Night PF.
Dear Mr Button Monkey .......
I suspect the issues we have with each other is frustration and a lack of understanding of each other's position. What you've put into words this afternoon makes great sense, not really much I disagree with in there; but .......
I didn’t mean to say there’s nothing to choose between the Tories and Labour.
That is what I find so frustrating. To me
exactly that radiates from so many of your posts and, after the repeated occasions where I was condemned as "an apologist", I've tended to steer clear. So let me make my position equally clear.
firstly, I don't think Ed Miliband is infallible (as both you and Notso have both suggested I do) but I
do think he is by far the best option we have at the moment, and a worthy successor to John Smith; he makes mistakes, and will continue to make mistakes as we all do, I just don't feel concentrating on them when their are bigger battles to fight is productive.
And there are two bigger battles to fight; the obvious one against Cameron and the Tories, and the less obvious one, against the Blairites agitating within the Party. To get the Labour Party to the point where it is now, a genuine & credible Government in waiting just four years after the disaster of GE 2010, is no mean feat; to do that he has had to build alliances, cosset, cajole and (sadly) even make compromises with some of the New Labour rump - as somebody said yesterday of Ed Balls, better to have him inside the tent .....
But make no mistake about it, this party is not New Labour, it is not Tory-lite, it is something different, something new and I'd like to see it grow and flourish. However much we might long for it (and, although you might find it difficult to believe, I sometimes find myself wishing for it) the Labour Party of Hardie and Attlee and Bevan has passed, because times have changed so much; but that is not to say this new Party offers nothing.
So it is about choosing your battles, deciding priorities, and the first priority is not purging the Labour Party of Blairites, the first priority is getting Miliband through the door of Number 10; because if that doesn't happen then the Blairites will swarm back out from underneath their rocks and take back control of the Party, and then we are all truly screwed. But when he and Justine are over the doorstep, the rules change ..... I don't know how old you are, but do you remember when Labour took control of the GLC back in 1981? The election was fought and won by the very moderate Andrew McIntosh, who was then ousted the very next day by Ken Livingstone; from '81 until '86 Livingstone's GLC was the only effective opposition to Thatcher.
Now, I'm not suggesting that on May 11th 2015 Ed will come out to doorstep of No 10, pull off a rubber mask and reveal Ken Livingstone beneath; but I AM suggesting that maybe prudence means that Miliband has had to play a softly, softly game for now and may yet surprise us. This is, after all, the man who is the son of a Marxist and who learned some of his craft at the feet of Tony Benn; and worth considering that Livingstone rather rates the man, to the extent that he now sits on the NEC despite saying he was giving up politics after his last mayoral defeat and has also said he would be proud to serve in a Miliband cabinet.
And (apologist hat on) maybe not all 'Blairites' are the same either, maybe there is more to some of them than we have previously thought; Burnham, for one, has proved to be a damned sight more effective than I ever thought he could, and has certainly learned from his mistakes. And (sorry for this) I have to admit to liking Ed Balls to an extent; I'm not convinced he should occupy Number 11 next year but he scares the bejaysus out of most of the front bench, which is a good thing, actually comes across as a decent bloke and we've already alluded to his problem with tents and toilets (but his speech
was pretty crap).
Bottom line. I'm scared, I wouldn't survive five more years of a Tory Government. But now we have something new, something genuinely different and it frustrates hell out of me that some (and this isn't about you now) keep hankering back to something that has past, to some mythical Socialist golden age, and are prepared to destroy the chances of victory next year in their quest for this legendary Grail; it was a part of the Indyref narrative that wound me up, the "we're going to form a new paradise, can't carry you lot any more, so do one" - I don't know what that is, but it ain't my definition of socialism.
Miliband can't wave a magic wand, there are 35 years of Tory damage (including Blair's) to undo and that will take time. But isn't it worth investing time if it gets a better future for most of us?
Sorry. Diatribe over. I've been variously described recently as credulous, blind, naive and an apologist, maybe all of those descriptions are accurate, and I'm totally wrong; but if I'm wrong to hope for something better, and the world truly is as shitty as those people have told me, then it isn't a world I want to live in. And if they are right, Cameron will get back in, so I won't have to!
COWER BRIEF MORTALS. HO. HO. HO.