Comments by "80s Music" (@eightiesmusic1984) on "Double Down News" channel.

  1. Labour betrayed the workers decades ago and by the time of Blair it was all over with the capitulation to neoliberalism. Weak unions, low pay, precarious employment, income inequality, tax cuts for the rich and privatisation are all design features of neoliberalism. It has worked a treat since 1979, defeating the last vestiges of socialism in Labour. The establishment stitch up of Corbyn was essential for the continuance of the wrecking spree transferring wealth to the rich. The chances of the left ascending to the leadership of Labour again are very remote- Starmer and those around him are intent on eradicating the left once and for all. Democracy is dead in Britain and it died with the defenestration of Corbyn.
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  2. The country has the government it deserves. Everything happening today from the hard right policies of the worst government in history not just living memory to Starmer's determination to maintain neoliberalism by continuing Tory policies, is the inevitable consequence of the electorate voting against its own self- interest all the time. That includes the so called 'new' Labour era when the party accepted the Thatcherite settlement. Most switchers who voted Labour in 1997 identified with Tory policies according to focus groups afterwards, and millions never bother to vote. This hard right, overtly racist government, is way to the right of UK politics in the 1990s and is worse than Thatcher even. Almost no solidarity in the workplace and poor union leaders also mean nothing will change. The voters ignored Kinnock's warnings in the 1980s because they think they know better. Fools.
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  3. Adil Ray is excellent on GMB. Fair, well briefed and not afraid to ask tough questions. His instincts and heart are both in the right place- definitely an asset to the programme. They should make him a permanent member of staff and give Madeley his marching orders.
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  4. MPs should be paid less. Some on the left ( very few) have led by example by taking an average worker's wage. Dave Nellist is a good example ( former Coventry MP in the eighties and early nineties). He is principled and articulate, yet was demonised by the media. Union leaders should be paid less. Never mind pay being set fairly via a process- it is not the point. MPs and union leaders are paid excessive salaries and no-one should be fooled into thinking they are not an integral part of the establishment. Let's not forget the much bigger picture is the unseen and overlooked salaries of the mega rich in other sectors.
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  5. It is Brexit, in large part. The wider context is key. Neoliberalism led to austerity ( one of its key tenets). Austerity led to Brexit because in many ways it was a howl of rage by those left behind by neoliberalism, who thought they had nothing to lose by leaving the EU. How misguided this proved. Neoliberalism, austerity and Brexit are all part of same issue. Everything wrong with UK society and the economy is underpinned by neoliberalism. Britain was used a laboratory for extreme right wing policies by Thatcher which have become normalised and hard baked into the fabric of most areas of life. Without Brexit the economy would have been in a much healthier position.
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  6. Government to blame above all for low wages since 2008 and arguably way before this, obviously. Public to blame for looking the other way when they know full well of the suffering in supposedly the sixth richest economy in the world ( where is all that money? Oh, yes, it's hidden away by the rich). Most people don't want to be in a union because they only care about themselves and want the approval of their boss, and many who are members are still apathetic and do nothing. Many unions are weak and have stood by while wages have declined, which is why living standards are plummeting. Average workers in France and Germany earn £8000 more than in the UK. Watch the unions cave in with paltry pay awards that will continue to depress living standards. The TSSA has just accepted a deal that includes a no compulsory redundancy agreement until January 31, 2025, and a minimum pay rise of at least £1,750 or five per cent (whichever is greater) backdated to January 1, 2022, which it is said is worth at least seven per cent to staff earning £25,000 or less. Around seven percent- utterly ridiculous in the face of rampant inflation, which will still remain too high even if it decreases. Only two years for a no compulsory redundancy agreement. A rubbish deal. The workers will be betrayed by the union movement and have no support from the Labour Party.
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  7.  @siddyskip  You are so rude and should be embarrassed by it. Try instead to post a considered comment that constitutes a reasoned argument. Even if you dispute the figure (without evidence- anecdote is not the plural of data), living standards for most in |Germany are much higher than in the UK, without the desperate inability to make ends meet in the low wage, long hours economy of the UK. Unions are stronger in Germany so it is obvious that wages and conditions of service are stronger. I hope you interact with people better in day to day life than you have managed in this brief discussion.
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  8.  @ruthguthrie1099  I did not know ( should have). Thanks for pointing it out. It sets an example, no wonder it is not mentioned in the media.
