Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Could be happening here:

All you nu labour supporters wont want to read this article..





How passion has been purged from politics – along with ordinary people


Can Scotland galvanise politics in the rest of the UK – or, with so few working-class MPs, are we now fatally disaffected? At last week’s Labour party conference, Carole Cadwalladr went in search of ‘real’ people and found a ‘L’Oréal convention’ controlled by slick professionals schooled to rule




Carole Cadwalladr


The Observer, Sunday 28 September 2014


"Because to me, the collective nostalgia we all have for Coronation Street feels like the collective nostalgia the Labour party has for being the party of the common man. I tell him about a conversation I had earlier with Dennis Skinner, the legendary Beast of Bolsover. When he entered parliament in 1970 after 20 years down the pits, he told me, there were 700,000 miners in the country, and he was one of 44 ex-miner MPs. “And now there are a million people in this country who work for the NHS,” he said. “But where are the nurses? That’s what I wonder. You’d think they’d have at least two or three MPs. Where are the call centre workers?”



"There are any number of ways you can hold a conference but our political culture, our long history of parliamentary democracy, has produced a spectacle – common to all parties – that feels like something Disraeli might have come up with after attending a L’Oréal sales conference. Ken Livingstone tells me how it was in the 70s when “conference was a parliament of working-class delegates who every day were casting their votes to create policy”. Not any more.

I watch Chuka Umunna’s hotly anticipated speech and, frankly, I might as well be at the L’Oréal sales conference. He sounds like he’s trying to sell shampoo. I’ve read endless articles on how he’s the next Obama, and then he says: “Conference, if you work hard, you should not have to live in poverty…” Conference? As an indirect object? What? It’s the first of dozens of bizarre verbal constructions I hear that sound like they were coined by the Committee of Bizarre Verbal Constructions some time back in 1938."



"Though Janvier has given it a go. She put herself forward as a prospective parliamentary candidate for Orpington. “But it’s really hard. I did my best but I didn’t have the money to have leaflets printed or anything like that…” She wasn’t selected. So, who was?

“Nigel de Gruchy; he’s the former general secretary of the TUC. He didn’t put his name down until the last minute and then because he was out of the country they didn’t hold hustings so that he’d be able to participate via Skype. It was a bit odd. And… it’s just hard if you’re young. He’s 71 so he’s got the time and, of course, he has lots of connections and…” She trails off. “I’ve stopped going to meetings now. I don’t really see the point.”



Whole article here: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/28/how-passion-purged-politics-ordinary-people-labour-conference

Where as UKIP recruits from outside the pubs before the effects of what they imbibed wears off.

Or the CONs party recruits from the indoctrinated from clandestine training grounds scattered around England.

Mind when Theresa May or may not band the former group.

Stoking up the fear and only allowing propaganda from tory HQ.

Ghastly!

What has that article to do with ukip Fred, or the tory party for that matter?


The article was published in the Guardian, and it was asking the question of where has the nu labour party gone, why is it full up with toffs and placemen?


Did you actually read it?

I see Boris's right hand man has joined UKIP, or maybe ex right hand man.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/29/boris-says-ukip-defectors-are-type-of-people-who-have-sex-with-vacuum-cleaners_n_5902142.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

Boris Johnson has launched an bizarre attack on Tory defectors to Ukip, joking that they were the type of people that have sex with vacuum cleaners.

Addressing a rally at the party's annual conference in Birmingham in the wake of the defection of two Tory MPs to Ukip, the London mayor remarked: "The EU commission wants to ban vacuum cleaners on the grounds that they are too powerful. If you do not handle your vacuum cleaner correctly, you may end up inhaling the hamster – the budgerigar through the bars of the cage.

http://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/09/30/tories-twice-trusted-deficit/

40% of British people think the Conservatives would eliminate the deficit by 2020 – but only 17% think Labour would.

Just found this.

It is a useful web site facility to know about to help you get rid of things you don't want any longer.

If you don't particularly want to sell something but would perhaps like to give it away because "it still works and it would be criminal to just scrap it or dump it when someone else can make good use of it", then try here:

https://www.freecycle.org/

If you fancy having sex with a vacuum cleaner but don't especially want to buy one just for that purpose, then this could just be the place to get one for free.

