04 January 2011

04/01/11


The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything. 
-Walter Bagehot

97 comments:

  1. Paul re: your post of 23:18 last night.

    We desperately need a new politics on the Left which is not dominated by White middle class 'do as i say and not as i do' types,is all inclusive and which binds mixed communities together as being British.And for that to happen political correctness needs to be cast aside and certain realities faced up too on all sides.Until that happens i fear many Black and Asian people in particular will view ID politics as being the best way of POTENTIALLY giving them a voice.

    I couldn't agree more only a united front of all w/c people, regardless of race, religion, gender or nationality/culture can solve the problems we face. The problem with identity politics is that it divides the class in exactly the same way as the ruling class tactic of divide and rule does.

    As a woman I can remember my final rejection of radical feminism in favour of class politics. Its when I realised that some like Tony Benn, for example, was more on my side than Margaret Thatcher.

    The only way forward is solidarity between all sections of the working class. It is also important to work for a leadership we can trust as however united the class is it is sadly more likely to be defeated by its own leadership than by the ruling class, as the Grunwick dispute, where there was outstanding solidarity between the largely white TU movement and the Asian women who were on strike demanding TU recognition by their employer.

    There was slogan back then 'Black and White unite and fight', its worth resurrecting!

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  2. The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.
    -Walter Bagehot


    That seems to have shut everyone up.

    Paul from yesterday evening:

    We desperately need a new politics on the Left which is not dominated by White middle class 'do as i say and not as i do' types,is all inclusive and which binds mixed communities together as being British.And for that to happen political correctness needs to be cast aside and certain realities faced up too on all sides.Until that happens i fear many Black and Asian people in particular will view ID politics as being the best way of POTENTIALLY giving them a voice.

    I would go along with the idea that things need to be done differently and that those who do have the media influence to guide, cajole, molest or control public opinion have abused their positions of trust and power.

    We also need to think about how we each make our attempts to change the world for the better - in our own view, of course.

    It seems a pity that all the promise which the internet once held does not seem to have materialised, somehow.

    A bit like the funny ideas we used to have that by the turn of the millennium, we would all be driving round in cars which flew and spending most of our time on the beach with robot servants catering to our every whim.

    Instead, we all pray that our dilapidated and recalcitrant old bangers will get us to work for one more day, so we are not summarily dismissed and have to live in those same cars and use the roadside ditch for our both our lavatory and bath.

    Somehow, this is not working.

    Whether it is the tools at our disposal or how we use them or the fact that we are not as good at the game of life as the big boys, we are losing.

    Somehow, I do not see internet discussions as the cavalry coming over the hill or the big bird swooping down to save us in its powerful but strangely gentle claws.

    I'm not exactly signing off or tuning in and dropping out.

    I think maybe I am just going walkabout.

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  3. I do think that the web offers scope for global connectedness - I think it does do that. However, I fear that's what's happening on the internet at the moment is precisely what's happened to our physical world. It's becoming increasingly individualised. Instead of the community idea that was embodied by message boards, it's been overrun with blogs and facebook and its clones and twitter - all media that enable us, really, to talk to ourselves.

    I don't think I ever saw the internet as a rescuer of left wing politics. There's no magical method. We have to do it ourselves, on the ground. One of the things that scares me most about the Cameron cockerel is his theft of a concept I hold quite dear. His big society is a half-arsed tory attempt to hijack the idea of local organisation and community empowerment. I guess my concern is that this will somehow neutralise the real deal.

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  4. I posted something on this thread hours ago, thought it had posted - its been spammed!

    Can someone rescue it please!

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  5. meerkat

    Yes its what we used to call solidarity in a social rather than a TU sense.

    The way people used to pop in a see if 'that old lady down the road' was OK. Postmen who noticed if someone wasn't picking up their mail, in the past despite the poverty (or maybe because of it) people in w/c areas looked out for each other.

    Nowadays we don't. We expect it to be done by social services.

    This doesn't mean of course that we don't need social services, we do but in all sorts of little community building ways we should take time to think of our neighbours I think.

    Cameron's big society means the wealthy don't have to pay taxes for social services - not the same at all. Its based on the skewed notion that only the wealthy pay taxes - wish that were true in a way!

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  6. You're right, clearly about the need for solidarity Anne. But somehow we need to find some way of building that that doesn't reproduce the hegemonic discourses of whiteness and masculinity as a taken for granted norm.

    I don't think that's been worked out yet. But until it is, fragmentation is inevitable.

