Monday, May 11, 2009

Can Poland save UK from neo-fascists?


The New Labour government in Great Britain has appealed to Poles living in the UK to register and vote in the June European elections - otherwise, says a government minister in London, “The British National Party will win!”

Last week, British trade unionists and Labour Party politicians met in the House of Commons with Polish organizations such as Poles to Polls, Poland Street and the Federation of Poles in Great Britain to try and get Poles out to vote on June 4 to 7.

The British government’s European Minister Caroline Flint said that Poles have a lot to thank the New Labour government for: it was them that let the Poles in, in the first place; it was them that introduced the minimum wage. It was them…

And if Poles don’t go out and vote? Then the British National [cue sinister music] Party will get seats in the European Parliament and will try and limit any new migration into Britain. Eek!

And they may be right that small, looney-tunes fringe parties might well do a little better than usual in the elections on June 4 in the UK. And that’s because many will not be able to stomach voting for New Labour. And tax paying Poles won’t vote for them for the same reasons as everyone else won’t vote for them.

Caught with their pants down

A month ago Home Secretary Jacqueline Smith was revealed to have claimed for an internet connection on her parliamentary expenses allowance. Nothing unusual there. Unfortunately, included on the receipt was a porn film that her husband had paid for via the Television X/Fantasy Channel subscription TV.

Apparently, Jacqueline was out at a meeting at the time her husband - Timmy Rumney, her parliamentary advisor - downloaded the movie , Raw Meat 3. The description on wholesaledropshiped.com [?] gives the movie’s tag line as : “it‘s the end of the world, and we blow it!”

Oh, yeah!

Starring a young gentleman answering to the name of “Tiger Wood” - I bet he‘s got a good long game - it appears to be a gay flick. Curiouser and curiouser…

Having your husband download gay porn when you were out, at the tax payers’ expense, is just…funny. But the Daily Telegraph has revealed that virtually the whole of the House of Commons has been shafting the British tax payer for years.

MPs have been running scams where they claim expenses on second homes in constituencies, renovating then selling the homes. And then doing it all again! Claims have been made for bizarre things like clearing moles from lawns and fixing taps under a tennis court, among other nonsense.

All parties are implicated in this - but New Labour came to power on the back of pointing at sleaze in the opposition Conservative Party. And now they show themselves s sleazy as the rest.

And these people expect Poles to come to their rescue?

I was a card carrying member of the Labour Party once, for my sins. It was in the days when Labour was getting a whipping from the Thatcher government and we were trying to revive the twitching corps that the Labour Party, and the trade union movement that had founded and sustained it last century, had become.

We failed. I failed to renew my membership when Labour became New Labour (a bit like Clinton’s New Democrats) and Tony Blair was elected to lead, not a party with roots in a movement any longer, but a shallow PR machine whose only goals were to win power and stay there.

Well, they did win power, in 1997, and they stayed there. They are there still. But not for too much longer.

Once Tony Blair stood down and Gordon “bank manager” Brown took over as prime minister, the game was up. Blair could just about pull the smoke and mirrors, and the rabbits, out of the hat. With him gone, and hapless Brown in his place, New Labour started to disintegrate. Fast. Farcically.

And now the European elections have come around again and New Labour looks like it will go into meltdown at the next general election in 2010.

So, desperate for anything and anyone to come to their rescue they have the cheek of appealing to minorities such as the Polish community in Britain to ride to their rescue. And if Poles don’t? “Then the fascists will come and get them!”

That appears to be the message of the appeal for Poles to vote in the European elections in June.

The appeal is pitiful. The idea that the BNP will win many seats in the election is fanciful. They might get one - voted there by people who want to stick a finger up at the government - but so what? And secondly, a member of the European Parliament has little or no power anyway, and certainly no influence over immigration policy. That’s done by national governments and the European Commission. And I can’t see a BNP member being chosen to be European Migration Minister anytime soon..

And saddest thing of all is that New Labour is so desperate that they have to come knocking on Poles’ doors to save them from oblivion. The Labour Party these days are like an MPs husband, caught with his pants down, and exposed for what they are: a bunch of wankers.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

A BNP victory would be like something out of Monty Python. But as you said, it's not likely to see any of those Blighter "all the world should have two taps" Nationalists being chosen as European Migration Minister, even if they do somehow manage to snag a seat in the elections.

I think that's a good comparison, Tony Blair's New Labour to the Clintons' New Democrats. Supposedly "liberal," but for the most part they are conservatives sporting a "fresh" or "more appealing" face.

After the loss of the 1988 Presidential election, Democrats in the U.S. have ever since elected a right-winger in the primary elections to lead them.

But the U.S. and the U.K. aren't the ONLY two countries to often dub conservative right-wingers "liberals"...

beatroot said...

Supposedly "liberal," but for the most part they are conservatives sporting a "fresh" or "more appealing" face. I think that is just about right. They are both "Third Way" politics...which means, bugger all in substance. It's the end of ideology politics, really.

And yeah...it's VERY conservative, but not as we know it, Jim.

Anonymous said...
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varus said...

Br said: It's the end of ideology politics, really.

