Religious Certitudes

Rowson is frankly a fuckin' god in terms of his visual skills...but he can't be everywhere at once.  And with Bell struggling with that obsession with a certain condom, there may be room for a new number two...somewhere

Days of Miracle and Wonder

Mr Burnham says that a Labour government led by him would "lift the millstone of debt" from students and replace fees with a graduate tax.

Fellow leadership contender Yvette Cooper also backs a graduate tax while Jeremy Corbyn wants to scrap tuition fees and bring back maintenance grants. 

...

The graduate tax plan is among the shadow health secretary's five manifesto pledges, which are:

• Replacing tuition fees with a new graduate tax, and creating new university-style support for young people seeking apprenticeships 

• Freeing councils to build new homes and introducing regulation of the private rented sector

• Abolishing the youth rate National Minimum Wage, establishing a true living wage for all ages, banning forced zero-hours contracts and unpaid internships

• Renationalisation of railways and reregulation of buses

• Good care throughout people's lifetimes, through a National Health and Care Service, bringing social care into the NHS and meaning no-one is forced to sell their home to afford care.

Bloody hell, watching Labour's leadership-candidates flail in Corbyn's wake* is almost becoming as entertaining as watching the clowns in the GOP in Trump's.  Re-nationalising the railways, and now scrapping tuition-fees** -- What next ?  Endorse Natalie Bennett's calls to turn RBS into a People's Bank ?  Abolition of the monarchy ?

Should be entertaining regardless.  And meanwhile, the ever-brilliant Martin Rowson returns to the Guardian: Rays of light amidst so much darkness.


Now, if only Bernie Sanders' campaign could have the same effect on Hillary Clinton in the US...Ha !  Sorry, drifted off into la-la land there.


* What would they be talking about at this point in the campaign if it weren't for Corbyn ?  Raising the retirement-age to ninety ?  A 2p top tax-rate ?  Burning the homeless for fuel ?

** Not that a graduate-tax is quite the same thing as free universal higher education of course.

A Tale of Two Tours

Here's the Indy's latest daily cartoon online:

And the day before:

I don't know if this was a editorial choice or a coincidence, but it is somewhat unfortunate, and doesn't exactly put the more recent publication in a great light.  Both 'toons are themed almost identically, even to the degree of Corbyn turning to his left.  But the earlier work spares us the labels for 'Left' and 'Right', spares us the actual labelling of the bicycle as 'Labour Party', and spares us the cliché of riding off a cliff.  Instead we get the socks up over the trousers & the old-fashioned bike with the basket, versus the Blairites in their spandex.  And yes, we also get a labelled Das Kapital, not that that really hurts the piece overall.  And I'm assuming that's Prescott rooting Jezza on besides an apoplectic Blair.

To juxtapose two such similarly themed, but unequally executed works side-by-side is just cruel really.  Oh right, I just did that myself, didn't I ?  Whoops.

Tone' the Tempter Needs More Souls

Did Tony Blair actually say these words (my reading of the video) ?

I've known Jeremy going back many over many, many years.  I think we both came into Parliament at the same time together.  And it's not about...And it's not about an individual, it's about a platform, that, in the end, wouldn't work for the country.  And I want to stress that.

It's not that it wouldn't win power.  I personally think it's unlikely that we would win power.  But, even if you did, it wouldn't be right.  Because it wouldn't take the country forward, it would take it backwards.  So, that's why it's not the right thing to do.  It's not the right thing to do, because, you know... this is why, when people say, y'know, well my heart says I should really be with that politics...well, get a transplant, because that's just done.

Because that sure as fuck sounds to me like an argument to vote Tory.  Oh, and one thing for all politicians to remember, whether they identify as 'progressive' or not, is that 'forward' movement need have no correlation with actual betterment of one's circumstances whatsoever.  Moving 'forward' is just carrying on in your existing established direction, even if you just accidentally stepped off a cliff.  Or, for that matter, on a landmine.

And as for this question of whether the other contenders for the leadership would serve in the shadow cabinet under Corbyn, well, for myself, not that you probably care, I'd say that right here Liz Kendall just invalidated her case for the leadership bid altogether.  Cooper may have equivocated, but I don't entirely blame her, and Burnham comes across, to me, as the only one perhaps* genuinely concerned with something more than his own political career.

Jeremy and I so fundamentally disagree, with Jeremy's approach, that...And I think it would be disastrous for the party, it would be disastrous for the country, we would be out of power for a generation.  I don't want to be a party of protest.  And I wouldn't be able to stop myself from making that case.

Do you even think about how this sounds, when you say these words as a career politician ?...  I personally do care what happens to the UK, but I'm not that greatly invested in Labour, and I don't give a shit about Liz Kendall, or any of these assholes' personal political careers.

There is, I suppose, an argument to be made, that had New Labour not been in power when it was, that the Tories would have done even more damage even earlier, but there's also the counter-argument to that, that we might be now seeing the reaction against 'Conservative' radicalism, were there an actual mainstream opposition for voters to support, and had Tony Blair not completely sold out generations of non-right-wing-extremists.

