hmm, i'm not aware of stating much optimismso i may not have been as clear as i should have been. while it's true that i've got a lot of contempt for the vast majority of the tory ranks, i have a similar contempt for the vast majority of both labour and the lib dem's ranks. i'm no fan of career politicians, particularly those -- like cameron, like osbourne and like that man of the people clegg -- from extremely wealthy backgrounds. in their last parliament labour were plagued by these facile shadows of politicians, loathsome creatures like hazel blears who so far as i'm aware of never contributed the blindest thing of benefit to anyone.
i think we're in good agreement on this point... my politics is probably not particularly leftist as far as this board goes -- i'd describe myself as centre, in that on some issues i seem to agree with the right, others the left, and in others the right/left distinction is entirely meaningless, but one guy i do miss is tony benn. i may not have always agreed with his politics, and he may have been from a ludicrously wealthy background himself, but i never saw him suddenly change tack on something to help his career -- he seemed like he genuinely did have a sense of integrity and what you voted for he tried to give. we could do with a lot more people with a belief like tony benn (regardless of actual political content) and a lot fewer hazel fucking blears.
(i think we're in good agreement on this point... my politics is probably not particularly leftist as far as this board goes -- i'd describe myself as centre, in that on some issues i seem to agree with the right, others the left, and in others the right/left distinction is entirely meaningless, but one guy i do miss is tony benn. i may not have always agreed with his politics, and he may have been from a ludicrously wealthy background himself, but i never saw him suddenly change tack on something to help his career -- he seemed like he genuinely did have a sense of integrity and what you voted for he tried to give. we could do with a lot more people with a belief like tony benn (regardless of actual political content) and a lot fewer hazel fucking blears.
boris the spider,
Mon 30 Sep 2013, 22:54,
archived)
Never quite sure about Tony BennBut I had respect for Michael Foot who was monstered by the press for having ideals. Being devils advocate was Thatcher the right choice at the time as we were as a country knackered.
(
spazzcaptain Misses Valin @,
Mon 30 Sep 2013, 23:33,
archived)
Too young to say if she was the right choicethough my guess would be "no". At least what she was was a solid choice - I wouldn't call her a career politican either. (Also, she did manage to break some of the hold the unions had over Labour and over politics. Union leaders should not play national politics. If they want to do that they can run for Parliament. But I'm very much looking back and listening to what other people said.)
( boris the spider,
Mon 30 Sep 2013, 23:35,
archived)