Lansbury's Lido

The Last Post

2015-06-13T00:16:00.001+01:00

As the title says.

This will be my last post at Lansbury's Lido. I've finally decided to retire this blog to the heavenly archive or maybe I'll consign it to the fiery furnace leaving nowt but a shadow on the wayback machine.

It's been a good ride over the years, sharing my lefty thoughts on politics and current events, sharing posts and discussions, meeting some great comrades, and also some not so great, hoping for a great socialist future where peace and harmony reigns supreme!

Alas the wheels came off the bus as they say. Was it my expectations or viewing the possible futures through rose-tinted spectacles of memories past?

My Left was a Left of Keir Hardie, of George Lansbury, of Attlee and Bevan and the NHS, Of Eric Heffer and Tom Mann. A left of strong union leaders working with comrades to realise Clause 4! A Left where those whose labour and brain created the wealth got to share in and control the wealth. A Left open to all, from the hoary handed worker in the field to the academic in the ivory tower.

It's gone. All gone.

The elites in the main political left parties have suited and booted and embraced the creed of the Tories whilst deceitfully leaving the Red Flag flying. Those to the left outside of Parliament have dissolved into internecine disputes of funds and rape. The young have become intolerant caricatures, rallying to the latest sexy trend on Twitter and Facebook and forgetting those, the majority who they should be supporting and fighting for.

Those parties now seen as the hope for the Left are nothing but semi-fascist and engrossed in issues of singular importance to the minority.

¡No pasarán! was the cry to the capitalist behemoth. They shall not pass!

But whilst the Left scoured social media for another 'phobia' they could decry and hang their vendetta masks on the Tories and the economic elite built a bypass. The Left gesticulated from the crumbling B road as private capital roared past on the smooth undulating toll roads.

Modernity has been consumed by a fascist, intolerant liberalism and then vomited up as a postmodern pavement pizza. Facts have been swept under the carpet and tagged as bigotry. This is the Left now. Idiotic, childish and screwed up.

A man puts on lipstick, a dress and high heels and demands to be allowed into the women's changing room at Next. When he's not allowed he screams something ending in '-phobic' and the Left condemns the 'bigots' for not being accepting him as a woman.

Another person decides it's fabulous to suggest that #killallwhitemen is a grand thing to post on a Tweet for a business account and gets the hump when they're called out for it.

A good point to post my favourite graphic methinks.

Homoexuals in Iran swing from cranes at the behest of Shia clerics for the delight of the crowd. In Mosul homosexuals are thrown from buildings by Islamists of Daesh and stoned by the crowd if they have the temerity to survive the drop. In Britain Christians are dragged through the legal system for the heinous crime of wearing a cross or not wanting to bake a cake. And for the left we know which of these events generates the shrillest condemnation and thirst for vengeance.

After venting my spleen in this post I realise that my 'Left' hasn't changed. It's died a whimpering death and the title has been stolen by the fascist liberals. Dreams of economic control by the workers are no more.

It was good whilst it lasted.

Fin.

Animals Matter - PPCs views on hunting

2015-03-17T19:42:00.001+00:00

Came across this service from the League Against Cruel Sports where they offer a system where all your Parliamentary Prospective Candidates for the 2015 General Election in your constituency are contacted to find their views on aspects of hunting and animal welfare. The system works by the PPCs clicking on an email sent from me to select their views on the LACS website.

http://www.league.org.uk/our-campaigns/election-manifesto/take-action-for-animals-general-election-2015

Thought I'd give it a punt as it's very easy to do. So I plug in my details and click the button to send.

In my constituency of Aldershot there are 5 candidates that appeared on the LACSs system.

Mr Carl Hewitt - Green
Mr Alan Hilliar - Liberal Democrat
Sir Gerald Howarth MP - Conservative
Mr Gary Puffett - Labour
Mr William Walker - UKIP

My emails went out at 11am on Saturday 14th March.

