- Sun Mar 04, 2018 12:34 am
#535542
Hunt's dad was a Labour counsillor (now peer). He went to university in America, then did a PhD at Cambridge. Worked for a few years at Labour HQ then parachuted into a safe seat by the NEC. I don't think he really gets what Labour is. I don't say this as a dig at him, I genuinely don't think he understood the problem with crossing a picket line. Like his understanding of labour and left wing politics is just theoretical.
It's not about being seen to be right or wrong, but about actually doing things that are right or wrong. Hunt wasn't some Dark Knight bearing the brunt of public hate so he could cross the picket to strike a deal and end the strike, he had precisely fuck all involvement with whole process. He's not some noble martyr, just a profoundly upper middle class person who didn't really care that colleagues were striking. As both a lecturer and a Labour MP do you not think that's odd? Do you not think he should've had a stance on this issue? He broke the picket to give a lecture. This acted to undermine the picket. This is poor solidarity.
The party is under new management, and it's an age of contrasts. Previous leaders sucked up to the mainstream media and were embarassed to be socalist. I'm a huge fan of the party of labour actually being proud of workers and standing with them, not handwringing and saying that strikes are bad. Why bring Hunt up, because it's a contrast.
McDonnell joining picket lines that Hunt would've walked past is a striking comparison.
Previous labour leaders submitting their favourite Mac comics for "30 years of Mac" whilst Corbyn says he doesn't find them funny at all is notable.
"Controls on immigration" mugs vs the party stance on immigration at present.
Being anti-nuclear weapons and against selling arms to the Saudis vs Blairing the fuck out of the middle east.
I look at Hillary Clinton's disasterous campaign, and I look at Blue Labour, and I honestly can't tell the difference. You see the same offerings of fuck all and utter inability to see why people are angry and upset and disengaged with politics. The needle is swinging left and you're all pushing right screaming "WE'RE ELECTABLE WE'RE ELECTABLE".
I'm overjoyed that you don't care about academics striking, but I care. Academics care. The Labour party should care. It's pretty un-comradely of you to actively not give a fuck about people striking for their pensions.crabcakes_windermere wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2018 9:45 amMaybe Hunt didn't agree with the reason for the strike, or felt that it was taken before other avenues had been exhausted? To be honest I - like most people - don't massively care. I'll happily support strikes that I feel are justified, and if someone wants to join in then that's fine, but all this 'scab' business is so very much sixth form politics bullshit and I'll never support anyone trying to bully people to join in. No one should feel compelled to join industrial action if they don't want to, or even join a union. And extrapolating a personal choice on whether to join a striking union you're not even in to a whole group of MPs 'really fucking hating the people they pretend to represent' is utterly absurd. And hypocritical, given what we know about the Labour party membership's view on Brexit (no thanks) compared to the current leadership's policy on it (yes please). Do Corbyn and McDonnell 'fucking hate the people they pretend to represent' when they steadfastly refuse to move to a position that is truly anti-Brexit - a position every single bloody survey shows is favoured by 75% and up of the labour membership, or is it OK when they fuck over the people they represent on a matter a hell of a lot more important than a minor case of industrial action by a small union?Winegums: He was a Labour MP, that carries with it certain expectations. "Not scabbing" is one of the most fundamental. I'd hope that he'd join a union as a fucking Labour MP, but at the very least if the cause was just (and we can assume it was if he supported it) he shouldn't cross the picket line. Jesus fucking Christ he didn't even say he supported the strike, just their right to strike. What is it with Blairites and really fucking hating the people they pretend to represent and the party the austensibly belong to? At least he's gone now...
He could've taught on the picket line, he could've got the students down. It was a fucking lecture on Marx, and he crossed a picket line to deliver it, and your justification is "but they paid for that lecture on the free market".
