Corbyn, Labour and Independence

First of all can I say that if I lived in England I would vote labour tomorrow. No if, no buts and no hesitation. Anything is better than the Tories.

But I would vote in the full awareness that the Labour Party is riddled with treachery, deceit and betrayal and has been for generations. They have had period after period of government and done very little to advance the country to socialism. Far from abolishing the House of Lords, despite the opportunity many times they have never attempted it and most of their former leaders, even the ones who purport to be socialists went on to sit in the Lords. They will always betray the working class. It’s in their DNA.

They spectacularly failed to support the miners when they really needed it. The miners were far too left wing for them. They love to complain about the press barons but as soon as they get a chance they cosy up to them. That’s why, despite all of their false posturing, we still have a media dominated by the right and which ruthlessly attacks and mis-informs working people. Labour had had many chances to put that right and they do nothing. They have no interest in an informed working class. We are just here to be exploited by a team which in the matter of the expenses scandal were not a bit better than the Tories.

As for Corbyn, he has been the subject of the treachery and betrayal which is endemic in his party. They have tried and failed to get rid of him because they think he’s too socialist for them. But they needn’t have bothered because he’ll join the betrayal of the working class just like the rest of them, it might just take a little longer. We already know he has a penchant for deceit. Three times he was elected on a Blairite manifesto and over a hundred times he voted against his party. To some that might point him out as a man of principle but to me it just says that he was quite willing to vote with or fail to oppose the Tories if it suited him. But his supporters seem quite proud of that. He will either betray them or he’ll be betrayed. They just can’t help themselves.

But as I said at the start, if I lived in England I would vote Labour but only as a slightly better option than the Tories.

But I don’t live in England. I’m a supporter of an independent socialist Scotland and since the Labour Party in Scotland are even worse I see no likelihood of them delivering any kind of socialism to Scotland. When Corbyn is knifed, and it won’t take long after the election is lost to the Tories, it is Labour in Scotland who will be in the lead among the plotters. They still worship Blair and Brown and see socialism as a retrograde step. So given that the road to socialism is temporarily blocked off for me I look at my other objective and I will cast my vote, however reluctantly to try to advance nationhood. We are lucky in Scotland that we can manufacture the opportunity to reboot our social system and start anew in an independent country. Even that won’t be easy but it will be far less difficult than turning around the Tory juggernaut that another five years of austerity will impose on us.

So I propose to vote for nationhood and to strengthen those who support it despite my reservations. Nothing else can stop the Tories from breaking the working class of Scotland and that has to be the first priority for me.

Reaction Formation and Councillor Terry Kelly

Reaction formation is believed to occur when someone finds an idea in themselves so especially threatening that they deal with it by enthusiastically embracing its opposite, and so it is with the New Labour Party and Socialism.

The stand-out in this field is Councillor Terry (TKMax) Kelly of Renfrewshire District. There is a strong suspicion that Councillor Kelly is a closet Socialist, despite his support for Blair's Government, his support of the selling off of council housing to a private limited company and his latest aberration, the stigmatising of a foodbank user who dared to criticise the policies of the Cameron government. Still, on his blog, he claims to be a socialist. How can this be ?

The councillor runs the most vile, hate-filled blog it has been my misfortune to read. It is filled with spiteful venom and really obnoxious, and often has a special place for the Socialists. But Terry claims to be a socialist and although I do not know him personally, I'm told by those who do that he's 'ok'. So it's difficult to believe that a vile hate-filled, spiteful, venomous, obnoxious person could charm the voters, could they ? Unless they were modelled on Blair. I believe the explanation is that Terry is reacting to his own shame at allowing his own Socialism to be sold down the river for a place at the council table and a pay of around £460 per week. But he says he's a socialist and how could anyone think one of Tony Blair's New Labour people would tell a lie ? I mean, I'm sure that if they live long enough, maybe four or five hundred years, Tony Robinson and the Time Team will find those weapons of mass destruction, right ?

So he embraces all of the Tory policies with enthusiasm, attacking foodbank users, manipulating Renfrewshire's assets for tax avoidance and promoting big business at the Braehead Shopping Development. He gets into bed with Cameron's Tories to fight against independence with more vitriol than the Tories themselves. Nothing is too right wing for Terry, because we believe he has to do it to cover up his embarrassment and shame at having sold his Socialism for a paltry portion of silver and a small sliver of power. Ashamed of his own cowardice he has to try to be a bully, but he's not scary enough. That he has to be obnoxious, and to lose all respect among decent people is a very small price to pay when you have already committed the major act of betrayal of your community and working class heritage, and you can always pass off anger at yourself as strong commitment to principle if you are loud enough.

And as for the real Socialists, he hates us worst, because we are a constant reminder to him of his shame and betrayal. We are the open sore that just wont heal, we wont go away no matter what he does. We haunt him like a bad dream of what he believes but dare not admit because were he to come out of the closet as a socialist by action rather than just words then his leader, Councillor McMillan, would dispense with the services of his court jester as quickly as you can say Gulf War, and then he's off the gravy train.

The Big Clunking Fist and the Super Soaraway Sun

The big news of the day (yawn) is that the super soaraway Sun (so called presumably because all it's fit for is making paper aeroplanes) has decided to withdraw its support from Big Gordy Brown and give it instead to Big Dave (Pilsbury Dough Boy) Cameron. There's a real surprise.

Except, of course, in the Scottish editions for some unknown reason. Perhaps they don't want to lead with the headline in Scotland after the election, 'It Was The Sun Wot Lost It.', because there is as much chance of the Tories doing anything North of the border as there is of us forgetting the Evil Witch Thatcher.

Still, it's good to see that the tabloids are taking a lead from the electorate. This is as shabby an exercise in cynical hypocrisy as it has been my privilege to encounter in a long while. I always thought that the Sun and New Labour were well matched when it came to bullshit, but we now have an outright winner. Well done Murdoch.

The New Labour Project

Has the New Labour Party really learned to love Peter Mandelson or is there a lot of desperation in the standing ovation from the conference? I hope it's just a case of the rats leaving the sinking ship and not the birth of a new found affection for the Prince of Darkness. If it is then it means that the New Labour project is finally complete and we are now a country without even the least semblance of a centre left party. We will be left with the Tories, the New Tories and the Tartan Tories. But what about the Liberal Democrats? Who cares?

Coming Soon ... A New Prime Minister

It looks like the end for Big Gordy, the big clunking fist. The self destruction of New Labour continues apace. Scotland Office Minister David Cairns has put another nail in the coffin of the New Labour project. When ministers of his status (as opposed to his ability) start to resign then it is time to go. Rats and sinking ships spring to mind. Still, I don't suppose he will be on the breadline. Labours big business pals will rally round and get him an earner as usual.

But we still don't know who is orchestrating the coup.

We should remember that he who wields the knife never wears the crown ! Come on, show yourself.

Gordon Brown, the end is nigh !

You know that when you have lost control and discipline in your party then the end of your leadership is in sight. You also know that when junior ministers call for a leadership election to 'clear the air' you have lost control and discipline in your party. Siobhain McDonagh is only saying what the rest are thinking, but the real question is 'Who Convinced her to fall on her sword and what was she promised in return?'.

New Labour is not so much in meltdown as in self-destruct mode. How long can this lame duck Prime Minister soldier on?

My own opinion is that he will take the country into the next election, whenever that may be, and take the battering that Labour will get, so that the replacement dud will not commence the job with the stench of a massive defeat all over him. His Presyterian upbringing would ask that of him, but we'll see, soon.