Blain's Morning Porridge - A political digression on why Corbyn is so right and so utterly wrong
Blain’s Morning Porridge – May 10th 2017
“If a man is not a socialist by the time he is 20 he has no heart. If he is still a Socialist at 50 he has no head.”
Get your defibrillator ready, but as the last socialist in the City of London, I am relieved to discover Jeremy Corbyn is actually right. He makes perfect sense. I’d vote for him.. if I could.
The UK and the World could be a much better place if we all played nice. Income inequality is a massive global hazard and should be addressed. Big companies should be paying proper taxes and not hiding through byzantine supply hides. Zero-hours contracts are an insult to human dignity - an abomination that should be stamped out. The imbalances between the workers and owners of capital should be ameliorated.
Corbyn is equally right there should be a “reckoning” of corrupt businessmen, bankers and tax-cheats. I have a little list of baddies who never will be missed! Up against the wall with the lot of them!
It’s not quite “arise ye starvelings from your slumbers, come rise ye prisoners of want” stuff. Most readers of the Porridge won’t agree with the core labour activists, but I’ll bet many have sympathy with the bulk of the sentiments underlying the Corbyn message – just not the way he delivers it. Collectively, most of us recognise society has to make big changes to benefit us all.
That’s why my kids and their generation like what Corbyn says. It might also explain why I so blindly canvassed the Labour Party Manifesto of 1983 – the Longest Suicide Note in History. Michael Foot, (the then bumbling theocrat of the Labour Party who’d sort of fallen into the leadership role), was loved by the activists but was a joke to the electorate.
But we were young and certain:
“The working class and old cloth cap as images are dated,
For we are Labour’s avant-garde and we are educated,
By tax adjustments we have planned, to institute the promised land
And just to show we’re still sincere, we’ll sing the Red Flag once a year..”
How we laughed and giggled as we confidently marched towards the new Britain of the 1980s - before our hopes were crushed under the Thatcherite handbag for 14 more long dark years:
And, its not going to happen in 2017. 20 years after we celebrated how “Things Can Only Get Better” on a bright May morning and sincerely believed Tony Blain was the future, no one trusts Corbyn or his Corbynistas to deliver the Promised Land. Nope. Fraid not. Madness, mayhem and division lies that way.
But the trend towards the centre is happening. That’s why The Theresa May Party (formerly the Conservative Party) is shifting so decisively into the middle ground. Centre right? Nope. Centre.. (with a small C).
I understand I was fortunate to be out last night, so wasn’t treated to the inane BBC propaganda of intervening the Leader of The Theresa May Party (The TMP) and her husband on the one show. Apparently it was a triumph of blandness..
The curious and unremarked death of the Conservative Party and the accession of the TMP might actually make things easier for me. Regular readers will know voting Tory would bring me out in horrible spots before I spontaneously combust. But… perhaps I could vote TMP on the basis she’s more likely to deliver a society I want (and cut my energy bills).
Hmm. I shall take advice on that..
The other decision is where to vote? Voting cards have turned up at our home in Hamble (a key Tory Marginal) and our London Flat. Since it’s in Tower Hamlets I guess its ok to vote early and often? (Oh subtle.. eh?) (Note to Election officials: I promise not to vote twice.)
Meanwhile, North of the Border, the Ruth Davidson Party (formerly the Conservative and Unionist Party) now expects to win up to 15 Scottish seats and maybe more. Despite spending my whole life deriding Scottish Selfservatives, I really want to see The RDP do well – just for the look of Fury it will land on Wee Nicola Krankie’s phizog. It will be a classic moment. If the RDP win more than 10 seats, I’ll be wearing my kilt into the office.
And just show there is a smidge of market commentary in this political rant this morning, think through the implications of a substantial number of Tory MPs from Scotland. It should kill the SNP’s current referendum hankerings, meaning the Scottish Guaranteed bonds I’m looking to sell look very cheap indeed. That will change.. this is the time to buy them – If Scotland remains part of the UK, then Scottish guarantees are full faith and credit of Her Majesty’s Government (whatever Moody’s says about it being Junk if independent!).
Staying on the subject of Scotland, I was at the opening of a fantastic new exhibition by the Scottish Painter John Lowrie Morrison, or JOLOMO as he’s known. His pictures of Scotland have the most fantastic quality of light to them. For any readers based out west around St James and Mayfair, get yourself down to Gallery 8 in Duke Street. It’s superb, and I’ve attached a link for anyone interested: http://www.jolomo.com/jolomo/current-exhibitions/Visions-of-the-Scottish-West-Coast.html#
Back to the usual stuff tomorrow..
Fastnet Race Charity: http://www.sail4cancer.org/fastnet-2017-bill-blain
Bill Blain