Yeah, it can be acted out entirely on stage in a dining room set. Hence it has always been taken into the provincial theatres because it is relatively cheap to put on. Of course, it's a wonderful tale of morality and social responsibility which is actually quite controversial in post-Thatcher's Britain.
Jeremy Corbyn announcing his shadow cabinet. Highlight for me is Lord Falconer as Shadow Minister for Justice. Michael Gove vs Lord Falconer (an actual lawyer), could be great entertainment.
Charlie Falconer being appointed is a weird one. I know he is expected to 'reach out' to the 'moderates' but Falconer is big pals with Blair (shared a flat with him at Uni), and gave legal advice on the Iraq War (not entirely sure what Corbyn's stance is on that.......) Plus, he is in the Lords and I never like the idea of a someone not being in the Commons and scrutinising the Minister face to face. Would've gone for Keir Starmer myself - may lack the politicial experience (only elected in May), but he was the former Director of Public Prosecutions, and so would have the appropriate legal knowledge. McDonnell as Shadow Chancellor is bonkers stuff really. The press will have a field day (if they aren't already), but it is pretty exciting times. Labour would lose in 2020 whoever won yesterday, in my view, so why not make things interesting. Lucy Powell as Shadow Education is car crash stuff though - she is awful.
I thought Corbyn would put more women in the 'top' jobs. I expect a 50:50 gender split in the Cabinet, but would've been nice to see one as either Chancellor, Home or Foreign Secretary.
Apparently, there's going to be more women than men. But all the top jobs are with white men, which is causing some angst, by the looks of things.
I hope they're not going to go dogmatically down that road. Just promote the most capable people and the ones who can be trusted not to betray for self promotion at the first good opportunity.
It would be nice to see the positions filled by the most able/skilled people regardless of their gender.
I agree, but I think the indications were that Corbyn was going to try and give the 'big' jobs to women, so many are a little surprised he hasn't.
I am always pleased to see women succeed, but must never be done by quotas....the same applies to ethnic minorities. People must try to be open minded, but appointments should be on merit.
Perhaps a fair few have rejected the idea of an appointment to the Shadow Cabinet, re Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall. Andy Burnham should have had a much higher profile job than Shadow Home Secretary. Would have given him the Shadow Chancellor post!!
As I socialist I am uncertain about Corbyn. He will either be an absolute disaster and set Labour back years or he will become the conscience of politicians of all parties and become a catalyst for change to a more caring and concerned form of government. I have been worried for a long time that it seems everything is OK if it is good for the economy never mind that it may be destroying lives. Just lately I have become convinced that we were close to seeing the return of the workhouse and poor law mentality of the Victorians. Last night's play was timely reminder that the greedy pursuit of wealth and power is often paid for by the suffering of others. Unless things change any day now I expect Cameron to declare that slavery is to be reintroduced as "it is good for the economy and business".
Has the next leader of the Labour Party been born yet? With the political landscape the way it is shaped, the SNP are going to be the majority party north of the border for the foreseeable future. IMO the left of British politics is going to have to unite to have any hope of defeating the Cons within the next two elections. Did I hear (allegedly) that the PM would like to take the UK into the euro? If that is true, I salute him!
Reading some of the paper reviews, is Corbyn seriously thinking of supporting the "No" campaign to stay in the EU? My advice to Jeremy would be to upstage Dave and tear the Government apart for its cowardice towards the EU, with having its MEPs sitting with right-wing nutcases in the EU Parliament, with its failure to prepare to join the euro (which is in in everybody's interest) as sooner or later the £ will bomb)
I am sure I heard it from many Conservative MPs. Supposedly or allegedly the MP for Southampton Itchen!
The Pound is not going to bomb anytime soon. The Euro has been weakening against the Pound for a while now.
It's certainly not in our interests to join the Euro. The Euro is doomed - the cracks have been papered over for now but it'll break up, as sure as eggs are eggs. A currency union works in the USA because when areas become depressed, labour moves. The last statistic I saw said that 60% of jobs in the USA were taken by someone from out of state. If there are no jobs locally, you move to states with a stronger economy. That rebalances the country's economy without any government interference. In Europe there just isn't the same freedom of movement, for cultural and language reasons. If the UK suffered a recession while Portugal boomed, how many people would up sticks, learn Portuguese and move? If you don't have true mobility of labour a currency union is pretty much guaranteed to collapse at some point. It's much more likely than the pound "bombing". Why would that happen? Vin
The euro was doomed/at risk once they started letting in financially unstable countries for political reasons. It is essential to have control over your own currency...the reason quoted when the Bank of England said it wouldn't let Scotland have the pound. Any arguments for us to join the euro have surely disintegrated now.
I think the Germans will make the euro stick. Some countries may well have to leave the scenario but it is a massive currency. IMO it is seen by the US as a threat, it has come under attack via its weak points. It needs to survive because the worse thing in the world would be for European countries to regress behind their own borders with their own currencies. As for your second point Vin, that appears to be the situation at the moment but we have seen in the past the £ bombing and as soon as the euro hits rick bottom, the George Soros' of the world will buy up the euro, sell the £ and down the plughole it will go. Accept your point about the mobility of labour regarding the UK, but many Spanish, Poles, Russians, peoples of the Balkan States have moved to wealthier EU states in search of better job prospects. Even in the UK we had groups of workers who went to Germany in the 80s in search of work during the "grim" or "glory" (depending on your point of view) days of the Thatcher regime.
