Comments by "80s Music" (@eightiesmusic1984) on "PoliticsJOE" channel.

  1. The most egregious treatment was heaped on him without any justification. More than any previous Labour leader combined. The behaviour of many in the PLP and the media towards him was an utter disgrace. History will be kind to him for saving socialism from oblivion in Britain. Future generations will sing his praises.
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  2. It is remarkable how pleased with himself he appears whenever he is in Parliament or interviewed. Cringeworthy and the weird hand gestures and grinning when Truss walked onstage at the Tory Party conference were beyond cringe. Smirking while the economy is on fire. There are no words to describe how awful this government is.
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  3. Heseltine has been right in everything he has said about Brexit all the way through. I am a democratic socialist but I have respect for him because he is a patriot wanting the best for the UK. He is/ was a one nation Tory with a belief in public service and the need for the state to provide a safety net for its citizens. On industry he was right in calling for an interventionist state- neither party has had an industrial strategy of any meaning for around 40 years. It would be easy to find fault with the Tories and they have wrecked Britain for over forty years ( longer) but Heseltine deserves respect for his position on Europe.
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  4. ' I recently suggested to a radio audience that he supposes himself to be Winston Churchill, while in reality being closer to Alan Partridge. Johnson would not recognise truth, whether about his private or political life, if confronted by it in an identity parade.' Max Hastings article in The Guardian, 2019.
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  5. Libertarians on the side of the rich do not believe in regulation of the market. Therein lies the problem. Coffey is out of touch giving the impression of someone who simply does not care. Absolutely laughable that she was selected as an MP never mind becoming a cabinet minister including Deputy Prime Minister under the joker Truss. Many MPs are really weird.
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  6. Zinger guaranteed with every question from Stephen Flynn. Go SNP!
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  7. Dave Ward working class hero. Rightly condemned the Blairite virus in the Labour Party a few years ago.
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  8. Working class hero leading where others have failed workers. Regardless of the outcome of the strike ( I hope they succeed), Mick Lynch has changed the dynamic in the British economy for good in all probability. Without effective union leadership things are not going to improve on their own. Power does not make concessions willingly. The RMT leader has provided more education on the realities of hard line capitalism's impact on workers in the last few days in interviews than almost anybody else in the last decade. Not only has he made the case lucidly for the rail industry but he has put it in the wider context of the bigger picture applicable to millions of others who are subjected to downward pressure on their wages year on year. The biggest cut to living standards in 50 years and average weekly wages on course to have increased by £18 a week by 2025 compared to 2008. Yet still the workers vote against their own self interest under FPTP. Time to wake up.
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  9. This makes me want to lock the front door and not go out again for at least ten years.
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  10. From The Guardian, 13th April 2023, 'A former senior minister from Boris Johnson’s government told the Guardian they believed Braverman was a “real racist bigot”.'
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  11. Incredibly arrogant for absolutely no reason. Very pleased with himself. I had the misfortune to see a few minutes of an Oxford Union speech he made, which was long on apparently self-deprecating digressions/jokes but short on substance. It is a mystery how he went from the London Assembly to Foreign Secretary.
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  12. The demeanour of many on the Conservative benches when immigration is discussed does not suggest they are concerned about the human cost. They are motivated by hate and othering/ dehumanising desperate people is important to them, not stopping suffering. If humanitarianism was their concern, safe and legal routes would be the priority. Instead they demonise those on boats and use the issue as a distraction from the real issues in the British economy, which are all caused by their mendacity and incompetence.
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  13. Sunak mispronounced Brianna's surname compounding the insensitivity previously shown in his exchange with Starmer. Every week Sunak shows with crass comments and actions how out of touch he is. His defenders sometimes claim how nice he is-a fundamental part of being nice is sensitivity to others, respect for difference and self awareness so that comments are calibrated appropriately. Sunak singularly failed at this today in PMQs.
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  14. Yes he is about to win in Rochdale.
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  15. Ironic that the most effective questioning of the Tories is from the SNP, a party that does not even want to be in Westminster, but speaks with passion and concern about the plight of the millions of victims of Tory policy. Labour, with some exceptions, is half hearted by comparison. No wonder when it hopes to enact the same Tory policies if it wins the GE.