Boris speech on BBC2 NOW

Max,

I did read it and for me reflects wishful and naive thinking.

All political parties evolve at different speeds.

Some, probably like UKIP and BNP explode on the scene and then hopefully will disappear into the past almost as rapidly.

I think the Labour conference in one way was a disaster for Ed and Labour, but may serve as a lesson not to be complacent and they needs to concrete their policies and make them presentable and understandable to the voters who wish to support them.

What surprises me how support seems to have been sustained in spite of the “debacle”.

To say the least the labour party looks as almost as directionless as the tory party and showing little idea about the needed long-term economic changes and policies, which allows the Con party to relying on cheap short-term divisive sound bites passing as policies.

As far as choice of political representatives are concerned, I would see it natural for some members of political minded families to be interested in following their parents.

The ethos of the family, often being passed from one generation to another.

It happens in all forms of life, Army, Teaching, Engineering, Medicine, Legal, Nursing etc..

Because one is from one “strata” of society it does not mean that there is a disconnect, or lack of understanding of others of different backgrounds.

There would seem less likelihood of Recklessly parachuting a candidate without political nous into a labour safe seat than a con man into a shire’s seat!

Also, I think Labour wishes to represent all parts of society and including the middle-classes, but is also aware of the complexities of “government” and needs trained, qualified, well educated and professionals individuals. To do so it needs graduates etc. but that does not mean rejecting its “working class roots”, but to extend those facilities for all.

In general, Labour and Lib/Dems can be seen as parties of inclusion, while the present tory party stands for the “privileged” and who have to the exclusion of those of who “have not”, happy to return to the “mores” of 1900s and the landed gentry.

So Fred, you are advocating inherited political positions?




What Labour’s Red Princes tell us about Britain


The UK has the lowest level of social mobility in the developed world, and the nepotism at the heart of the Labour Party reflects this.


by Sophie McBain Published 26 June, 2014 - 12:09




Royally red: Straw, Blair, Kinnock, Prescott and Dromey Jr. Montage by Dan Murrell




If Labour wants to convince disaffected voters that its politicians aren’t drawn from a narrow, self-serving Westminster elite, it has a few problems. The latest research found that 54 per cent of the party’s candidates selected in marginal or inherited seats (those with retiring MPs from the same party) for 2015 have already worked in politics or for think tanks. In comparison, 17 per cent of Conservative candidates are political insiders.



More: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/06/what-labour-s-red-princes-tell-us-about-britain

Max,

You getting as daft as Manuel and Tanker!

Why am I daft Fred?


For pointing out the excesses of patronage inside the [former] workers party?


Is that really your position?

Just because Fred worked for a short time at a coal mine when he was younger [ in the office ] , He thinks his some sort of a Dennis Skinner

.

I don't care if their parents are the king and queen of Siam, as long as the appointments are based on "abilities".

I assume they are/were vetted by the the local party "machine" and it is up to the voters whether they are acceptable.


The same applies for tories, Greens, Lib/Dems any other party.

-------

What I dislike is the inequality of opportunity for all "strata" of society often due to handed down privileges and financial advantage and "poorer" education by those without such benefits.

(Not easy to remedy or change, partially because of lack of "wish to" by those who have and inability and competence of those who have not and lack of "suitable" educators.)

Well. your position is a conundrum Fred.

On the one hand, the old school boy/dads/friends system is ok, if it's noo labour, but wrong if it's anyone else.



"What I dislike is the inequality of opportunity for all "strata" of society often due to handed down privileges and financial advantage and "poorer" education by those without such benefits."



I think you need to go back and read those articles properly, cos you sure as hell are missing the big points in your narrow but unfocused view of the world.

Look out TORY BOYS there is talk of Kipper NIGEL coming out with news tomorrow at the same time as Camoron takes the floor.

Being discussed on SKY news.

Maybe another defection, maybe rubbish but one jurno reckons 4 defections before GE in total.

Max,

I would suggest you reread what I wrote and the engage a few grey cells.