But surly that's the point. Old Labour scarred business and the middle-class. The grass-roots politics you speak of is what kept labour out of power for 18 years. The present centralism of both labour and the conservatives is perhaps their most redeeming feature. We can now have a smooth transition to a Tory government (for a nice change) with out the pendulum like swings of the post-war era.

beatroot said...

varus - the role of the old Labour party was to mediate between capital and labour. They usually came to power at times of crisis. They were the only party that could reach a compromise with the trade unions and industry - that was what they were set up to do back in 1906. Labour was a creationj of organised labour.

Then 1978 came along, mass strikes and the Labour government could not fulfil its role. Cue Thatcher, who smashed organised labour. Forever.

So, without a labour movement to ancor it, to its social roots, and without a labour movement to lead, out of the ashes came New Labour. No roots, no social base. Just electoral oppotunism.

The Tory party also doesn;t really represent a social base, either. It's New labout II.

So that;s what I mean by end of ideology/politics. Jyst rootless parties in search of the latest gimmick.

UK politics RIP.

ge'ez said...

Your ideological point?

beatroot said...

Me what?

ge'ez said...

So what you wrote was pointless other than to say that there ain't no sustainable ideological basis for these political parties...

... but they ain't gonna disappear anytime soon.

They don't care if they ain't got no ideology as long as they get elected. It's a cushy, well-paying job, man. What else could you ask for?

beatroot said...

I don't think, or never suggested that they would be going away an ytime soon. But their character has changed, forever, in a significant way. Politics has hollowed out massivly in the lat 20 years.

I don;t think that is a controversial thing to say at all. It's evident.

I think it was the Guardian who led a campaign against the Tory Party's sleaze etc in the early 1990s. After Thatcher they stopped making political points against the Conservatives...it became about politicians personal behaviour. And that's because there was no significant difference between right and left, such as it was...

ge'ez said...

That may be true in jolly old England and maybe even in Poland (are there any similar standby adjectives for Poland?).

I don't think it's true here in the goodle USA.

Capitalism is being shook up. Maybe not as much as some of us would like but there are changes happening, slowly and not all at once, but there are changes rolling out.

There are more than a few right wing ideologues who are consequently screaching like stuck pigs.

Too bad about those Bruins Polski Bro' Roman. But hey, y'all sure did dump Manny in the nick of time and got a great replacement in Bay.

beatroot said...

I don't think it's true here in the goodle USA.:-) Dreamer!


Politics in America has traditionally been much more narrow in scope that compared to Europe, or other continents. We used to have a left wing alternative - there has never been a left wing in the US. Stop the fantasies about the health of US politics, Geez. Capitalism is not being shaken up. Obama is no revolutionary. He's very much the post ideological politician par excellence.

Anonymous said...

Right on, Beatroot.

Sadly though the "mass delusion" (isn't that what it actually is?) looks as if it'll continue its grip on the populace for some time to come.

Obama = Bush's third term, just in a more "dignified" and "charismatic" form.

Cameron as Tony Blair reincarnation #3? I wouldn't be too surprised about that, either.

ge'ez said...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

What's your dream, BR besides cynicism?

I mean, I got a lot of that, too.

But now I have a little bit of hope.

I never expected any wholescale changes and certainly not overnight. But Obie Wan Obama has fired the head of General Motors (don't forget that the common standard wisdom used to be that what's good for GM is good for the US). The tax situation has been dramatically improved for working families. Universal Health Care is on the horizon. And the right wing is in a complete inpotent snit.

AGain, what is your political dream? What kind of vision of the future do you want to advance?

You want to emphasize worldwide economic growth? OK, what is the lynchpin of that? And how does that play out vis-a-vis China and Russia? And the middle east sheikdoms?

beatroot said...

Imagine there's no countries,
No religion, too?

That's actually my least favourite Lennon song, as it happens.

But just because I think the left wing dream is dead does not mean I am cynical. It's the situation as I see it.

I also think that societies are a long, long way from their potential. Humanity is in the internediary class. Juniors.

ge'ez said...

Yea, most of that song really sucked.

I think "the left" is dead, too.

But, still, what is your vision for the future? Got any?

All I see is constant critique but no or very few alternatives presented or advanced.

beatroot said...

A world where humans are no linger doing dumb jobs that machines could do better, leaving them free to reach their full potential.

ge'ez said...

But pretty soon, machines will be doing more and more of our thinking for us.

Before not too long, our brains will be hotwired with machines.

An age of spiritual machines?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Spiritual_Machines

And a really fun book to go along with it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Footprints_of_God

ge'ez said...

Oh yea, and full potential to do what?

roman said...

ge'ez,

Too bad about those Bruins Polski Bro' Roman. But hey, y'all sure did dump Manny in the nick of time and got a great replacement in Bay.Yeah, the Celts fell short too, but hey, ce'st la vie, eh?
Wacky Manny once went to a local auto dealership and traded up for something newer and more expensive. After he left, one of the mechanics cleaning the car for resale found $80,000 in cash in the glove compartment. Later, when Manny was called, he simply stated that he forgot all about that spending money. These guys exist on a different plane of existance from the rest of us.
Bay's great and I agree it was a timely trade. Big pappy's next.

Beatroot,

Lennon's "no countries too" is OK only if there is a painless and peaceful transition. As this is impossible, it's another utopian child's dream. That's all it is and nothing more. Good song though.

beatroot said...

No...what Lennon is calling for is no nothing...the world that Imagine paints is thoroughly boring and silly.

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