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  16. Braverman must resign or be sacked. Labour needs to keep up the pressure until she is removed from her post as Home Secretary. She is wholly unfit to be a minister and an abject disgrace. Her language on a number of issues is incendiary and extremely concerning to say the least. Britain is becoming ungovernable, in large part due to the mendacious and incompetent behaviour of a Tory Party unhinged from reality and any sense of decency on a range of issues.
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  17. Britain is well on the road to a far right authoritarian regime. It can be traced back to the illiberalism of the Thatcher government. Neoliberalism has failed yet no-one in the public square will call it out. The political system is not working and reactionary forces are a clear and present danger. Remember this is a far right government already, not the traditional Conservative Party, which has been too right wing since Thatcher won power in 1979.
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  18. Spot on for the SNP to focus on Tory economic disaster. The coming housing crisis with repossessions on a vast scale is going to cause even more dislocation and trauma in society to many families. Hundreds of thousands are at risk of repossession due to the hike in interest rates caused by Truss's disastrous budget. Starmer focused mainly on Ukraine with a load of cliches about a conflict where no Russian leader will be brought to justice, there is no quick end in sight, the war will not end in a clear cut comprehensive victory to Ukraine and the war may very well go on for up to another decade. Zelensky's presence in the chamber was designed in part to neutralise the opposition; Labour fell for it. The SNP leader had the good sense not to play the Tory game.
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  19. He talks slowly to sound clever but really it is because he is thinking slowly. Nobody is fooled. Listen to his vocabulary too and it is clear he is a limited thinker. Not the brightest MP. Very arrogant too, with an entirely misplaced view of his own ability. Ludicrous.
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  20. Fiona Bruce smirking while Mick Lynch is speaking, making a serious point. As a rule and out of courtesy I only smile when someone is making a joke and being intentionally funny. In a recent episode she referred to the Prime Minister as Boris. This is not acceptable. I have not heard any other presenter on any political programme for the last forty years refer to the Prime Minister of the day as by their first name only. Ever. That is because it is not deemed appropriate. Jo Coburn is a good example on Politics Live- she never refers to Johnson as Boris. Incidentally, the BBC should have given her the role of presenting its political programme on a Sunday as she is scrupulously even handed. The BBC claims it believes in impartiality.
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  21. Look at the big picture- neoliberalism since 1979 has caused every single problem the audience member cites. The voters have backed it in every election since 1979, including Labour, which capitulated to its poisonous effects when it embraced Thatcherism/ neoliberalism under Blair. Britain has the widest income inequality in Europe except Bulgaria- it is not a bug but a design feature of neoliberalism, the system most voters support even though they can see the impact all around them. Until the conversation is about income inequality and taxing the rich properly in the sixth richest nation on earth, it cannot be fixed. Most of those complaining now supported austerity for years, of course. Wake up before it's too late ( spoiler alert- it almost certainly is).
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  22.  @FelonyBellend  Corbyn and McDonnell would have been excellent. McDonnell is a working class intellectual who has done more than most to develop an alternative economic framework for addressing a modern economy that serves the needs of people not profit.
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  23. The Tory creed is that the poor deserve to be poor because it is their own fault. This is fundamentally wrong and immoral, of course, but this is the dystopia we live in. The largest fall in living standards since the 1950s makes little difference to the big picture, which is that working people will continue to vote against their own self interest by aiding and abetting the return of the Conservatives at the next election. Labour has been in power for around 30 years of the last 120 yet the penny has still not dropped- Conservativism is bad for individual and the nation's health. Political literacy is so low in this country and levels of masochism so high that the punishment meted out by the Conservatives in the 21st century iteration of feudalism is embraced by millions who show no inclination to challenge their own thinking and the egregious policies of a government that clearly does not serve the best interests of the majority in society. The Conservatives won big in 1931 ( National Government) and 1935 despite the poverty of the interwar years they created. Ditto in 1983, 1987 and 1992 despite destroying the economy and social fabric ( if I had a pound for every time someone praised Thatcher for taming the unions for at least twenty years after she took office, I would be a millionaire) and in 2015 and 2019 despite needless, cruel and economically illiterate austerity which not only caused thousands of deaths ( fact) but inhibited recovery. Countries with strong unions co-existing with the state have less inequality and more stable economies. Not Britain. Nothing is going to change- that ship sailed with the Corbyn interregnum.
