Labour becoming the nasty party?

[JHE]

But i really do believe that Socialists should be tough on anti social crime and tough on the causes of crime.

Yes, it was always a great slogan.

But they have don fuck-all about the causes of crime, and hardly anything about tackling it. What they have done is made lots of things crimes that didn't used to be, then been disappointed when no-one took any notice.

According to someone I heard on the radio yesterday, 5000 new crimes have been created by legislation since 1997. Can this be true? I can't really imagine what they all are. Fucking pointless, if it is true, though!

 

[Hocus Eye.]

I get tired of hearing that nonsense by supporters of New Labour when they talk of the increased spending on the NHS. Increasing spending is inevitable if you choose a more expensive supplier. The increase in taxpayers money has gone in profit margins to PFI companies. The extra expenditure is not a virtue in itself as it has not gone directly into improvements in health provision.

New Labour having adopted Tory policies in striving to become 'electable' is in a desperate position now that Cameron is successfully emulating the image of Blair. The voters who were naive enough to fall for Blair's blandishments will happily now go for Cameron given that the policies are the same.

Labour cannot backtrack to its one time core values because there are few people left in the party who remember what they were. They should have spent the Thatcher years promoted their Alternative Economic Policy (Who remembers that?) and making the case for socialism at every election with steady persistence. It could not have taken longer than the time the change of political clothes took.

Then New Labour having gained office but not power, blew the resources of the Welfare State on the gambling table of neo-liberal economics and lost all their money to the big boys of big business.

While the Tories sold off 'the family silver' New Labour has mortgaged the family home. I wonder where the homeless Labour core voters have taken shelter.

A replacement party for New Labour needs to be up and running by the mid term of the next (probably Tory) government so as to gain from the dissatisfaction that will have set in. This will have to be created at local authority level because that's where the elections happen every year. Trade Union funding and support will be essential.

Or maybe we should all give up on Parliamentary politics.

 

[Bear]

Yes, it was always a great slogan.



According to someone I heard on the radio yesterday, 5000 new crimes have been created by legislation since 1997. Can this be true? I can't really imagine what they all are. Fucking pointless, if it is true, though!

I think it's about 3,000 new criminal offences isn't it? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7400865.stm Clegg said it was 3,000 in parliament. Whatever it is they have certainly filled the jails up anyway. We have never had as many people in jail as we do now. Yeah, they definitely banned heaps of stuff, they're about to ban bongs next, Jackie Smith said so.

 

[poster342002]

they're about to ban bongs next.

Jesus! I mean, Big Ben's not that loud!

 

[Bear]

Always liked DB myself. But i really do believe that Socialists should be tough on anti social crime and tough on the causes of crime.

Yep, being 'tough' certainly sounds like a socialist thing to me. Every communist or socialist country I have ever been to has been 'tough'. I just don't like being tough because I'm not a socialist.

When Tony Blair came to power in 1997 New Labour voters were a coalition of working people, liberals and social democrats. They have pretty much pissed on every single one of those groups now, the first ones to be pissed on were the liberal progressives, not least by Mr Blunkett.

 

[durruti02]

The greatest hypocrisy is surely playing the immigration card when they were the ones that signed up to the deals that let most of them in.

no i think this is worse than hypocrisy .. it is deliberate to do one thing then lie about it, to not only cover up what they are doing BUT to wind people up and divide them at the same time .. hello bnp

 

[audiotech]

Well Nu-Lab policies are very closely tailored to reflect the interests of narrow section of society (Mr and Mrs Floating-Voter in the key swing marginals), so there is obviously a demographic to whom this guff is intrinsically appealing. The problem is that they are affluent middle-class little-Englander fuckwits, and only represent a tiny portion of the country as a whole.

Who ironically, have now deserted Nu-Lab, along with a large section of Labours core voters.

 

[Prince Rhyus]

Irrespective of who's to blame/credit, one thing that can be said is that there has been huge social change over the past 10-15 years.

Even though I was at school, I was politically aware of things like section 28 and gay people being kicked out of the military for their sexuality. Homophobia was institutionalised in both the workplace and society. Today, finding out that someone is homosexual isn't even an issue - except maybe in some of the rightwing rags.

Bashing single mums too - society has moved on from the scapegoating.

That's not to say there are no problems - there are, and huge ones at that. However, I think it's fairly safe to say that society and politics has moved on to the point where the widespread and institutionalised homophobia we once saw is a thing of the past.

 

[treelover]

yes, they have,


now its 'benefit scroungers' chavs, pramfaces, etc.

 

[JHE]

Irrespective of who's to blame/credit, one thing that can be said is that there has been huge social change over the past 10-15 years.

Even though I was at school, I was politically aware of things like section 28 and gay people being kicked out of the military for their sexuality. Homophobia was institutionalised in both the workplace and society. Today, finding out that someone is homosexual isn't even an issue - except maybe in some of the rightwing rags.

Bashing single mums too - society has moved on from the scapegoating.

That's not to say there are no problems - there are, and huge ones at that. However, I think it's fairly safe to say that society and politics has moved on to the point where the widespread and institutionalised homophobia we once saw is a thing of the past.

Yes, that's a fair point. The governments since 1997 have been OK on the question of homosexuality. The changes in attitude were well underway before 1997, of course, but the Blair-Brown governments helped them alone.