Questions Of The Day (Politics)

[Mick Harper]

I am not surprised that the Rt Rev George Carey was allowed to address the nation spitting fury about him not being informed his Right to Officiate was being withdrawn. For those of you who weren't at the last synod, let me remind you what we adopted about this as part of canon law

[Wile E. Coyote]

Things are picking up, begging is returning to the highstreets.

[Mick Harper]

I am surprised since, as self employed small businessmen, they are eligible for several government schemes. Let us all keep an eye on our own local beggars supplemented with discreet calls to the Government Blag-A-Covid-Crim Hotline to make sure everyone is aware of their rights. You are allowed to work for sixteen hours without losing benefit under pre-Covid regulations but that may not be à propos. Tell them.

[Grant]

It would have been arrogant of Gandhi to assume leadership of the rainbow nation but I doubt if he would have wanted to. This is Gandhi in 1907 talking of prison - "Kaffirs are as a rule uncivilised - the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals. The reader can easily imagine the plight of the poor Indian thrown into such company."

[Wile E. Coyote]

Gandhi had suffered racism. As a progressive reformist for the minority Indian community that he was a part of, he aimed to right this wrong by civilized protest, ie non violent protest, drawing on his Indian heritage and British education in law. It appears that both Martin Luther King and Mandela were savvy enough to know and see what actually worked.

[Chad]

Starmer wasted little time in dispatching Becca... Wonder how her bestie Angela will react?

[Mick Harper]

Let's be clear what it means. Starmer used the 'unity' ticket to get elected which, as the only clear right wing candidate, he had to do. The Labour Party is normally led from the centre-left, that is someone with left wing credentials (to keep the rank and file happy) but who follows right wing policies (to keep the electorate happy). The only exceptions were Hugh Gaitskill who presided over a rancorously split party that couldn't get elected, and Jeremy Corbyn from the opposite wing.

But the problem is always the same: how to keep the Left quiet while the right wins elections because the Left keep wondering what's the point if you are going to get Tory policies anyway. The two methods of keeping the Left quiet are
1) buttering them up
2) smashing them down

Starmer has just announced he is going for the latter. Personally I think this is unwise -- judged from a Labour point of view -- but presumably he calculates, as Kinnock did, that there is no alternative given the current strength of the Left. Me, I'd go for buttering up because of the current strength of the Left.

[Mick Harper]

We are only in the mess we're in because of this factor. Everyone knew that Ed Milliband was hopeless and David M was a super-smooth election winner. But Ed was miniscully to the left and got the nod. But there is logic in this! The Left understands it can only flourish in chaos -- party or country -- and only Milliband Junior could provide it. Who knows, maybe Starmer's strategy will provide it. Let's hope so from the point of view of spectacle. Come on, Angela, stop dragging your knuckles along the floor and come out fighting.

[Mick Harper]

[Wile E. Coyote]

The Revolutionary Communist Party has successfully infiltrated both the Brexit party (Clare Fox) and the Tory Party (Munira Mirza). They are in so deep folks have forgotten that they are Marxists. Or maybe they are in so deep they have forgotten they are Marxists. It's called a Gus McDonald.

[Mick Harper]

Don't you mean 'a Paul Mason'?

[Wile E. Coyote]

I don't know about Paul. He did that whole St George face, Geri Halliwel dress thing. I really would like to think he could be counted in with Foxy, Mirza, Gus and, err, Blunt but sorry, Mick, Paul is defo more Fashionista than Sandinista.

[Mick Harper]

I would like to defend Paul's revolutionary credentials but first, what's Blunt doing there? He was a Stalinist not a Trotskyist. There might not be an ice-pick between them in terms of overall ideology but it mattered a lot to them.

[Wile E. Coyote]

You wouldn't have wanted Leon in charge, it would be like having Guevara, only worse. Leon would have undoubtedly have lost WW2, then where would we be?

[Mick Harper]

Why not go back a step? If the Nazis had not been in charge, and all the local Jewish atomic scientists were still around, Germany would have been (easily) the first country with atomic weapons. Where would we be then? Speaking German, because for sure Germany under any regime would not have allowed anyone else to make them.