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  7. On an unrelated note, I'm really fed up with this 'trying to work' business. My head seems to have stopped working. Can we have a bit more Christmas instead?

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  8. This is the thing for me, though!

    It's sort of like the difference between a kind of ad-hoc, reactive law, and a pro-active, statutory type law.

    When a is discriminated against by y, for example, you can make a law that prohibits y (and maybe w and x, if you're particularly foresighted) from discriminating against a again, (and maybe b and c), but even though it's now a 'statute', it's still more or less ad-hoc in that it's fairly specific in scope, based on certain events, and, although it sets a precedent, it's still up to
    everyone else to fight for themselves within those parameters.

    If, however, you say that y, or someone like y, is always liable to be a cunt, and that the system will always mean there will be an a, b or c for them to be a cunt to, so let's fucking change that, rather than just, perhaps, allowing for 'individual' justice if and when it happens, then you stand more of a chance of stopping it from ever happening in the first place.

    Attaining rights for a, while being generally accepted as a good thing, just pushes the problem elsewhere usually.
    Without wanting to mix an already strained metaphor, it's like sticking a top coat of plaster over a damp, decayed wall. It might solve the problem temporarily, it might even mean that little bit of wall never again looks damp, but unless you strip the fucker right back, and do some extensive repair work and rebuilding, the rot's just going to find somewhere else to come through!

    And, even worse, we're more likely to be distracted and complacent because we're still busy high-fiving each other over the bit we did 'fix'!

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  9. (NB - I am, as is probably fairly obvious, neither a lawyer nor a plasterer, so feel free to ignore any and all mistakes resulting from this).

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  10. The trouble, James, is the wall (capitalism). Never mind re-building the fucker: we need to start over and build something else--a geodesic dome of decency, perhaps...that idiot Bracken wouldnt' like it and that's good enough for me...The Staple Singers - Hammer and Nails

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  11. Hello, all. Has anyone seen the cctv footage of "the attack" on HRH? The guardian link doesn't work and, indeed has now vanished, so here's the Torygraph.

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  12. Yes indeed, politely, we do need something else, or at least a vastly different version of a wall.

    (I'm writing on an iPod, and have an ongoing "fat fingers issue", so was kind of hoping that was implied though...)

    ;0)

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  13. And on a conspiracy theory, you don't see the paint being thrown, but rather a lot faces blurred out. Things that make you go hmmm...

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  14. Heyhabib,

    and it's taken how long for the 'enhanced' footage of the nasty-pasty, violent student 'attack' on our beloved, yet genetically challenged, future king to emerge??

    You just can't get the video-editing staff these days, let alone over Christmas.
    I, for one, blame the fucking unions.....

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  15. Afternoon all

    Very, very good points by everyone on the need to transcend ID politics and promote solidarity irrespective of race, gender, ethnicity, creed, colour, sexual orientation, etc.

    But... there is always a but isn't there... in an ideal world this would be easy to achieve, but it all has to start with education. It has to become as daft in people's minds to discriminate on the basis of these things as it would be to discriminate based on whether people had brown eyes or green.

    I very much fear that unless and until that happens, as Paul rightly says, some groups will still find that the only way of making themselves heard is by pushing their own particular group's needs to the forefront.

    And again, James, you are right too - would that we lived in a world where assholes were just assholes and it didn't even occur to people to specifically be an asshole to a, b or c because they were different.

    Habib - I get to see a fair bit of CCTV in my job, as you can imagine, and there is nothing on that video that could reasonably lead to arrest, much less a conviction, it seems to me. I think Theresa May already denied that anyone was poked with a stick anyway, didn't she? Also, if the stills are to be believed, it was Charlie boy who was sat on that side of the car, not Camilla anyway...

    And I seem to recall reading that the "Off with their heads" comment came from the Dad of the kid who was filming the original youtube clip, who just happened to be walking past and were nothing to do with anything. Which is hilarious.

    Anyway, a gentle first day back for me. Now feeling like this...

    Don't you want to save me?

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  16. Also re the paint and the damage to the car window, I am pretty sure I saw footage of both their lownesses getting out of the car at the theatre and there was no paint or smashed windows in sight then... I bet it happened afterwards, while the cars were sat outside the theatre.

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  17. Morrissey had it about right:

    Farewell to this land's cheerless marshes
    Hemmed in like a boar between arches
    Her very Lowness with a head in a sling
    I'm truly sorry - but it sounds like a wonderful thing


    I said Charles, don't you ever crave
    To appear on the front of the Daily Mail
    Dressed in your Mother's bridal veil ?