By 7:30 that evening I had an email. It was from Gerald Howarth, the sitting MP. As he said in his email he's a supporter of the Countryside Alliance and the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, so he's no fan of the LACS. No surprises there and I don't expect he's shared his views with the LACS. To give him his due though he does respond promptly to communications. I've badgered him about stuff in the past and he's always got back pretty quickly.

What does surprise me is that none of the others have shown that they have even received my email. I know that this is a constituency where you could take a turd, roll it in glitter, pin an I Love Maggie badge on it and it'd soon be sitting on green leather in Westminster, but come on, no one else has even had the courtesy to respond.

Yes, I know the LACS request is loaded one way with regards to hunting and shooting but in an election year there's really no reason why Hewitt, Hilliar, Puffett and Walker couldn't have got off their arses and replied.

Pah!

Political Compass

2015-02-28T23:35:00.002+00:00

Did a political test again at www.politicalcompass.org

Sort of fits as to where I see myself.

Got to love Mujica

2015-01-19T13:31:00.001+00:00

Wise words from Uraguayan President Jose Mujica:

'A president is a high-level official who is elected to carry out a function. He is not a king, not a god. He is not the witch doctor of a tribe who knows everything. 'He is a civil servant. I think the ideal way of living is to live like the vast majority of people whom we attempt to serve and represent.'

Measure your political representatives against such a statement. None can stand.

Russell Brand and Question Time

2014-12-12T19:06:00.002+00:00

Russell Brand (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For a long time now I've had zero interest in politics. I suppose I had the stuffing knocked out of me by the incessant stream of left of centre associates that seem to be striving to get their credentials for joining the Soviet Union's League of Militant Atheists. Sadly some people when hearing about 'faith' or 'God' or the like compartmentalise it all into some 'God box' that demands the most strident ripost. They seem to lose the ability to reason and discern whenever God gets mentioned and treat everything linked to faith as a monolithic entity, which it isn't. And in turn they appear to me to become more infantile and stereotypical in their behaviour and manners. One or two excepted of course. But that's why I've had no interest in politics for a long time now.

In the same vein the whole concept of celebrity bores me to tears. Take a 'celebrity' and it all comes down to behaviour to get media coverage and all the while the scenario is being manipulated behind the scenes by Svengali-like men who play the system to line their pockets.

So when Russell Brand appears yapping on about 'revolution', 'occupy' and other lefty mantras my blood freezes. The conjoining of celebrity, infantilism and a new book is just too much for me to bear.

Last night I caught the final few minutes of BBC's Question Time and saw Russell Brand looking rather deflated and perhaps sad amongt the Lab and ConDem clones who were spouting their parties mealy mouthed mantras. I certainly didn't see anything that got mentioned in the reviews or on Twitter regarding clashes and audience heckling. However I did look at Brand's Twitter feed and actually followed the link to his latest blog post where he talks about the show. And I have to say I now see him in a different light. Not the vacuous celebrity and, dare I say it a 'bit of a cock' but someone who underneath the veneer of the media circus actually cares about people. He was able to talk about Christians and people of faith without subconsciously turning into Uncle Joe, and he shows a real passion for humanity and people, as he says:

The Britain of the future will be born of alliances between ordinary, self-governing people, organised locally, communicating globally. Built on principles that are found in traditions like Christianity; community, altruism, kindness, love.

It's a breath of fresh air to find that sort of ethos amongst the left and it's really made a mark on me. So much so that I've even resurrected my Twitter account @lansburyslido.

Heartening.

The Good Old Days

2014-12-11T09:42:00.001+00:00

Ain't it so.

Mami Konneh, Keep on Running!

2014-04-15T13:07:00.001+01:00

The headlines at the BBC News website shout "London Marathon runner Mami Konneh Lahun misses flight"

As a tribute to Mami Konneh, the runner from Sierra Leone I'd like to dedicate this fine tune.

Babi Yar

2014-03-06T09:11:00.001+00:00

As the Western powers seem determined to allow the flourishing of fascism in the Ukraine it's worth remembering the famous poem by Yevgeni Yevtushenko. The poem Babi Yar speaks of the anti-semitism that led to the massacres of Jews, Gypsies and Soviets at Babi Yar in the Ukraine during the Second World War.

