Poor Man About Town

I was listening to BBC Radio 4's Any Questions today. John Redwood was the main star. His manner and presentation strikes me as akin to a Victorian undertaker, I get the feeling that if you were in his presence, you would smell fresh cadavers and embalming fluid, not the sort of person who would be invited to a dinner party in East Dulwich. He was pitted against twelve year old Rosie Winterton, New Labour Minister for Pensions. What struck me was the amount of New Labour bullshit and rhetoric which was coming out of Rosie Winterton's mouth and the rather locquacious and well-informed stuff that was coming out of Mr Redwood. I don't like Mr Redwood's politics, but his ability to express them far outweighed that of Ms Winterton, who just seemed to be reading off a New Labour idiot card. I knew it all along, Ms Winterton is a Blair implant, a career politician and will just spout off a script. What this programme laid bare was the deep chasm that exists between the old school politician and that the rather trashy new school, who really can't express themselves properly. Redwood, for his party, is worth the money. Winterton, for New Labour and her sponsorship, well that's open to debate.

NB I wonder if Rosie is related, by any chance, to Nicholas

Labels: Any Questions, BBC Radio 4, Conservative, John Redwood, New Labour, Rosie Winterton, Tories, twelve year old

Some commentaries remain timeless and classic. I was flipping some old notes which I have made from books which I have read. There were several quotes from John Braine's Room at the Top which appealed to me.

This could easily be applied to Blairism and the Primrose Hill Gang a la Miliband and James Purnell and Andy Burnham, likewise David Cameron and George (aka Gideon) Osborne of the Tories - the new of Designer Politicians.

"Whatever the suggestions were, Heylake would listen to them. He was a great improvement on the efficient zombie. Even now, I don't like to remember the efficient zombie. He had a large head with short-oiled hair and an absolutely immobile face. It was not even dignified or stony, it was dead, he seemed to take out the oxygen out of the air around him"

Check this out on charm - can easily be applied to politicians re: the above.

"The possession of charm wasn't in itself a guarentee of success but it seems to follow our bits like a pilot fish"

Labels: Blair, British Politics, David Cameron, literature, New Labour, Tories

I see that the Trident upgrade has been voted in by the Holier Than Thou Alliance of New Labour and Conservative. Gosh, it's great to have a democracy, we and the Yanks have spent billions on bringing democracy to Iraq. Yes, in a democracy your political representative can vote for bombs that can bomb the fuck out of anybody who needs to be deterred. I heard one New Labour mp saying that it was necessary because the Chinese and the Russians are building up their nuclear bomb capabilities. Worst still, they have embraced Capitalism as their economic operating system - so we must be singing from the same economic hymn sheet, aren't we?.

So why the fuck do we feel the need to possibly bomb out the Russians and the Chinese. The Russians are not a bad lot, they flog us cheap gas; the Chinese, likewise, the sell us lovely electrical goods. Our electricity bills would rocket if the Russians turn off the gas. As for the Chinese, we would be deprived of lovely electrical goods so that we will be soon be watching only one tv channel in monochrome on 405 lines were we to vex the Chinese enough.

Do you know something, we spend decades convincing the Chinese and Russians that Capitalism ain't such a bad thing; but don't you think that they are getting a little too cheeky of late? So, I guess the New Labour is right in thinking that if they got very cheeky, then we should start rattling our rockets at them.

Update: The Tories and New Labour voted together to agree to the upgrade - same policies - same parties.

Labels: Blair, Conservative, New Labour, politics, Tories, trident