One other thing, I don't at all understand is the acquiescence with the stupid Fixed-term Parliaments Act, let alone the idea that the party is somehow married to a particular leader for five years.  Deciding your leadership in the 2015 elections in 2010 and your leadership for the 2020 elections in 2015 is just frankly insane.  By rights, Ed should still be Labour's leader, and they wouldn't have to be worrying about who would take them into the next elections till 2018 at the earliest, were it not for the idiocy of fixed-term parliaments.  At what point did the choice for leadership become some sort of suicide-pact ?


* The eyebrows bewitched me, sorry.

And So Labour Pushes Itself Ever Deeper into Irrelevance

Welfare vote will 'haunt' Labour says SNP

The SNP has said Scottish Labour will pay a heavy price for not voting in greater numbers against planned welfare cuts by the UK government.

The prediction comes after plans to cut £12bn pounds from the welfare budget passed their first hurdle in the Commons on Monday night.

Forty-eight Labour's 232 MPs voted against the package.

SNP MP Hannah Bardell said Labour's position was a ''shambles'' which would "haunt" them at the Holyrood election.

The Commons backed the Welfare Reform and Work Bill by 308 to 124 votes.

The SNP voted firmly against the UK government's controversial proposals in the Welfare Reform Bill.

There were 48 Labour rebels but most, including Scotland's sole Labour MP Ian Murray, abstained on the orders of acting leader Harriet Harman.

Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham said his party made "a mess" of its approach and was "crying out for leadership".

He said he had agreed to abstain on the key vote because he was "not prepared to split the party".

...

"Labour have completely abandoned any pretence of being a party of social justice and progress - just as they did when they so shamefully voted to support George Osborne's £30bn more austerity cuts."

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was "sadly not" surprised by the party's decision to abstain.

The SNP leader added: "Labour seem to have lost any sense of purpose or any sense of direction."

"It really does beg a fundamental question, if Labour is not about opposing a Tory government that is waging an ideological assault not on skivers who don't want to work, but on people who are working hard on low incomes, if Labour is not about opposing that, what is Labour for?

"Last night just proves that Labour has lost any sense of purpose and it will be the SNP who increasingly will form the real opposition in the House of Commons."

The SNP really aren't doing themselves any favours in terms of public support or sympathy south of the border, when they partake in childish stunts like this, but they do have something of a point about being the 'real opposition' when the Labour party continually stakes its flag just slightly to the left of wherever the Tories are at any given point in time, and when they keep declining opportunities to actually oppose the Conservatives, begging time and again, what the hell are they for ?  There are other actual leftist parties in the UK, and the Lib Dems can claim to be the party of civil liberties, but Labour ?

Short of a personality to dominate the party, someone with the magician-like qualities to successfully convince the public that they are a centre-left party whilst pushing time-and-again centre-right (at best) policies, there is no future in 'New Labour.'  'New Labour' was Tony Blair, and worked solely because of Tony Blair.  There may or may not be much of a future in a principled 'Old Labour', but 'New Labour' is done, and it is the likes of Harman, Cooper, and Kendall that are clinging to the past, not the new intake of MP's who voted their conscience.

Which leaves us with 'friend of Hamas' Corbyn (who did vote against) and Brave Sir Andy, who really really wanted to oppose the Conservatives, but didn't want 'to split the party and make the job of opposition even harder' and so boldly abstained from voting Aye or No.

He added: "It was a mess, wasn't it? The run-up to this vote was a bit of a mess. It is quite clear that this is a party now that is crying out for leadership and that is what I have shown in recent days."

Um, yes it was.  Yes it does.  And no, you haven't.  Actually, I suspect that this could have been a crucial breakout moment for Burnham had he taken the lead on strongly opposing the Conservatives' plans.  As is, voters in the leadership-contest for Labour, have their Blairite candidates already, have their Old Labour candidate, and then have poor Andy Burnham, who like the party as a whole, stands for what exactly ?, and, whose bold efforts to not split the party will merely undermine his own appeal, whilst doing nothing to prevent the split of the party.

I find myself wondering, what if there were no Labour party ?  What if it were left to the Liberals and the likes of the SNP and the Greens to define the opposition to the Tories, and to provide alternative votes at the ballot-box ?  Would the UK be any worse off if Labour simply ceased to exist ?  But then the hypotheticals of how we might have come to a world without Labour lead me to 'A Wonderful Life'*-style musings about what the world might look like had it never had a Tony Blair.  And so tempting as that line of thought is, I'm not sure I want to go there at the moment.

* à la Fry & Laurie obviously.

MP Follows Official Protocol Shock Horror

Labour's Andy Burnham derided over cringeworthy sign off to Prince Charles’ spider memos

The former health secretary was writing a letter to the Prince of Wales thanking the royal for congratulating him as a newly-appointed minister.

But he ended the note with the hand-written flourish: “I have the honour to remain, Sir, your Royal Highness’s most humble and obedient servant.”

The sign-off appears to be following ministerial protocol, with fellow former health secretary John Reid using the same wording when he wrote to the prince.