BABI YAR

By Yevgeni Yevtushenko

Translated by Benjamin Okopnik, 10/96

No monument stands over Babi Yar.

A steep cliff only, like the rudest headstone.

I am afraid.

Today, I am as old

As the entire Jewish race itself.

I see myself an ancient Israelite.

I wander o'er the roads of ancient Egypt

And here, upon the cross, I perish, tortured

And even now, I bear the marks of nails.

It seems to me that Dreyfus is myself. *1*

The Philistines betrayed me - and now judge.

I'm in a cage. Surrounded and trapped,

I'm persecuted, spat on, slandered, and

The dainty dollies in their Brussels frills

Squeal, as they stab umbrellas at my face.

I see myself a boy in Belostok

Blood spills, and runs upon the floors,

The chiefs of bar and pub rage unimpeded

And reek of vodka and of onion, half and half.

I'm thrown back by a boot, I have no strength left,

In vain I beg the rabble of pogrom,

To jeers of "Kill the Jews, and save our Russia!"

My mother's being beaten by a clerk.

O, Russia of my heart, I know that you

Are international, by inner nature.

But often those whose hands are steeped in filth

Abused your purest name, in name of hatred.

I know the kindness of my native land.

How vile, that without the slightest quiver

The antisemites have proclaimed themselves

The "Union of the Russian People!"

It seems to me that I am Anna Frank,

Transparent, as the thinnest branch in April,

And I'm in love, and have no need of phrases,

But only that we gaze into each other's eyes.

How little one can see, or even sense!

Leaves are forbidden, so is sky,

But much is still allowed - very gently

In darkened rooms each other to embrace.

-"They come!"

-"No, fear not - those are sounds

Of spring itself. She's coming soon.

Quickly, your lips!"

-"They break the door!"

-"No, river ice is breaking..."

Wild grasses rustle over Babi Yar,

The trees look sternly, as if passing judgement.

Here, silently, all screams, and, hat in hand,

I feel my hair changing shade to gray.

And I myself, like one long soundless scream

Above the thousands of thousands interred,

I'm every old man executed here,

As I am every child murdered here.

No fiber of my body will forget this.

May "Internationale" thunder and ring

When, for all time, is buried and forgotten

The last of antisemites on this earth.

There is no Jewish blood that's blood of mine,

But, hated with a passion that's corrosive

Am I by antisemites like a Jew.

And that is why I call myself a Russian!

This translation copied from http://remember.org/witness/babiyar.html

Nick Clegg says Lib Dem-Labour coalition possible

2014-02-20T12:13:00.001+00:00

Seems Nick Clegg is touting his party round looking for another host to latch onto.

I wonder what the Labour leader's response will be?

Ed MacDonald, or was it Ramsay Miliband?

The Right to Strike

2014-02-07T16:30:00.001+00:00

Utah Phillips (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was watching BBC Question Time the other night and the great and the good were waffling on about removing the right of tube workers to withdraw their labour. Most of the Parliamentary politicos seemed to think restricting the right to strike for public transport workers might be a good thing. I expect our government of millionaires will be contemplating the same thing. After all they managed it with GCHQ.

It reminded me of a quote from Utah Phillips which I couldn't quite remember so I posted this on twitter:

The right to strike is not a right conferred upon the masses by the elite and is not theirs to withdraw

Summed it up for me. Anyhow, here's the most excellent quote from Utah:

The state can't give you freedom, and the state can't take it away. You're born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free...

Oh the integrity of them all!

2014-02-02T09:24:00.001+00:00

Seems that someone else is getting involved in the saga around politicising OFSTED.

Seems that David Laws is accusing Gove of acting politically over the appointments and de-appointments.

Hold on, David Laws?

Yes, that David Laws.

Just to remind ourselves.

Oh the integrity of them all!

Making The Rich Poorer

2013-07-14T19:12:00.001+01:00

George Lansbury, c1935 (Photo credit: LSE Library)

This is why George Lansbury is my hero, he tells it as it is or as it should be.