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  24. The more voters see of her the more they will dislike her- this was predicted by one of her own party recently. She also went to a good school, growing up in a middle class area. What is her problem with the truth? There's a deep-seated resentment of her education without any reason. She will not be PM by Christmas and will soon have to come to terms with the reality of her own failure for the first time in her life.
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  25. Most Tories are seriously odd. Yet the country wants to be governed by them and has done since 1900. It is remarkable how entitled, arrogant and mean spirited so many of them look. You can see their beliefs about people and human nature written all over their faces. Appalling.
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  26. She governed with integrity and deserves respect. When the history of Scottish independence is written she will be given the credit due for its eventual success. I am a socialist and nationalism runs counter to this. However, in the context of the car crash that is the UK, Scotland needs and deserves its independence to carve out a better future away from the dead hand of hard right English nationalism. Sincere and above all incredibly successful in winning elections.
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  27. The Liberal Democrats enabled this government by forming the coalition in 2010 and endorsing austerity, going after the weakest and most vulnerable in society. They are classical liberals, therefore had no problem accepting the economic illiteracy of austerity ( not just cruel, it is also dumb) because they believe in the small state and balanced budgets at all costs. In other words, they are the same as the Tories economically. They walked away from talks with Labour and had the cheek to claim it was the other way round. Not so. Without the coalition there would have been no austerity which has wrecked public services and no Brexit. Just let that sink in.
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  28. Truss resignation to be announced this afternoon. Repeated assertions that there is a good reason why not in the chamber but cannot say why indicate she has resigned. One MP asked if she was on her way to the Palace.
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  29. Watch the nurses settle for a poor pay deal below inflation. They will still be using food banks because pay is so low. In France the average family is 10% better off than in the UK and in Germany it is 20% wealthier. Strong unions means good pay via collective bargaining. Weak union leadership in some of the unions is part of the problem here as well as anti union legislation. Other European nations are SERIOUS about their demands and don't stop until they win. Not here.
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  30. Daily Mail full-page editorial headlined ‘ ‘Hurrah for the Blackshirts’ in January 1934. The story, bylined to Viscount Rothermere, praised Mosley for his “sound, common sense, Conservative doctrine." Beyond the pale, utterly disgraceful.
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  31. The Telegraph is the in house newspaper of the Tory Party.
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  32. Don't write them off. Because working people are easily fooled, the Tories are the most successful electoral machine in the world with a gift for reinvention. No matter that they are dishonest and are bad for the economy, they are adept at blaming Labour for problems they have caused. Labour used to offer a radically different set of policies but now they are on the same page as the Tories on so many issues. Yes, the Tories need to go, but we have been here before with false hopes for Labour.
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  33. Kudos to those who have spoken up for the acceptance of her apology. The silence from those who probably have a similar perspective on accepting the apology is deafening. John McDonnell spoke correctly on this matter recently and showed commendable loyalty, not surprising from him. John McTernan from the right of the Labour Party has also spoken in her defence in respect of how the controversy should be responded to. Credit is due to him as he had no reason to speak out. The onslaught against Diane Abbott is, as least as far as the right is concerned, yet another excuse to attack her.
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  34. A former Tory minister in Johnson's government is reported in The Guardian as saying Braverman is a 'real racist bigot'. She is a disgrace to parliament, her office and the Tory party. She was made Home Secretary as the price for ERG support for Sunak but only 25 of them voted against the recent Northern Ireland deal. She should be sacked on principle but Sunak does not need her anymore- time to send her to the backbenches.
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  35. She comes across so poorly. There is no way she would make it to ministerial level in any government before 2019. Poor communicator, not the brightest and not exactly personable. More or less the norm for most Tory ministers.
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  36. Forget the traditional family nonsense- many of them are dysfunctional. Nothing wrong with single parent families, most of whom do a fantastic job in often challenging circumstances. The Tories have been moralising and pontificating about the breakdown of the family since at least the eighties while creating the economic chaos that means families do not have enough money for a decent standard of living. The Tories have cut the welfare state to the bone for over 40 years out of cruelty- if it did more for people families would be stronger and more stable as a unit. Tory finger pointing is out of order and helps no-one.