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  18. Good afternoon. Escaped from work early, mercifully.

    On identity politics, it is interesting that it is those who already have a voice/representation who are the ones calling for an end to identity politics, never those who felt compelled to fight for recognition as different from the mainstream.

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  19. Indeed MsChin. But they tend not to care for it very much when that's pointed out to them...

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  20. Meerkatjie

    Have I missed a new publication from Hakim? Must I read it ... I wasn't too enamoured of the 'part-time work as choice' stuff.

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  21. I'd have to disagree with that, MsChin!!

    I'm arguing precisely that, in order to give everyone the voice, we need to focus on the war, and not the individual battles.

    (Because, even when you look at an individual person, they have so many 'identities', that even if a couple of battles have gone in their favour, there's still no absolute victory).

    So, I can go on fighting the remaining battles for my "identities", or for somebody else who's identity x, whom I sympathise with, or, we can all actually say, I'm a person, and it doesn't matter my faith, sexuality, colour is, the games a fucking sham, and there's always going to be someone who doesn't have a voice, so let's just remove the fuckers who've always got their boot on somebody's larynx.....

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  22. I have to be distracted and consider your points about whatever "Identity Politics" is, but,well it is that hour.

    So here's a tribute to the boy and the girl who are "most wanted" on the Met vid.

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  23. http://www.cps.org.uk/cps_catalog/Feminist%20Myths%20and%20Magic%20Medicine.pdf

    This one MsChin. It's a cracker.

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  24. I have only just perused the summary on Hakim's report, but I said 18 months ago that first the immigrants would be vilified, then the working women.

    At times of economic squeeze and mass unemployment, capital needs to find a way of making it unacceptable for the flexible workforce to be in employment, in order to provide enough work for the male british working class for a while, to avoid social unrest. In my opinion.

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  25. Just in the first para of the intro, this is utter bollocks:

    "Average gross household income almost doubled from £324 per week in 1970 to £552 per week in 2002/3"

    And the cost of living and housing, you silly woman?

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  26. Am now stuck in but ... but ... but ... mode, meerkat.

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  27. And more women would return to work after childbirth sooner if there was proper, publicly-subsidised child-care facilities available for all. And the reason why the mother tends to stay at home is because she is the one likely to be earning less than the father because there is still no parity in pay.

    FFS - I can't read this any more or I will blow a gasket.

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  28. Oh snap, MsChin.

    What a complete pile of tendencial poop. ( I don't even know if tendencial is a word in English, but if it isn't, I just made it up...)

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  29. @habib

    That clip isn't available on YouTube Germany. What was the content? I was talking to a friend yesterday who told me there were a lot of videos available in France on YouTube but not in Germany. Tougher copyright laws, I wonder?

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  30. The Torygraph clip, Spike? Here you go, the met's youtube site.

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  31. Meerkatjie,
    "I don't think I ever saw the internet as a rescuer of left wing politics. There's no magical method. We have to do it ourselves, on the ground."

    We do, but if we get half a million on a march, it's less than 1% of the population. Not effective.

    Unless, of course they can influence (or scare the shit out of) a large percentage of the remaining population. Making media stories seems to be what scares the crap out of politicians.

    "the hegemonic discourses of whiteness and masculinity as a taken for granted norm. I don't think that's been worked out yet. But until it is, fragmentation is inevitable."

    Yes. Yes it is.

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  32. I love the language in that torygraph story - "the moment a mob descended".... Or alternately, "the moment some twat led the royal car into a group of peaceful protestors, a few of whom subsequently realised that the future king was in the car, and opportunistically slapped the car about a bit...."

    And really, if that's the only evidence the police could come up with after all this time, I think the individuals involved can sleep easy at night.

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  33. From the Belgium-bothering poseuse extraordinaire, two pearls in the space of two hours:

    The grandfather of one of my closest colleagues owns a huge stately home in the UK.

    A family friend (I used to play with her when we were children) married into the Romanov dynasty and I often wonder if her great-grandmother-in-law had a thing with Rasputin.


    Don't you all feel humbled to be in the presence of such greatness by proxy?

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  34. BB
    "transcend ID politics and promote solidarity irrespective of race, gender, ethnicity, creed, colour, sexual orientation, etc.
    ... in an ideal world this would be easy to achieve, but it all has to start with education."