The workers must be given tangible proof that Labour administration means something different from Capitalist administration, and in a nutshell this means diverting wealth from the wealthy ratepayers to the poor. Those who pretend that a sound Labour policy can be pursued nationally or locally without making the rich poorer should find another party. - George Lansbury 1922

Would that we had someone of the calibre of George or any of the other Poplar councillors with us today!

Let's Impeach the President

2013-07-09T14:04:00.001+01:00

Listening to Neil Young's Let's Impeach the President when I heard these lyrics. Somewhat apt given the current controversy surrounding Snowden/Prism etc.

Let's impeach the President

For spying On citizens inside their own homes

Breaking every law in the country

By tapping our computers and telephones

Len McCluskey in the Daily Mirror

2013-07-07T20:18:00.000+01:00

Unite logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Good to read Len McCluskey's article in the Daily Mirror:

If your son or daughter fancies becoming a Labour MP, forget it. They have more chance of cleaning in the Commons than being elected to it.That is what the row over Labour selection procedures is really about – who can play a part in our politics. Today, Parliament is increasingly the preserve of an out-of-touch elite – Oxbridge-educated special advisers who glide from university to think tank to the green benches without ever sniffing the air of the real world. That is what Unite is trying to change. We want to give our democracy back to ordinary working people. We say they need to be given a fair crack of the whip in the Labour Party in particular – the Party that was founded to represent working people, because the establishment of a century ago ignored them.

The Unite General Secretary lays it on the line about what has happened to the Labour Party over the last few decades. It's been dragged to the right and the strings and levers of power have been populated by the middle-class elitist careerists whose interests rarely extend beyond their own careers, egos and wallets. Let's hope that what comes out of the Falkirk fiasco will be in the interests of the people of this country.

Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed (or MPs Pay)

2013-07-05T13:33:00.000+01:00

4. Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority take part in welcoming and briefing New Members (Photo credit: UK Parliament)

Can you believe the arrogance of it?

Give MPs a pay rise or risk another expenses scandal, says IPSA chief

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10161649/Give-MPs-a-pay-rise-or-risk-another-expenses-scandal-says-Ipsa-chief.html

So says the well paid Chief of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, 'Sir' Ian Kennedy.

Here's a third option: Pay MPs the average working wage and let them truly be representative of those whom they represent, not the swivel eyed, money trousering, big business arse licking career politicos that a lot of them are and aspire to be.

My Debt to the NHS on it's 65th Birthday

2013-07-05T12:43:00.000+01:00

Well it's a happy 65th Birthday to the NHS!

And I for one am very happy that it exists. If people like Clement Atlee and Aneurin Bevan hadn't fought for it's creation in the rubble and austerity of postwar Britain then certainly I wouldn't be here. You see, my Dad developed rheumatic fever when he was a teenager through swimming in the Kennet and Avon canal down in Bath. When war was declared he tried to enlist in the Navy but was declared medically unfit as the fever had caused issues with his heart's mitral valve. So he spent the war in the Home Guard guarding a building up at a reservoir overlooking Bath. We say guarding as he had a rifle but no ammunition! One day him and his friend decided to break into the building to see what was in there. Turns out to have been stacked to the rafters with potatoes!

After the war and a short stint at a soap factory he went to work for BOAC's engine plant in Nantgarw. Whilst lodging with a local family at Trelewis he met a young woman who was to become his wife, and my Mum. They married and when my Mum became pregnant with my brothers in 1949 my Dad's health had deteriorated due to his heart problems. When the twins were born he couldn't even climb the stairs to see them.

My Dad, 4th from left, white boiler suit at Nantgarw

At that time the recently created NHS was introducing open heart surgery and he was offered an operation to see if they could repair his mitral valve. His local GP suggested it would be a bad move as the current level of failure for this type of operation was high. He told my Dad that he would likely die during the operation and that he should try and make the best of the likely 6 months that he had left to live. My Dad's response was to tell the GP to bugger off! He had the surgery at the Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr and lived to tell the tale!

