Longrider

11
May
2010

That Purple Revolution

Filed under: Political — Longrider @ 18:15

There’s some interesting analysis of the Purple Revolution by IanB over at Counting Cats.

So who are this 38 Degrees mob? Wander for yourself round their website and you’ll soon see. According to their website (which as I write this is dreadful slow; looks like there’s a lot of PuRple Revolutionaries taking a look) is the former Head Of Activism at Friends Of The Earth, and the funny little cabal around him is just stuffed with left wing extremists with direct Green connections, apparatchiks from the watermelon network. And where’s their funding coming from? Well, they espouse a worthy desire to be funded by donations, but for now, sadly, they’ve had no choice but to be funded by Big Green Business. How sad for them. Notable names being Gordon Roddick (husband of Saint Anita, and co-creator of environmentally friendly snake oil merchants the Body Shop) and one Henry Tinsley, who made his fortune with a business called Tinsley Foods, but is now another snake oil merchant, being a director of of organic food company Whole Earth and an eager funder of far left causes, and “progressive” politics.

Ah… So it’s all about self interest, then? Why am I not surprised? And, frankly any movement that involves Billy Bragg tends to make me shy away.

Anyway, read all of Ian’s post, it makes for interesting reading.

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Copyright©2010 Longrider

11
May
2010

Ludicrous Skullduggery

Filed under: General News,Political — Longrider @ 14:14

You won’t often find me agreeing with Labour heavyweights, but it does seem that they’ve got the latest LibDem talks with Labour right.

Big Blunkett:

David Blunkett, the former Home Secretary, gave public voice to concerns about whether Labour could trust the Lib Dems in a coalition deal, claiming they were behaving like “every harlot in history.”

Can’t disagree with that.

John Reid:

John Reid, another former Home Secretary, warned that voters would punish Labour if it tried to “cobble something together that was not in the national interest.”

Yup.

Jack Straw:

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary who has always been opposed to agreements with the Liberals, is said by colleagues to be “incensed” about the moves. One colleague even questioned whether Mr Straw would stay in the Cabinet in such circumstances.

Well, some spine at last.

And for the Tories, comes that delicious description from Boris Johnson interviewed on the BBC when he referred to it as ludicrous skullduggery. Ludicrous skullduggery is precisely what it is.

I do wish people would shut up about the British electorate having spoken and voted for a hung parliament. They did not. The electorate is not a homogeneous mass that votes collectively, it consists of millions of individuals who voted individually for the candidate they wanted to win or against the candidate they wanted to lose. They did not vote for some ridiculous progressive rainbow coalition of losers, just as they did not vote in sufficient numbers for a Conservative government. Still it doesn’t stop the odious progressives trotting out the line that most people voted other than Tory while conveniently ignoring that most people voted other than Labour, just as they did in the last election. To suggest that the electorate has spoken with one voice in tandem as if it is a unified thing rather than individuals speaking individually is mere collectivist claptrap.

Given the ludicrous skullduggery and blatant whoring going on, I guess we are seeing just how the LibDems’ beloved PR will work in practice. I don’t know about others, but it has firmed up my previously ambivalent position. So despite Billy Bragg and others campaigning with their purple coalition for PR; given a referendum now, I would definitely vote against, which is interesting. Once, I could have been persuaded. Now that the LibDems are in a position to exert some influence, to finally realise their dream, they demonstrate just how grubby, tawdry and underhand they can be; undermining the very cornerstone of their manifesto. In short, for me, they’ve blown it. Reform the system, sure, but PR, count me out.

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