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  37. His political career is over. To adapt a well known quote from Churchill, two leaders united by common failure- Trump and Johnson, fellow travellers on the political road to nowhere.
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  38. Once again laser focused on the issues, skewering the Tories and Labour for their total inadequacy to the task of governing Britain. Two sides of the same coin to put it politely. Go SNP!
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  39. Tory anti strike laws should be reversed if Labour forms a government but it will not happen, of course. Just like Blair did not reverse them 1997- 2010. Weak unions are key to the neoliberal project precisely to keep wages down so the rich can prosper at the expense of the workers. Yet even if they were reversed in some parallel universe there is so little solidarity in many sectors of the UK economy and many unions are so poorly led that it would be unlikely to make much difference to wages and conditions of service.
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  40. Labour is a political party, labour is a concept Rishi Sunak has limited understanding of. The pesky worker bees who serve the rich.
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  41. Britain is the most unequal country in Europe, except Bulgaria. The poorest third of the population of Eastern Europe is wealthier than the poorest third in the UK. Most people have no idea of this. If the economy of London is removed from the equation the entire UK economy is worth less than that of Mississippi, America's poorest state. Britain is doomed without reversing Thatcherism.
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  42. He should have been our first lacoste wearing Prime Minister. History will judge him kindly. He saved the idea of socialism in Britain and if the public ever repudiate Thatcherism, which is desperately needed, the country will be forever indebted to Jeremy Corbyn for making sure socialism was not extinguished. He kept the flame alive.
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  43. John Nicholson is a first class MP. He speaks the truth and from the heart. He was excellent as ever on Politics Live today, speaking eloquently on a number of topics, including the fact he did not see his mother in the last two months of her life due to the rules under Covid prohibiting visits due to the risk of it being introduced to the respite centre where she was being looked after. Very moving. He said Johnson will receive his comeuppance- let's hope so. No-one is stupid enough to tangle with him either because he is not soft and knows what he is talking about.
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  44. Neoliberalism is the root of the problem- it is the word that should be part of every conversation for those interested in a route map out of the mess. Until it is widely understood and the dots are joined, nothing will change. The SNP and Greens have rejected neoliberalism in favour of social democracy or democratic socialism in the case of the Greens, while Labour and the Lib Dems cling to its wreckage as society and economy collapse in front of their eyes. Labour abandoned its founding purpose to represent the workers against capital under Blair when it embraced Thatcherism. No wonder she described 'new' Labour as her greatest achievement. Starmer has nothing at all to offer.
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  45. Then what? More Tory policy?
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  46. Burgon should be Prime Minister. Not going to happen because he is perceived, wrongly, as too left wing. He is credible, sincere, knows the detail, real and is an excellent communicator. It is a mystery to me why he is not seen widely in a more positive light because he is exactly the sort of genuine politician we need.
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  47.  @tonyb9735  It was biased towards the Tories, no doubt. Some of them were looking at Mick Lynch with contempt and this was evident in the tone of some of those in the audience who spoke.
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  48. Like winning elections and a load of other good things. I am English but have a lot of respect for the majority of SNP MPs who as a group are serious, committed and effective parliamentarians. Go SNP I say and long live the cause of independence. No matter the travails of the SNP in Scotland the idea of independence is not going anywhere and its day will come.
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  49. Dave Ward and his deputy spoke at the CWU sponsored event in Manchester Cathedral in 2015 just after Corbyn had been elected Labour leader. He spoke well after Corbyn received a rock star welcome because he represented hope of change. I am not holding my breath seven years later, far from it, but Dave Ward, Mark Serwotka and Mick Lynch are exactly the type of union leaders who should be in charge of every union precisely because their analysis is correct and they are backing their members. This is what a union should do but not all do. Whenever I think back that event, I remember the great anti austerity speech Mark McGowan AKA The Artist Taxi Driver gave when he condemned it in withering and heartfelt terms.
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  50. Thatcherism and neoliberalism are the same thing. Only when the electorate understands the crises in UK society and the economy have been forty three years in the making is there any chance it can be reversed. That will also entail rejection of Starmer's adherence to neoliberalism in the form of copying Tory policy. Thin gruel will not do.
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