbyn. Starmer is to officially block him standing for Labour, it's been announced.<br /><br />Parliament waves goodbye to the Far Left.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com