SpinningHugo wrote:AnatolyKasparov wrote:Ah yes, Oliver Kamm - maybe the most pompous prat in Christendom
(confess I did fleetingly wonder if you were him, some time ago - you genuinely aren't that bad though)
I rather like him. I don't agree with him on everything (eg Iraq) but he writes well, and is no fool. I (obviously) think him right about Corbyn. I also think he is right about the Labour 'moderate' MPs. Most are now in the wrong party. Paul Mason is right they should go. Someone like, say, Yvette Cooper doesn't belong anymore. They're wasting both their lives and their political capital (such as it is). They've proved themselves a peculiarly spineless and unprincipled group IMO, making my decision to leave all the easier.
well I do see similarities between him and the way you write so I see why you like him
If they don't belong in Labour then where do they belong - the Tories?
Most seem to have started off in the Kinnock Labour Party which seemed to be a lot more left-wing than Corbyn - just looked back at the manifestos of 87 and 92.....seemed pretty left-wing to me
As I said yesterday it is New Labour that seems to be the anomaly - Thatcher took her version of the free market dogma of the Mont Pélerin society (based on classic liberalism of the late 19th century) and replaced the post-war consensus. New Labour did relatively little to change that and actually provided the stepping stone for further neoliberal economic ideas
This 'centre' is actually right wing economically. They believe in the market delivering the best solutions in virtually all areas of public service (would have supported the Tory Government approach on Carillion until yesterday), low taxation, restrictive trade union laws, tough and authoritarian on security, believe in the principles behind academies and free schools, 'pro-business' many keen proponents of Likud.
See themselves I am sure as politically with the Clinton Democratic Party - something that is in no way left wing
This is what people like Akehurst believe and that has no link to why I go involved in politics in the Thatcher years. Thatcher always said Blair was her greatest success (just like Macmillan was Atlee's) - and listening to some of the guff I have seen today I can understand why