Possibly. Worth remembering though, that the Labour Party in Britain began as a grass roots movement, when Trade Unions began to seek representation in Parliament. On the subject of Greek Choruses, Greece's Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) won the largest share of the popular vote twice in 2015.
True. I wonder if the mods on that forum would let them? Our bunch are pretty open-minded. But anyway, it does mean that their threads are there due to popularity.
My family, the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn: I’m 59, my parents are in their eighties, my daughters are 30 and 32 and my grandchildren are 2 and 5. Ok, mum and dad were the children of a docker, a maid servant, a shop clerk and a housewife. They married in 1958. They were both employed with the then state owned General Post office (GPO). They both worked in the telephone sector. My dad as an engineer and my mum as a clerk. They both voted Labour. My dad worked his way up to a managerial position. Then in 1982 a girl called Maggie privatized his beloved GPO and he was working for British Telecom. His job was no longer about telecoms, but profit. He didn’t like it, he was an engineer at heart. He retired early in the late 80s with a MASSIVE pension after 38 years in the job. He lived and still lives in the golden years. A job for life, a fantastic pension from a state owned company. Then in the 90s mum and dad started voting Liberal, Social Democrat, Conservative! Was it because Tony Blair made it almost impossible to tell the difference between any of them? Now that they had every advantage that Labour had given them were they abandoning the principles that had given them their life? Five years ago they moved to an area that gave them better access to the NHS. Why are you not voting for Jeremy Corbyn I ask? He’s representing everything that got you where you are? He’s slimy says mum, I don’t believe him and I voted to leave the EU because I’m British. Me, first in my family to go to University in 1979, all paid for by the State. Lived the Thatcher years in South Wales. Heroes, Michael Foot, Tony Benn. Never a big political person but not afraid to say what I thought. Similar to my dad, retired early cos I didn’t want a heart attack. Dissimilar to my dad got a **** private pension. Went bonkers, moved to Serbia – another story. Will vote Labour til I die! Daughter 1, an Animal Vet, left University 70,000 in debt (or something like that). Still, good job, will pay it back. Absolutely no interest in politics whatsoever. Daughter2, listened to her old dad blabbing on about inequality, the NHS, his political heroes etc. Is now actually doing something, rather than just blabbing, and is currently knocking on doors in Gloucester for the Labour Party (lost cause there probably) The younger generation is actually behind Jeremy Corbyn and a lot of mine! The values haven’t changed. If you’re old and jaded, it’s because you’re old and jaded. (I have a video of my grandchildren singing “oh Jeremy Corbyn” but at the ages of 2 and 5 they may be slightly influenced by their mum)
Nissan confirming that the tariffs from a no deal brexit would push them over the edge to unsustainability in the UK and cost 7000 jobs.
Interesting post Serbia. In my case one grandad was a machine gunner in the trenches. In the '26 General Strike he was arrested and jailed after an assault on the town hall - he thought the revolution had come! Other grandad lost on a minesweeper in 1917. Dad was a motor mechanic and lifelong socialist. I admit I'm a Blairite. A friend and myself hatched a plan to take over the district council. Our model was the Scandinavian Social Democratic system and it was effectively Blairite pre Blair. As a district councillor I won a seat that had been Tory forever by 29 votes, then held it with a majority of more than 500. Unless you take power you can do nothing. I am in favour of cutting defence spending, would axe Trident, but I'm not daft enough to put that forward as a policy, I know it would be denounced as surrender.
I wonder if the many leavers among those 7000 are reflecting more closely now on the implications of brexit for them and their families.
ah nuclear weapons. I believe the UK has 120. Let's set them off around the world and not worry about human climate change any more, or, lets update them at a cost of whatever billions of pounds. After all, they're not much good if they're not the latest ones!
personally, I'd be quite happy if, in say 100 years (you know when anyone I might have known is dead), human politics died out and the crocodiles took over. Hell, they've been waiting for a million years and never once proposed drilling for oil!
Nissan have been in quite a bit of trouble since they lost their leadership from Carlos Ghosn. People wanted him out, and this is their harvest. Oh, and incidentally, Brexiteer James Dyson has folded his attempt to make a viable Electric Car in Singapore. Just shows that it isn't as easy as people think, even when you ship production away from the UK: https://electrek.co/2019/10/10/dyson-billion-electric-car-project-over/
I think people here realise I’m a staunch remainer. However, I think Nissan are make screening a little here. Haven’t they git a Tariff free deal coming up with the EU? If so, then no duty to pay on exporting their cars from Japan, so apart from freight costs why make it outside their own country and have jobs for their own people? I’m not sure brexit is the issue here. Might still be, but I think they may be deflecting here a little.
Firstly, Chinese companies/celebrities can and do say whatever they want about Trump, because they say it in Chinese, and Trump - nor anyone else in the West - is going to pay any attention to it. That's the problem that English-speaking countries have. Everything they say is understandable to everyone. So it's wide open for criticism. What is said in China though, largely stays in China, and this is partly why their propaganda is so effective. Secondly, whether Trump is fighting his trade war for moral reasons (which I agree, is unlikely), or for economic ones, the fact is he is trying to restrain China from simply doing as they want. And no one else will. I'm not a fan of Trump. He's a knob. But I know some intelligent (and non-white) Americans who support him. They're not racist, and it isn't right to label everyone that disagrees with you as racist. You have to be wary of over-zealous liberals, because they are part of the problem too. And, by the way. The Chinese are far, far more more xenophobic/racist than the Americans. And they are not for one second self-critical about it. In fact, many of them embrace it. It's China vs the world for them. I'm speaking from experience too. I lived there between 2011 and 2014. When the US sided with Japan over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands dispute, many of my white friends and I were attacked and harassed because of our skin colour. Very little empathy or effort from the police. One very good friend was hospitalised for over a week. Eventually Trump will go away. But China is only going to grow more powerful. By the way. I had a great time when I lived in China, and I met many amazing people there. So I'm not just sh*tting on them for personal reasons.