It would be a good story about the necessity of the NHS even if it stopped there but it doesn't. Fast forward to 1963 and my mum is pregnant with me and again my Dad develops issues with his mitral valve. So who steps forward to bring hope to the situation? The NHS. In he goes to Harefield Hospital to get his valve repaired yet again.

Move on to 1989 and just as my first son is being born my Dad is once again ill. The mitral valve is playing up and tests indicate it can no longer be treated. Only option this time is a valve replacement. And once again the NHS comes to the fore and operates on my Dad to replace his faulty valve with a plastic one.

If it wasn't for the NHS then putting it simply my Dad would have died in 1950 and I would not have existed. So I wish the NHS a happy 65th Birthday and may there be many more to come!

And to those who seek to destroy the NHS or to open it up to the vultures of private finance, don't ask what I wish for you.

Our real enemy

2012-09-29T19:46:00.003+01:00

"Our real enemy is not the ones living in a distant land whose names or policies we don't understand. The real enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it's profitable, the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it's profitable, the Banks who take away our homes when it's profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousands away. They are right here in front of us." - Mike Prysner

He's not wrong you know.

Andy Williams RIP

2012-09-27T07:00:00.003+01:00

Why Public healthcare is good

2012-09-27T06:40:00.001+01:00

Look what was done in the aftermath of the Second World War, when Britain was a 'bankrupt nation'. strands of Socialism and Christianity, hand in hand, creating the NHS and bringing so much to all.

And now we are in a time of plenty when the concept of 'austerity' touted by the Tory, LibDem and unfortunately Labour spivs is being used to rip apart this unique institution.

It seems we can only weep.

How much the tax avoiders cost all of us

2012-09-26T22:26:00.002+01:00

Says it all really.

Guy Smallman's pictures of the mass protests in Madrid

2012-09-26T20:32:00.000+01:00

*Madrid Austerity Demo 25-9-12* - Images by Guy Smallman

Some great photos from Guy Smallman of the protests against Spain's austerity cuts.

The Enemy Within

2012-09-26T12:33:00.003+01:00

The Enemy Within: Mi5, Maxwell and the Scargill Affair by Seumas Milne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Been meaning to read this book since it came out but never got round to it. I really, really wish I'd read it sooner though. It's a book that will change how you view the country that you dwell in, how your thoughts of the benevolence of the state crumble to dust.

How a book that exposes such corruption and malpractice at the heart of government, the state and the establishment didn't create an impetus for massive changes is beyond me. Now even in 2012 we can see and know that such duplicity and subversion by the state continues unabated.

This book has also brought to the front a lot of emotion in me - anger, despair, helplessness yet also a feeling that something has to change.

A must read for anyone interested in freedom, politics, the working class and the role of trades unions.

View all my reviews

Never Buy The Sun - Billy Bragg

2012-09-14T13:09:00.003+01:00

Let's not forget Billy's request regarding The Sun.

Jeremy Hunt and the NHS

2012-09-07T09:20:00.000+01:00

Thought I'd expand upon a tweet I made upon learning Jeremy Hunt was to be the new Health Secretary.

So let's have a look at some of Hunt's comments and thoughts on the NHS and medicine.

Back in 2005 he co-authored a publication called 'Direct Democracy: An Agenda for a New Model Party'. In it Hunt came out with this telling quote:

1. “Our ambition should be to break down the barriers between private and public provision, in effect denationalising the provision of health care in Britain.” (Direct Democracy: An Agenda for a New Model Party, 2005, pg 78)

Then in 2007 he gave us his views on homoeopathy and the NHS with a Parliamentary Early Day Motion:

That this House welcomes the positive contribution made to the health of the nation by the NHS homeopathic hospitals; notes that some six million people use complementary treatments each year; believes that complementary medicine has the potential to offer clinically-effective and cost-effective solutions to common health problems faced by NHS patients, including chronic difficult to treat conditions such as musculoskeletal and other chronic pain, eczema, depression, anxiety and insomnia, allergy, chronic fatigue and irritable bowel syndrome; expresses concern that NHS cuts are threatening the future of these hospitals; and calls on the Government actively to support these valuable national assets.

