Comments on: Brighton rocks

By: PooterGeek » Blog Archive » Better Late Than Never

PooterGeek » Blog Archive » Better Late Than Never — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 09:32:29 +0000

[...] Most of the Labour-ish readers here don’t need to be introduced to Jo Salmon and Antonia Bance. Despite (because of?) being in the same party I’ve certainly disagreed with them in the past—Antonia wrote that arguing with me about abortion was like being back in a tutorial—but Saint PooterGeek considers them to be broadly on the side of Good rather than Evil, and is unswayed in that judgement by their being lovely people to meet in the real world. [...]

By: Antonia

Antonia — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 11:52:12 +0000

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Having been in hibernation and in Blackpool, this is my first chance to respond.

Rob, I don’t see how “we could have been in government during those 18 years and met the challenges of the end of heavy industry far more compassionately and with greater help for those affected by it than Thatcher managed or would have dreamt of” differs from “we would have sacked the miners more nicely?!?”.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 10:51:47 +0000

“This was Labour Party Conference, not an address to a think tank” … so delegates to Conference don’t deserve an intellectual address as well as a political one?

Antonia, I don’t think that Blair was saying that we would have “sacked the miners more nicely” or that we would necessarily have undertaken any of the more hard-right Thatcherite “reforms” of the Tory years. What he was saying is that, if Labour had been willing not to be tied to dogma through the 50s and 60s, we could have been in government during those 18 years and met the challenges of the end of heavy industry far more compassionately and with greater help for those affected by it than Thatcher managed or would have dreamt of.

By: Helen A

Helen A — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 16:51:52 +0000

Speeches
I listened to jo’s speech and I was impressed. Awesome.

I listened to Blair’s speech and was immensely irratated. One, he sounded like a bad American salesman - extoling his own brand - at the wrong event; this was Labour Party Conference not an address to a think tank. And could he not discover the correct use of punctuation and emphasis. Second, i object to his interpretation of choice in the education and health sectors - his choice is predicated by market economy factors. Third, I object to his continued praise of the economic and public sector reform that the Tories introduced and his likening of quite sensible measures to them. Likening them to Thatcherite policy convinces no-one outside the party and irratates people inside.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 08:59:35 +0000

Almost certainly unnecessarily, I feel the need to clarify the “Tom joined the party because of the war” line, on the grounds that it makes me sound like a bloodthirsty bomb-groupie. And maybe I am. But even though I did support the war, the cause and effect aren’t quite that straightforward. In brief, I’d always thought of myself as being on the left, and thought of Labour as my party, but never been sufficiently motivated actually to join up. Partly, that’s because not being in the party gives you the luxury of being able to carp and complain, and to disassociate yourself from bits of the party’s platform you don’t like, and vote Liberal Democrat occasionally as a protest in a safe Labour seat on the grounds that Labour will win anyway and you welcome that but feel uncomfortable about its asylum policy (as I did in 2001). In the end, with members deserting the party and writing irritating letters to the Guardian about it on a daily basis, while I continued to believe that we needed a Labour government, I started to think that my support but non-membership was a bit decadent, a bit luxurious, a bit holier-than-thou-freedom-from-responsibility. So I joined up.

By: Chris Brooke

Chris Brooke — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 22:32:49 +0000

Is Damian really PG-certificate?

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 15:00:56 +0000

On the contrary, if we give up the idea that organised human beings can change the world then we have no reason to be in a democratic socialist party, and we might as well all go and be investment bankers (the lucky few) or work in McDonalds(the vast majority). So well said Antonia.

By: Neil Harding

Neil Harding — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 03:13:59 +0000

Glad someone else has commented on the anti-abortion idiots. I don’t think we can just ignore these people, like the BNP they are on the rise, we need to confront these people head on wherever they try to spread their vicious propaganda.

I don’t think however that trashing the CA stall is something we should condone. We have to beat them with argument not resort to their tactics.

As for Blair, you might be surprised to learn I thought his speech was excellent. Much as I hated Thatcher and her dispicable government, we live in a capitalist world, we can’t completely ignore that fact.

I thought his speech was packed with information rather than waffle. Cutting the length and cost of trials and the wait between alleged offence and judgement can only be a good thing. This is something that is overdue. Anyway… I’ve said enough of this I think.