...Everywhere there is blood andThe stench of death
Human beings make war and
Hate one another
They do not understand their
Youth,they reject their ideals
They make them come home
early from the disco
They are doomed .....
Mathew Parris claimed to have solved the conundrum of the Labour obsession with silly and irritating tinkering . The Labour Party, for much of the 20th century ,basked in the presumption that they had the “intellectual” upper-hand . Marxist Dons swapped social analysis and in general though they were sweeping a Compass over the globe.The advent of Thatcher,Hayek, and the implosion of the planned economies ,was a horrible shock . It turned out that they had been wrong (and no-one likes that much . )
The emphasis from this time has switched from competing ideas , there being no competition, to various snippets which together prove , to someone , that Conservatives are “Not Nice” .
The absurd amount of time wasted on the fate of wily Monsieur Renard shows , amongst other things , how a once confident philosophy had become degraded to the point of the child –like . Mr. Parris, in a moment of epiphany ,grasped that this was all they had left, they have to believe it matters .
It is in this context we can understand the latest nonsense emerging for the Warwick Jamboree ( A forum for labour to sell policies for cash to Unions ) “Labour's next election manifesto will back extending the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds,"
Partly this is driven by the desperate gerrymandering that a shrinking natural support produces . The assumption is that young people are likely to be state dependent, and having not yet acquired income or property, may be easily persuaded to exercise their consciences at other people’s expense. In fact young people are keener on low taxes than anyone else ,as a single issue ,having expectations of earning , and ( soon to be dashed) optimism. Nonetheless the Labour collation of bleeding heart gunk might be expected to appeal to the wish of youth to strut and posture there being little personal consequence.
I assume that no-one in the Labour Party has recently met a teenager. Wendy Cope in a technically masterful pastiche called “ The Concerned Adolescent “ captured the mix of solemnity and self obsession( see above)
This would be a vast improvement on most teenagers who are unconcerned about anything except ...well we’ve all been there . So the idiotic idea that we should be consulting these hormone addled ignorant and confused cubs about the Government of the country is about a dumb as I can imagine .
Silly silly Labour
12 comments:
Most young people I know, many of whom are inclined to vote Labour - not least because they are indoctrinated by Labour supporting teachers at school - are rabidly against nulabour's warmongering. Time to remind the young of nulabour's scandalous invasion of Iraq, I believe, n.
I supported the invasion of Iraq Flo and in general support NATO and the US. It was abysmally handled true and in the end we all end up agreeing a fiasco has been made of what was always a tricky prospect
The unions should be careful what they wish for. In the early 60s, young people might have been left-leaning because of rebellion against the incumbent Tory years. I suspect that rebellion is stronger than socialism, and that young people are as likely to be right wing as left. There was an interesting bit on the local news the other night where teens were interviewed about knife crime. Many said that there should be stiffer sentences and more police - hardly natural Labour territory.
I think the next set of first-time voters are likely to vote for change, especially as they are probably too young to know why they should dislike The Tories as a matter of principle.
I think you are dead right there BE
I agree.
and love the work of Wendy Cope. Nice one ;-)
Rebellion against established authority is part of growing up, part of learning and of separating oneself from childhood authority to adulthood, it's a rite of passage. It's the potty training of thought. When people often make mistakes.
Me lovely seventeen year old aspergers syndrome son just got his first pay packet... he knows where the money goes now! he lost about 200 quid in tax etc.
It's the potty training of thought.
Brilliant
Mutley
We have recently had some concerns on that score , its very confusing and I hope all goes well
I'm always struck by how the young people on 18-24 Question Time don't respond to the panel as you would think.
Davina looked very surprised when her vacuous Big Bother statements like 'Wind and Solar power are the future for Britain,'were met with some quizzical stares, logical arguments and data about the minuscule quantity of power produced by them so far.
BQ MP- I noticed that although i am coming to the conclusion that climate change is not a myth even if it is not the only consideration or an excuse for the EU
BQ MP- I noticed that although i am coming to the conclusion that climate change is not a myth even if it is not the only consideration or an excuse for the EU
I have never thought our impact on the environment an issue to be dismissed. What annoys me is that people who want to make money out of that concern (sometimes at the expense of the environment) are actually applauded by stupid people accepting sound bites and not thinking at all. Such as those voting NuLabour.
Yes Phillipa I agree its the use of the problem that is alienating but I have just started to think perhaps the antipathy has been overdone a bit
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