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  9.  @carlscott7533  Thank you.
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  10.  @californiadreamin8423 Undeniable truth. Explain yourself if you can.
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  11.  @zippymufo9765  Labour had specific policies. None of them said 'the world is not fair'. It had detailed plans to boost the economy that had the tacit approval of the city and business. John McDonnell and others did a lot to prepare the ground with business leaders. Britain is a basket case and cannot improve with the same failed policies it has had since 1979. Labour in 2017 and 2019 offered social democracy or democratic socialism with policies to the right of the 1945 manifesto. If the media, establishment and many in the PLP had not relentlessly worked to undermine Corbyn, Labour would have won in 2017. Any Labour candidate who could not endorse the policies in the manifesto should not have stood or been deselected. Not surprisingly, this did not happen. Most MPs are career politicians who do not believe in much and are motivated by self interest. It is completely ahistorical to have equated Corbyn with so called hard left politics when every single policy in the manifesto can be found as part of mainstream thinking in many other countries. The idea of the Labour right being moderates/ centrists is risible. They are, in truth, neoliberals, the hard line right wing ideology that has captured government for decades, and destroyed the economy and society. It is simply not credible for them to claim to be the moderate voice of reason.
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  12.  @marksieczko7766  Thanks. Solidarity.
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  13.  @nicolamarter8587  Many thanks.
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  14.  @KB-sb8wy  Labour could have done so much more and was far too timid. No excuse but its timidity was due to, yes, you've guessed it, the Tories!! It capitulated to Thatcherism/ neoliberalism instead of reversing it. Most voters who switched to Labour in 1997 were Tories according to focus group research after the election. Tories!! Always the Tories. Still, economic growth was double 1997-2010 than it has been in the last 12 years of the Tories. Don't let facts get in the way, ever.
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  15. 1985 was a great year for music.
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  16. All forms of religion are nonsense. Humankind should do all it can to free itself from it. I doubt humans can ever truly be free but religion is certainly not the answer. Religion and money are the root of all our problems now and in history.
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  17.  @californiadreamin8423  You did not ask a question. But even if you did it will not be answered. Well done for being half right.
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  18.  @AdrianNelson1507  I prefer Abba. More melodic.
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  19. Neurotic.
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  20.  @adrianred236  Well said. Neoliberalism underpins everything though- low wages are part of the deal, which is why Thatcher smashed the unions. Instructive to remember that neoliberalism was first applied in Chile under Pinochet in the 1970s before it was then adapted for 'democracies' in the UK and US. Weakening union rights is a key tenet of the neoliberal project and it has worked like a dream for the extremists who have inflicted it on workers.
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  21.  @jmshrrsn  Well said. Joined up thinking is sorely lacking in Britain. Mick Lynch's analysis is correct except he misses out the effects of Brexit because the RMT supports it. Denial of reality is a problem on both left and right of the political spectrum, at least where Brexit is concerned.
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  22.  @brynleytalbot778  Perhaps. UK productivity has been poor for forty years and policy makers have failed to address it. One of the key reasons unemployment has been relatively low in the UK ( although at least 1 million throughout the interwar years was far more controversial then) recently is that it takes two or three people to do the same work as one in France, even with the 35 hour week ( subject to some exemptions). The French approach is to work quite intensely on the task in hand without dead time and they find time for a two hour lunch. There are many reasons for low UK productivity, including lack of investment in training and skills. The education system is patently not fit for purpose, with huge numbers leaving at 16 without 5 good passes at GCSE, including Maths and English. Poor literacy and numeracy should be a national scandal but the education sector is very good at brushing its failures under the carpet and singing its own praises- no-one should arrive to secondary school unable to read and write to the expected standard unless they have special needs, which is obviously where more support is needed to help them catch up with their peers. There are major problems in education with recruitment and retention, disaffection by increasing numbers of students and a curriculum that does not accommodate the needs of the individual. I dread to think how this is going to feed into productivity in the next 15 years- it is going to be grim because the workforce is going to lack the necessary aptitude and work ethic needed to compete with other countries where attitudes to education are much better. Neither Labour or the Tories have had a proper industrial strategy for the last forty years, and Britain has floundered for a long time relative to many other nations. If the 1970s and 1980s was about the slow decline of the UK despite surface appearances to the contrary for some of the time, the economic model is in danger of imploding in the next two decades. The Germans got it right with the split between vocational and academic, whereas Britain blew the historic opportunity to chart the right course under the Butler Act 1944- the grammar schools were and are divisive, and the technical schools in the middle between grammars and secondary moderns were few and far between, and almost an afterthought.