However, Yvette Cooper, the former planning minister, signed off her letter to the royal with the simple phrase: “Respectfully yours.”

As the fight for the Labour leadership hots up, Mr Burnham, a frontrunner in the race, has been derided for his obsequious reply. 

One commentator said the sign-off spelled the end of his leadership campaign, while others agreed it had severely damaged his credentials as a leftwing moderniser. 

Others on Twitter accused Mr Burnham of “sucking up” to the heir to the throne, while another tweeted: “Your most obedient servant? Thought better of Andy Burnham #socialism”

Just curious, but what would be the appropriate 'left-wing' or 'socialist' protocol for addressing the future monarch ?  Surely Yvette Cooper's 'Respectfully Yours' is also excessively fawning and deferential towards the evil institution that is the monarchy.  Respect ?  Why should she respect Charles ?  He's a fascist figurehead surely ?  A greedy aristo. mooching off the labour of hardworking Brits.

How about 'I fart in your general direction' ?  Too mild ?  'Go fuck yourself you royal cunt !' ?  Maybe he should have smeared the letter in his own faeces ?  There must be a guide out there somewhere...

Andy Burnham

So, this is the guy that Labour seemingly expects to lead them into the next elections huh ?  Because one generation lost to Tory-in-all-but-name Tony wasn't enough ?

Andy Burnham, the frontrunner to be the next Labour leader, is to argue that his party should value entrepreneurial businessmen and women as much as nurses and teachers.

The shadow health secretary, who is the favourite for the leadership, over Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall, will promise an audience of business leaders on Friday that he would improve Labour’s reputation on the economy and ensure it values the contribution to society made by those who run companies.

All the candidates have now talked of the need to champion wealth creators in a significant change in tone from Ed Miliband’s rhetoric about standing up to corporate vested interests.

Because of course, business-interests have been so horribly under-represented in government the last several decades, whilst we endlessly coddle teachers and nurses, and pay them such outrageous wages.  All hail the 'wealth-creators' ! (™ Fox News)

Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, has made a surprise move to assert his independence from the trades unions by saying he will not take any union cash to fund his Labour leadership campaign. Burnham made his announcement as one of his chief rivals, Liz Kendall, tried to seize the mantle as the change candidate and new Labour MPs expressed their concern that the nomination process may narrow the field to two before the party has had a chance to hear the start of a debate.

Burnham has been labelled in some quarters as the unions’ favoured candidate, but he said: “I am not going to take any money from the trades unions in this leadership campaign. No money has been offered, but if it was, I would encourage it to be given to the Labour party to assist the rebuilding after the election. But I am actively seeking the support of individual trade union members and am pleased they have a bigger say in this contest.

“I am aware that, whatever the result of this contest, the party must come out of this well. I am going to be my own man. I am independent and will make my own judgments. I make no apology for our historic links with the trades unions

No idea why he would be the 'union's favoured candidate', but if they had any sense, they might note the use of the word historic.  As in, time to put it behind us, part of our ancient heritage, something we'll acknowledge quietly, but obviously something that has no place in this modern century of glorious capitalistic ascendancy.

He will say Labour should not have been running a deficit before the financial crisis hit, and will promise that as prime minister he would eliminate the deficit if the Tories fail.

But his admission that the party made a mistake is sure to raise eyebrows – Mr Burnham was Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2007 and 2008, when the crisis hit.

Words fail me.  You do realise that letting your party be blamed for the (primarily US-caused) global economic crisis, is one of the reasons you lost the last election, don't you ?  And you think more austerity will 'eliminate the deficit' perhaps ?  By the year, erm...2300 maybe ?

Andy Burnham, the Labour leadership candidate, is planning to resurrect plans for what critics have described as a "death tax" to pay for people's care in old age.

Friends of Mr Burnham, the shadow health secretary, said that will return to the idea of a system where social care is funded by imposing a tax on estates when people die.

The plans have been criticised by the Conservatives as a "death tax" but characterised by Mr Burnham as a "social insurance system".

He has previously suggested that the current system is unfair because it penalises people who become ill and need care in old age. He has said that it means the most vulnerable in society pay the most and described it as a "dementia tax".

Oh, you 'ole socialist, you !  Taking money from people when they're dead and can't fight back is always a winner.  Of course if you wanted a 'social insurance system', you could always, oh, I don't know...use regular taxation...income tax say...while people are...actually still alive.  We could even...stay with me here...have a 'progressive' tax, whereby people are taxed according to their ability to pay.  From each according to his ability, right ?  Radical, huh ?

This post is titled Andy Burnham, but realistically, any of the candidates' names would probably fit just as well.  What it comes down to is this: Labour's leadership are professional politicians who happen to have ended up playing for 'Team Labour', 'Team Red' if you will.  'Team interchangeable meaningless label.'  But they don't actually believe in their own brand.  In fact, they're embarrassed by it.  And...It shows.  And if they don't buy what they're selling, then the voters certainly won't either.

Taking bets now for another Tory win in 2020, in the by-then rUK, consisting of an uncomfortable alliance of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, surrounded by and barely tolerated by the European Union.