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Baroness Sylvie Krin: Is Jackie Ashley Now Spoofing Her?
Susan Press is a Councillor up Hebden way, a journalist and lecturer, and a no compromise Labour Party socialist. Despite all the harlots and traitors sneering and jeering this is of course a good thing to be.
Susan's latest post compares the Guardian's poor Jackie Ashley to the Private Eye sycophant Sylvie Krin, now of course Baroness Sylvie Krin of Toady Hall. Basically, while Jackie says we've yet to see Gordon Brown as he really is, i.e. better than he currently looks, Susan has yet to catch him doing anything right.
Susan also thinks that current woes all relate to Gordon's not, she says and she's right, having tended to the left in any meaningful way. But considering current pain the party is feeling nationally I don't see how it has the slightest thing to do with nuanced or even moderately dramatic moves to left or right.
That being my view I post a comment, and now add a couple of brackets' worth: Dear Susan
It is incredibly hard to see how ANY of the things that are hurting Gordon at the moment are to do with recent left or right tendancies within the LP.
- Northern Rock? Probably not.
- Another Funder Fiasco? Nope.
- Electile Dysfunction? Nope.
- Data-gate? Not in the slightest.
These MANAGERIAL and TACTICAL and ACCIDENTAL (and EXTERNAL) things are putting him under pressure. (And probably we might add being his own HARSHEST CRITIC too.) Not L-R politics.
Discuss.
And that's not to say that Ashley, Toynbee and the rest of them don't chat fart half the time. At least half the time.
Best wishes
Chris P
9 comments:
Those who wanted Sven and Tony out were wrong.
Agree on Sven.
Clearly the election thing would not have occurred under Tony ... but if Gordon had listened to me he'd never have erred from the obvious June 2009. But the other things might well have tripped up TB too and the Glasgow terror etc might just have been handled worse.
Gordon might have been better on Northern Rock as hands on Chancellor rather than through his Darling.
Its a perception of competence.
Brown was perceived as a competent Chancellor,but not a competent Prime Minister.
To make Camerons poll ratings go up as he has,has required one thing and one thing only.
To appear as those (both Labour and ex labour voters) worried how he would appear when elevated.
We'll have to wait and see. But my point - that it is not an issue of left and right - stands doesn't it?
Yes.
Ta.
I think we're finding out what Tories felt like in the mid 90's.
Only one piece of good news today.
Harriet Harman shouldn't be around too much longer.
Chris, look at the polls. I accept your points re Northern Rock but there was a solution ie to nationalise it.
Welfare benefits - Brown sounds like Tebbit.
Nuclear power -more of.
Heathrow - absolute betrayal of his stance on climate change.
I used to believe ( some years ago now) that Brown would be a better bet than Blair (how could he not be...)That view was shared by quite a few of my comrades who have since become disillusioned and what you call "no conpromise socialists" As he moved to the right, so I moved to the left.
The "old policies" he refers to might at least win him back some of the core vote which is dripping down the plughole......the vote which the late Robin Cook , for one,was anxious to re-claim. I can't help wondering what Cook would have made of brown's shameful pronouncements on welfare benefits yestersay to his mates in the CBI. Since he became Leader, Labour has lurched to the Right. A disappointment, surely, for all of us.....
Fair enough Susan. You have your point of view.
Mine is that NONE of these political matters you raise and on which we may agree are responsible for the polls or the current pain.
They are all to do - as Tim says - with perception of competence and very hard managerial challenges that may or may not be sorted in the end.
Northern Rock may yet be nationalised but that would IMO have been a double edged sword if done in anything other than last resort.
Tories would be running round calling Brown a communist and whipping up hysteria about nationalisation and re-nationalisation.
It doesn't do to over simplify these things. In government there are hard decisions. Full stop.
But I don't think there has been a lurch to the right or the left since Brown's succession.
I am a pragmatic socialist myself. I want as much of "my" or "our" programme as possible and try to persuade others of this at all levels and by all means available to me. But I accept that we're not going to get it all.
Even 20% of the programme is better than 0% with Tories. Easing that up to 30% and beyond is a worthwhile endeavour from my POV.
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