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  23. Democracy for Sale- Peter Geoghan. Shocking expose of how corporate interests have captured the government and the Conservative Party via the Institute of Economic Affairs. It will explain a lot and offer little hope ( I am half way through it, perhaps the second half is undimmed optimism). The window for change was Corbyn but that moment has passed due to lies of the media and Conservative Party in the 2019 election. The Electoral Commission is weak and the penalties for breaking electoral law no deterrent. George Monbiot is right and sincere but unfortunately he is preaching to the converted and those who need to be converted are not listening because they are persuaded by digital lies to vote against their own self interest. The digital wild west of the internet means that Cambridge Analytica was only the start of what is to come unless urgent corrective action is taken. But it is unlikely. Sacha Baron Cohen's speech to the Anti Defamation League about the need for the power of social media companies to be brought under control is a powerful call to action-recommended.
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  24. Most other democracies have realised that strong unions result in more equal societies and better wages. Why has it taken 42 years to even start discussing this in Britain? No wonder political literacy is so weak ( academic research) here compared to other countries. The public, most of the unions and the ruling class are clueless. The latter has deliberately transferred wealth upwards. His analysis is right but the unions are going to cave in by accepting very poor, below inflation pay deals. Most of them are hot air. RMT also supports Brexit, the primary cause of the disastrous state of the UK economy, yet no-one questions the fact it is, in part, fighting against the consequences of the Brexit it supports. The Lexit argument is just as dogmatic and misguided as the hard right delusions and lies about the benefits of leaving the EU.
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  25.  @gowanlock  Ludicrous to state that £84,000 is ' not all that'. Tone deaf to the realities of pay in the UK. The argument that they need to be paid more to attract the best talent ( implicit in your post) is well rehearsed and without evidence to back it up. Instructive to note that a former Tory MP with a business background who is no longer in parliament has observed that they were surprised by the poor calibre of some MPs when they arrived to parliament. MPs make it to selection lists for many reasons in all parties, and it is obvious that many of them are no better than the average middle manager. It is generally understood that many people are promoted one or two grades above their ability. I have watched politics programmes every day this year, and a number of parliamentary debates. Some MPs make erudite, thoughtful contributions, but many are distinctly ordinary. The calibre of politicians today is probably at its lowest since the second world war, on all sides. There are plenty of capable individuals from all walks of life who would be able to do an MPs job effectively for much less.
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  26. It is illegal. Union funds would be frozen. Co-ordinated action is the closest thing possible. I am afraid the unions are going to sell out the workers with pathetic pay deals way below inflation. Notwithstanding the obvious negotiating tactic of asking for more than you are likely to win in a deal, already the TSSA has settled for around 7% for many of its members and a no compulsory redundancy clause until the start of 2025. Only 12 months away and the merry go round will probably start again. The TSSA is supposed to be one of the more determined unions. The workers are led up the hill to strike action and then betrayed with rubbish, risible deals. Ergo they are powerless. Needless to say, they do not have the support of the so called party of the workers that calls itself Labour.
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  27.  @CasV44  It is beyond redemption as it currently stands. Difficult to see how that could change. I would love to be proved wrong.
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  28. Absolutely right. I read that for years they would turn up to support various campaigns when almost no- one else did from the PLP. I am proud to have received an email from John McDonnell a few years ago in which he addressed me as comrade. That made my day.
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  29.  @janewright2800  Thanks!
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  30.  @markohenry5891  Under Labour from 1997-2010 the economy grew at an average of 2.3% per year. Since the Conservatives took over in May 2010, the UK economy has only grown at 1.2% per year. This is verifiable fact. Obviously you will not like it but before you write a post falsely accusing someone of being wrong, you should spend more time fact checking. I cited Labour MPs as stating it without refutation- there are any number of places where this might be asserted. You have no idea who I vote for but it is irrelevant.
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  31.  @West1Think  It is not a diatribe, quite the opposite. I have made reasoned arguments. The vote was narrow and an advisory referendum, not even legally binding. One million people who voted for Brexit have died since 2016. Evidence based argument may be wasted on you as you state, which speaks volumes. Many of those who voted for Brexit remain impervious to reason. What is hadst and why use a capital letter for public?