    People are getting that education, just not through school. (But shhh, don't tell the BNP)

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  35. @habib

    I saw that one. The one you labelled "boy and the girl" wasn't available. Didn't involve a shared cup or anything, did it? ;-)

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  36. AB

    That's the kiddie! Tendential. I think.

    Habib - LOL. Well, I live in hope that the next generation will be less bigotted than this one, in the same way that I am less bigotted than my parents are/were. Little by little the bird makes its nest, as those frenchies say.

    Speaking of frenchies, wotcha Spike. And wotcha anyone else I have inadvertantly ignored too...

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  37. Sorry, Spike, the other was just a bit of music describing the high regard I hold the woman and her friend in for slapping the bonnet of The Royal Car.

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  38. Hi, BB.

    Still in Berlin. Have a very early flight back to Paris tomorrow.

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  39. @Habib

    Oh, right. Apparently the Germans block a lot of music videos.

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  40. Personally, I wouldn't have had the courage to slap the car. Identity politics for you - don't fuck about with the police if you've got brown skin - cap in your ass before you can get a placard through bullet proof glass...

    :-)

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  41. james

    the games a fucking sham, and there's always going to be someone who doesn't have a voice, so let's just remove the fuckers who've always got their boot on somebody's larynx.....

    Agree with the above - although also have sympathy with what MsC says too. Single issue campaigns have contributed to notable improvements in the law and general attitudes for some groups. Its not nearly enough obviously and what little has been achieved has taken a long time.

    Thats not to say I like it because it does create damaging divisions too. I remember for example, the divisions that grew up between black and white and working class/middle class women during the 70s feminist explosion. Was very frustrating and lots of energy and time were wasted. Is this a process we have to go through though, given the wider circs? (just asking!!)

    It'd be so much better if all those with a boot on their throat - 1, realised that that was the case (amazing the number of people who think they live in a free society). 2, noticed that they shared their plight with others. 3, cared enough to do something about it rather than just lying there saying yes boss, no boss, three bags fucking full boss. But they don't and now most of us are still sitting on our separate arses and watching while they snatch what small gains have been made back again.

    But doesn't it all just come down to tinkering around the edges of a totally rotten and corrupt set of systems which we need to sweep away? - although with the present absence of any real sense of solidarity, which is essential, the concept having been successfully crushed its difficult to see how we might do that, even if it were possible.

    Sorry rambling a bit and now I'm cross again - bugger!! There's so much to be furious about it's difficult to know where to turn...

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  42. Habib

    Happy to slot the odd royal on your behalf...given the opportunity.

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  43. Cheers, Sheff! I could never condone violence, but I know where the real stuff comes from.

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  44. Anyone read this sickening piece?

    The US embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a military-style trade war against any European Union country which opposed genetically modified (GM) crops, newly released WikiLeaks cables show.

    ...

    In addition, the cables show US diplomats working directly for GM companies such as Monsanto.

    ...

    The cables show that not only did the Spanish government ask the US to keep pressure on Brussels but that the US knew in advance how Spain would vote, even before the Spanish biotech commission had reported.

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  45. Saw that Thaum - US gov pimping for Monsanto et al. Why am I not surprised..

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  46. That is fucking disgusting but not in the least bit surprising, Thaum.

    And someone has just faxed me some work that I need to look at so I might catch you later, but if not, have a good evening everyone xx

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  47. Sheff

    Don't get me wrong, I absolutely have sympathy for most of the x's that get fucked over, and, I appreciate that I'm extremely lucky in that, personally, I don't have that many x's stacked against me.

    Perhaps a better way to illustrate my point is this:

    With the whole 'gutting spending with a rusty spoon' thing currently being undertaken by our glorious leaders, we have, in effect, seen a massive emergence of these single-issue campaigners.

    So, on just the pages of CiF, for example, we see 'save the arts', 'save the libraries', 'save the museums', 'save my kids cello lessons', 'save the NHS', 'the cuts will hurt women the most' etc, etc.

    In and of themselves, they're all fairly valid points, perhaps, but, they're all given equal voice, and they're all, in effect, competing against each other, and, most importantly, they seem to be preventing the emergence of a unified 'fuck the cuts...it was all nothing to do with any of us' narrative!!

    If the 'save our libraries' one succeeds, for example, I suspect they'll be more likely to say 'job done - we just wanted it more...', than joining in with another one.

    Because they know someone 'has' to lose out, and, quite frankly, they just don't want it to be them!!