Labour is, by design, a party that represents labour. The workers. The clue is in the name. Crossing a picket line as a member of parliament who represents organised labour is pretty galling. Ideologically Labour members should support the efforts of organised labour. Sure, not all strikes are just, but I'd suggest most probably are given the sheer effort required to undertake them and the generally reasonable nature of people. If he disagreed with them he should've very very clearly explained why. But he didn't. I'd suggest he didn't even really care.Also, what I find interesting is your need to bring it up at all. Why, in a thread about John McDonnell, did you feel the need to get in a dig at a guy who isn't even an MP anymore and has literally done what you clearly wanted him to do and fucked off? Because by doing what you did, you've suddenly not made it about McDonnell (and just leaving it at a 'Good to see John McDonnell supporting academics in their aim to get better pay' would probably have been fine. Positively received, even.). Instead, you've made it all about image, and about being seen to be the 'right' sort of person and making sure the 'wrong' sort of person knows their alleged place and their inferiority at being a good socialist. Which actually says far more about you and what's important to you than anything else.
Hunt's dad was a Labour counsillor (now peer). He went to university in America, then did a PhD at Cambridge. Worked for a few years at Labour HQ then parachuted into a safe seat by the NEC. I don't think he really gets what Labour is. I don't say this as a dig at him, I genuinely don't think he understood the problem with crossing a picket line. Like his understanding of labour and left wing politics is just theoretical.
It's not about being seen to be right or wrong, but about actually doing things that are right or wrong. Hunt wasn't some Dark Knight bearing the brunt of public hate so he could cross the picket to strike a deal and end the strike, he had precisely fuck all involvement with whole process. He's not some noble martyr, just a profoundly upper middle class person who didn't really care that colleagues were striking. As both a lecturer and a Labour MP do you not think that's odd? Do you not think he should've had a stance on this issue? He broke the picket to give a lecture. This acted to undermine the picket. This is poor solidarity.
The party is under new management, and it's an age of contrasts. Previous leaders sucked up to the mainstream media and were embarassed to be socalist. I'm a huge fan of the party of labour actually being proud of workers and standing with them, not handwringing and saying that strikes are bad. Why bring Hunt up, because it's a contrast.
McDonnell joining picket lines that Hunt would've walked past is a striking comparison.
Previous labour leaders submitting their favourite Mac comics for "30 years of Mac" whilst Corbyn says he doesn't find them funny at all is notable.
"Controls on immigration" mugs vs the party stance on immigration at present.
Being anti-nuclear weapons and against selling arms to the Saudis vs Blairing the fuck out of the middle east.
Labour wasn't electable under Brown or Miliband. The neoliberal "third way" shit has died. Maybe if you had a charismatic leader you could charm another term, but Blair killed every pretender to the throne. Even before Brexit, what the fuck were you offering people? Who's getting excited for "we'll only work you 1/2 to death"? Who was taking to the streets to leaflet for "controls on immigration"?In an age where politicians are increasingly seen as out of touch and in a bubble, as you rightly say, what we need is MPs engaging with the public and - here's a radical thought - taking on board what the majority of their membership and the majority now of the populace would like when deciding policy. What we don't need is people obsessed about being seen to be 'right on' to the point where they'll happily gift PR opportunities for the Tories to make them look like political dinosaurs from a bygone era of bell bottoms and lukewarm panda pops. Because aside from the sort of ranting utter bell-end who sells socialist worker in the hope of bringing about a glorious revolution that is never, ever coming, that's not going to impress anyone - and if you don't impress anyone, you don't get elected and you don't get to do diddly squat. And if you don't do diddly squat then your legacy is nothing - and that's a hell of a lot less than those awful, awful Blairite MPs who did so very, very much good when in office.
I appreciate that must stick in the craw of a Corbynite like a 6-metre long toothpick, but you know what will change it? Making Labour electable. You know what won't? Playing pissy one-upmanship on who has the shiniest red star.
(edited to add in who/what I was replying to as for some reason it didn't come up)
I look at Hillary Clinton's disasterous campaign, and I look at Blue Labour, and I honestly can't tell the difference. You see the same offerings of fuck all and utter inability to see why people are angry and upset and disengaged with politics. The needle is swinging left and you're all pushing right screaming "WE'RE ELECTABLE WE'RE ELECTABLE".
“Let me make my position clear: I wouldn’t want to win on an old-fashioned leftist platform. Even if I thought it was the route to victory, I wouldn’t take it. ”
-Anthony Charles Lynton Blair
-Anthony Charles Lynton Blair