Wednesday 29 June 2016

Another perspective ...

One of the group of friends regularly reading the blog and emailing their thoughts ... helping to keep things grounded as the perspective occasionally goes crazy ... Colin has lived experience as a Labour Party and trade union activist in north east England over many years ... recently retreated to a rural life in south west France ... and since my lived political experience was as trade union and Marxist-Leninist party activist in London, with a cynical view of social democracy, a commentary on the latest sub-plot in the political drama in the UK is better from him .... delighted to say: here is the first guest blog on Wear & Dao .... hopefully the first of many!

I have just read your latest posting on your blog and found it quite interesting. In many respects I would agree with you about the referendum result being a spur to those who consider themselves superior to their fellow people who may be from a different race/country. But for me the conclusion to be drawn is that they have been fucked over by a political system that has not valued them as people with interests that did not coincide with those of the political party that should have championed their interests and held a dialogue with them. Labour has failed the working class (again) but this time it has exploded in their faces with calamitous impact. Although the result has massive implications for the Tories which may see them either split or adopt the UKIP agenda, it is Labour which has the biggest challenges to face now. For 30 years they adopted the Mandelson strategy of ignoring the working class vote in favour of pursuing the interests of those in marginal seats. The inference was always that these votes had nowhere else to go and thus would more or less fall in line at election time. Not any more they don't boy! By refusing to enter into a dialogue with their base, it has been allowed to fester and fed by a few simple messages constantly from  the fascists has now erupted and will be a massive problem for the Labour movement over the coming years. A few token campaigns will not alter this which can only take place with a longer term political project.
In short the labour movement now has a major credibility issue in its own backyard as it can no longer be seen as the voice of working class people in its heartlands. It has been usurped by the fascists who have taken on the role of articulating the concerns of those people who have been left isolated by the neo-conservative agenda of the past 30-40 years.
For Cameron, it would appear that his legacy will be the break up of the U.K. with Northerm Ireland moving in with the Republic and Scotland wanting to be independent within the EU. Poor old Wales will get stuck with being the last remaining province of England and the mugs who voted for Brexit will wait in vain for the jobs, services and investment to flow back to their communities. They have already started rowing back on their campaign promises and in a few months/years time there won't be a single promise left for them to disown.
Suckers!!!!!
Here in Ciblat the peas & beans are doing well, the tomatoes and aubergines are recovering from their 2 week neglect and I'm enjoying the football.

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