    When, really, instead of just trying not to be the one that loses out, they should all be saying, 'hang on a minute, why do any of us 'have' to lose out in the first place....

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  48. I could never condone violence,

    Only a very little slap Habib - indulge me..

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  49. and, most importantly, they seem to be preventing the emergence of a unified 'fuck the cuts...it was all nothing to do with any of us' narrative!!

    Again i agree James. We tend to take on what affects us most directly, in terms of the cuts, whether its local libraries, schools, community centres, the local hospital etc...and we end up with lots of disparate campaigns with no coordination. We do need to join up the struggle.

    Looking at the big picture is really frightening and people don't think they can influence that, whereas cmpaigning and lobbying their council about local issues is something they feel they can do. They're also worried about hanging on to their jobs (if they have one), their mortgages - so won't take the necessary risks.

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  50. James

    In and of themselves, they're all fairly valid points, perhaps, but, they're all given equal voice, and they're all, in effect, competing against each other, and, most importantly, they seem to be preventing the emergence of a unified 'fuck the cuts...it was all nothing to do with any of us' narrative!!

    Good point.

    When I was starting off in my (so-called) career 20 years ago, there was blatant sexism. There really isn't now. That battle has been won, at least in the UK and the US.

    Yes, there are isolated incidents, but those are actionable and the bigger fight is for greater justice for all.

    Fuck the yummy mummies who want to take 6 years out of their careers to look after little Joanna and Eustace, and who expect to come back to the same job and conditions after. Linda who works at the supermarket doesn't get that option; nor does her partner.

    In general, I'd think Linda's kids are less likely to end up as psychopaths. And yet she is the one with the far more pressing problems.

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  51. Sheff

    Yup, and for me, it's not an accident that we're all scrabbling around for our own survival, and, perhaps committing to a 'campaign' we feel important, rather than uniting.

    The government knew, from previous experience, that we'd go running off in different directions when we heard the first shots, to protect 'our own', rather than forming one solid group!!


    Thaum

    Exactly, so what you have, in effect, is the women who gained most from the initial improvements (which were achieved because they stood shoulder to shoulder with Linda etc), continuing to press for more and more 'gains' that, not only will Linda never see, but that will, more than likely, hurt her even more......

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  52. Erm, I seem to have gone done broke the internet!!

    Sorry 'bout that, folks!!

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  53. "The government knew, from previous experience, that we'd go running off in different directions when we heard the first shots, to protect 'our own', rather than forming one solid group!!"

    Old days, James.

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  54. I'm back, James!

    I haven't really got much of any import to say, as usual, though.

    How about some choonez instead?

    And it's okaaaaaaaaaaaay!

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  55. Take my word for it, there's a new movement in the offing. We just need a figurehead.

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  56. You can be the figurehead, Habib.

    You know you want to...

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  57. I'd love to be, BB, but after a couple of days I'd say fuck it if you're not prepared to be communist I can't be arsed.

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  58. I'd love to be proved wrong, but I don't see an obvious contender....

    Certainly not Ed fucking Millivanilli!!

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  59. Hi folks, sad news just on CH4, Gerry Rafferty has passed away.

    • Gerald Rafferty, musician, born 16 April 1947; died 4 January 2011

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  60. If Mike Mansfield QC was a tad more in touch with the universe outside Planet Law, I could quite see him being a great figurehead. He's a damn good socialist, he is a great persuader and has a good deal of charisma.

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  61. Sad news about Gerry Rafferty. RIP.

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  62. haha - was just going to mention that!

    (no offence BB, obviously..)

    ;0)

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  63. Aye, IanG, there's another fine drinking man gone, drinking men should remember him.

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  64. Pete Posthlewaite and Gerry Rafferty in the same couple of days? :-(

    Listening to Baker Street - ta James.

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  65. In fact, listening to that reminded me how much I love the saxophone.

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  66. Just reading up on Gerry, he was still getting 80k/yr for Baker St recently. Let alone all the other stuff he did and the sales around 78 originally. I recall it well as we had just married then and lived in a bit of dump (Kingsthorp, Northampton) *ducks below parapet* and it was played non-stop on the radio.

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  67. Shaz, I can't believe that, made me feel old; only twenty years older than me. Better get to making things worthwhile.

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  68. @heyhabib muttered...Shaz, I can't believe that, made me feel old; only twenty years older than me. Better get to making things worthwhile.

    Twenty! You should be so lucky, it is 5 in my case.