So cobling the two together I give you the following which I think is a portent of the future of the NHS.

How to make a homoeopathic solution

Take the original solution and dilute 1 part solution with 9 parts distilled water
Take this new solution and dilute 1 part solution with 9 parts distilled water
Repeat until the desired potency is achieved

How to sell off the NHS

Take a fully public funded national health service and hand over key services to private capital
Take this 'low fat' NHS and hand over critical assets to private capital
Take this NHS Lite and dilute with yet more private capital
Repeat until the vultures are fed and there's no meat left on the carcass.

When you look at the thoughts of the men and women who created the NHS you can perhaps understand why it's so vehemently hated by the Tories, their lickspittle LibDem co-conspirators and the capitalists.

Aneurin Bevan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here's Aneurin Bevan on the NHS:

The National Health service and the Welfare State have come to be used as interchangeable terms, and in the mouths of some people as terms of reproach. Why this is so it is not difficult to understand, if you view everything from the angle of a strictly individualistic competitive society. A free health service is pure Socialism and as such it is opposed to the hedonism of capitalist society. —Aneurin Bevan, In Place of Fear, p106

Predistribution

2012-09-07T08:27:00.002+01:00

I used to be in the Labour Party and somehow still reminisce through rose tinted glasses about how we were going to change the world. Mad romantic dreamer that I am. Step forward Ed Miliband to blow away the fog of remembrance to once again bring clear the reality of Her Majesty's Opposition - with a speech designed to placate the City and the financiers, you know, those organisations that elected him. (Note to self - western liberal democracy is not all it's cracked up to be.)

Ed Miliband. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So Comrade Ed has made a speech to the City in the City of London. Let's stop here and ask a question or two. Who voted you in Ed? Who are you meant to represent? Who do you answer to? I think in theory it's meant to be the electorate but somehow the world has been turned upside down and the electorate don't really matter that much. Why has Comrade Ed not made a speech in the crap housing estates that governments of all colours seem to forget when investment and maintenance are discussed. Why has Comrade Ed not made a speech to the potential university students who have had that option taken away from them in the name of austerity and higher fees? Why has Comrade Ed not made a speech in front of those who have had their lives ripped apart by the cruelty of those who seek to give a kicking to those who they deem as workshy by their ATOS agents? Why has Comrade Ed not given a speech to those who in need of hospital and medical care who see their NHS handed piecemeal to financiers and shareholders?

I think the reason is that he has nothing to say to them. Nothing that Comrade Ed and his merry band have planned will in any way roll back the brutality of the ConDems. All that he can offer is more of the same - cut-backs, lower wages, rising prices, reduction of social security, lack of commitment to social housing, gulf between rich and poor, handing over the NHS to the private sector, dismantling of workers rights won by the unions. In all of this and more he can offer nothing different except in one way, it will be offered with a smile instead of a toff's sneer.

The reason why these career politicians love to get in front of the rich and powerful is because this is who they represent. The politicians represent capital, the multinationals, the shareholders, the investors, the hedge fund managers, the stockbrokers, the establishment. They don't want to get in front of the electorate, the working woman and man unless it's through the shield of the compliant media. You may have elected them but you are nothing to them.

So in his speech Comrade Ed talks about 'Predistribution'. Ooh, a new word, sounds a bit like 'redistribution' so must be good, eh? No, remember who Comrade Ed is speaking to? Yup, not the great unwashed masses of this nation but the unelected and select few that control the money. He's offering a sop to the voters and increased caviare and champagne to the city.

Let's see from the Lansbury's Dictionary of dodgy political machinations:

Predistribution - A sleight of hand act of enabling the rich to trouser more profit and steal more assets from the people whilst promising to bring more financial equality to a nation. Often used by so called Labour leaders to grease the palms of the wealthy and to prepare themselves for life in the boardrooms and the City after their political career.

Predistribution my arse.

Lansbury's Lido

The Last Post

Animals Matter - PPCs views on hunting

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Babi Yar

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