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  32. Bring back Animal Nightlife from the eighties.
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  33.  @perro0076  Thank you. RMT stated on its website that it is not possible to nationalise the railway under the EU- this is not true at all. I daresay many of its members believe this without having questioned the veracity of the claim. Socialism in one country is neither achievable or necessary in today's interconnected world- a prosperous future is only possible if we trade and co-operate with the rest of Europe.
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  34.  @teddansonLA  Regardless, I think the railways could be nationalised. A mechanism could be found ultimately.
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  35.  @PabloDon27  1995 strikes brought down the French government. Macron has limited to energy price rise to 4% and 12% 2022 and 12% 2023. French government even of the right is way to the left of Britain and that includes Labour. Continental European governments actually care more about their people and the system has more robust mechanisms to ensure unaccountable charlatans cannot use power to enrich a tiny elite at the expense of the majority without impunity.
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  36. There are more holes in many of Hitchens' arguments than a Swiss cheese. He talks nonsense much of the time.
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  37.  @The-Anti-Zionist  I would do some wider reading and then you might not be so easily persuaded by what Hitchens says.
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  38. Stanley Baldwin.
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  39. Well said- I have commented on this above.
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  40.  @paulwalker797  Neoliberalism is not dying. On the contrary, it is accelerating as the rich scramble to conserve their advantages by exploiting labour. You have not explained your assertion. The so called obsession with culture and identity is a creation of the right to distract from the real issues. The left should focus primarily on class in its analysis. There is no self righteous leftist bubble. Except in the mind of the right wing press.
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  41. This is patently not true. There are countless others who do- Diane Abbot, John Nicholson SNP, Caroline Lucas, John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn, Dawn Butler, and many more.
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  42.  @LateNightGhost  Ok, fair enough. Solidarity.
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  43. Silly comment. There are lots of qualities needed to be an effective Prime Minister. It may be that she possesses many of them but this is by no means obvious at this point in time.
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  44.  @stephendavis5433  Precisely. Corbyn was the last chance for the UK to genuinely change course. He would have steered Britain back to social democracy not even the socialism he was demonised for. There is nothing in the 2017 and 2019 offer that anyone who is not a Tory could have objected to yet most of the self-appointed commentariat threw everything at preventing him from being elected, as did many in the PLP. Do they have regrets? No, of course not, because they wield unaccountable power and influence which has real world effect through the turmoil created by chaotic government. The Tories must go but the public need to wake up too. Not holding my breath. Labour under Starmer will be no better, committed to the same failed policies in the name of neoliberalism. Corbyn was the repudiation of Thatcherism the country needed but rejected.
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  45.  @billa-bong1514  Only because the right wing media that supports the extremists in the Tory Party said so. Brexit is a cult and this government is an unmitigated disaster. By definition Corbyn could not have been worse and the city had worked closely with McDonnell on Labour's plans for the economy. None of this would have happened. Not hard to understand.
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  46.  @markohenry5891  The same evidence for stronger economic growth has been cited and not contradicted on television by Labour MPs. If it was wrong it would have been corrected. I do not post anything that cannot be substantiated. You need to get your facts right.
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  47.  @markohenry5891 They are correct. Look it up yourself seeing as you are so good at googling information. Disprove the figures if you are able to with the 'correct' information for growth under Labour and Tories 1997 to 2022. Don't be surprised if you make an inaccurate claim to find it corrected.
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  48.  @markohenry5891  Already have. Verifiable fact. What are the correct figures if you believe they are wrong? It must involve percentages. If you cannot cite the 'real' figures, stop wasting time.
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  49. The media and most of the PLP acted deliberately and egregiously to stop Corbyn at all costs. Job done. Any antisemitism anywhere in society is wrong and should be addressed. The number of cases in Labour was very low. As soon as Corbyn resigned the constant headlines and stories about it ceased overnight. Purely co- incidental.
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  50. Absolutely right. We need less hyperbole. I am 53 so no doubt this view would be dismissed as old fashioned. Britain is way too hyper compared to how it was only twenty years ago and it shows in almost every aspect of life today. It is not like this in most other countries despite the myopic delusion of most Britons that the culture here is the only possible way everything should be done. Language matters.
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