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  69. Evening all.....

    Thauma
    .....an ex of mine is a fab sax player, i remember being super impressed at 17 by him playing the sax break in the rafferty song....bless him he's got severe bipolar now......

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  70. But IanG, I haven't achieved a single effing thing!

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  71. The local section of the PCF have sent out a mail to inform us of the death over the holidays of two blokes I've known forever. One of them was a member of the local secretariat of the Party and a tenants' association activist. The other was also a Party militant, born in Puteaux, a close (and in those days extremely working-class) suburb of Paris. From a Breton family, one of sixteen children, he was a carpenter and a total fucking poet. I could listen to him telling tall stories in jaw-droppingly colourful Parisian slang over a beer or three for hours on end. A dying breed. I'll miss him.

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  72. If we're going sax, how about some vintage Roxy Music?

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  73. Actually heyhabib, you make a serious point. I do think about what I have achieved and how we would be remembered.

    Just about to watch Silent Witness. Did anyone see Zen? that was fun and having read the book it kept to the author's atmosphere.

    Well, cheers for now.

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  74. Cheers, Shaz. Just the cycle of life, really. The older you get...

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  75. IanG
    "I do think about what I have achieved and how we would be remembered."
    With the fond memories Spike has for his friends (peace be upon them), is perhaps the best thing. Hard to deserve that, though.

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  76. Sorry about your friends, Spike. x

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  77. I know we shouldn't put too much store in appearance, but one thing that life has taught me is this: when you come across a furtive, rat-faced little fucker, never:

    a) buy a bag of 'righteous' weed from him (it'll turn out mixed herbs and chopped pine needles)
    b) lend him £20 till the end of the week
    c) make him Chancellor

    ...it'll always end in tears

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  78. james

    So, on just the pages of CiF, for example, we see 'save the arts', 'save the libraries', 'save the museums', 'save my kids cello lessons', 'save the NHS', 'the cuts will hurt women the most' etc, etc.

    In and of themselves, they're all fairly valid points, perhaps, but, they're all given equal voice, and they're all, in effect, competing against each other, and, most importantly, they seem to be preventing the emergence of a unified 'fuck the cuts...it was all nothing to do with any of us' narrative!! …

    ... When, really, instead of just trying not to be the one that loses out, they should all be saying, 'hang on a minute, why do any of us 'have' to lose out in the first place.

    That’s just exactly the point we need an allianceto unite all of these single issues into one united campaign!

    Re; Gerry Rafferty, you guys think you’ve got problems I’m nearly 5 years older than he was !!
    Pete Postlethwaite was about the same age.

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  79. Is it my imagination or is that idiot Bracken becoming stupider and more blimpish with every passing week?

    I suppose when one has so few brain cells to spare, burning them up on What Recipe Do You Wanna Exchange With The Romanovs of Brussels is a mistake.

    Mind you, I have to laugh at the Bracken-apologists who turn up periodically to bleat that they've 'met Bracken and he's a gentleman'.

    Does it not occur to you that Bracken (like Fred West, Dr. Harold Shipman, Norman Tebbit or any other sociopath) is well aware of the fact that, in the analogue world (certainly in my part of it), he'll get his flabby arse kicked if he runs his mouth the way he does online?

    Of course he's a fucking gent in the flesh: what choice does he have? The real man appears online, where the only consequences are disapproval and insults, as opposed to a size-11 boot up his hole. Jesus...

    As for The State--only one answer..."I don't even care if I look a mess, don't wanna be a sucker like all the rest"...Smash It Up - The Damned

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  80. politelyhomicidal,

    "in the analogue world (certainly in my part of it), he'll get his flabby arse kicked if he runs his mouth the way he does online?"

    Yeah, but he's our arsehole and I'll fight anyone else who fights him!

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  81. politelyhomicidal
    I've met him and he's a much more restrained arsehole in person.

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  82. Another great find via Open Culture; the Travel Film Archive.

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  83. Watched a documentary on More4 earlier which dealt with the aftermath of the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994.Amongst other things i hadn't realized the extent to which France was not only complicit in the genocide itself but also used the guise of humanitarian intervention to enable some of the killers to escape to neighbouring Congo where they have continued with their murderous ways.

    Here's a clip from the film HOTEL RWANDA to appear as link when it becomes clear that the UN troops had only been sent to the hotel to evacuate the mainly White non Rwandans. The Rwandans-who included moderate Hutus as well as Tutsis-were abandoned to their fate.

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