Alan Johnson praised the decision of Ed Miliband and Ed Balls last year to back the coalition’s public sector pay freeze. Photograph: Andrew Winning/Reuters
SEE ALSO: Jan 16th 2013 Len McCluskey of UNITE’s finest speech ~ The Ralph Miliband Lecture London School of Economics Posted on January 17, 2013
Austerity plan pushes UK towards triple dip recession
‘There is an alternative: the case against cuts in public spending’
Black Triangle comment on Alan Johnson and Party-within-a-Party so-called ‘Progress’:
”A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.
“For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men.
“He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear.”
~ Marcus Tullius Cicero – (106-43 BC) Roman Statesman, Philosopher and Orator
Kick the Blairite Cuckoos out of the nest as Len McCluskey has said, Labour, or be prepared for the wholesale desertion of the Scottish vote and secession from the union next year!
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16 Responses
These New Labories must all drink at the same old boys club!
Mercurey
03 February 2013
‘Accept Coalition spending levels my arse.’
Indeed. Thus falling for the Tory trap. What was a banking crisis has been presented as a crisis of public spending. Under this guise, the speed of which it was implemented suggets the plans were already in existence, the Tories set about transforming society. In other words privatising the public spending budget, dismantling the welfare state and so on…
With all the haste of an administration that knew it will be in for one parliament.
Johnson has failed the test. He had his time, he should pipe down and let the rest of us battle for what has been squandered by those who were in power during his time, and what came after.
http://discussion.guardian.co.uk/comment-permalink/21052640
JimTheFish 03 February 2013 Recommend 68
Blimey, the Labour party just don’t get it, do they? Way to shoot themselves in the foot in time for a general election in which, by rights, they should be a shoo-in.
What’s needed is greater integration with the unions, not less. The Tories are positioning themselves to take even more rights from the workers of this country (those of them that have managed to hold on to their jobs, that is.)
The Labour party should be working in concert with the unions to make the voice of the workers heard much more clearly than it is now, not bloody disenfranchising them even further.
I’m not sure I can remember a time when both the Tories and the Labour party were being run so obviously for the self-interest and benefit for a few within the Westminster village and it’s immediate circle of influence.
Shameful.
http://discussion.guardian.co.uk/comment-permalink/21052593
valmy1 04 February 2013
@MMTRocks – You’ve got to remember that Johnson is one of the Blairite cuckoos in the nest – as are the rest of the foul Progress faction.
They’re all basically lukewarm Tories who fundamentally disagree with the idea of redistribution and so forth.
Having heard a local member of my Labour CLP who is a member of Progress prognosticating on how workers’ rights “cost too much”, I’m very much of the opinion that Johnson and anyone who shares his views has no place in the Labour party.
http://discussion.guardian.co.uk/comment-permalink/21061682
Another nail in the coffin of the union! The union of Scotland and England that is ….
eveofchange
03 February 2013 4:59pmLink to this comment
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The Labour party is, and will remain, a pro-capitalist , right wing party. When will those socialists, who still (unbelievably), cling to the forlorn hope that they will alleviate just some of the horrors inflicted on millions by the needs of capitalism, realise this ? The enemy cuckoos, like the Tory-in-disguise Johnson, have taken over the nest, and they do, and will, offer nothing to ordinary people, no matter how bad things get. Time to sever all political and industrial connections to this shell of a pro-capitalist party, and support the task of creating a new, mass working class party that can offer hope to millions. There is no other credible way of offering a political alternative. I support the TUSC, as a small step in this direction, but mass trade union, socialist and community campaigns, participation is required for the task to succeed.
DavidCruise
03 February 2013 5:03pmLink to this comment
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“in an interview for Progress magazine…”
There, that’s the kernel of the problem. The Progress party-within-a-party inside of Labour, carrying the Blairite,neoliberal, warmed-over Thatcherism-lite flame.
Worse than useless, the whole triangulating lot of them helped pave the way for the Tory wrecking crew, and they can’t readily oppose, because they sympathise with much of what the Coalition are doing, privatising health,schools etc.
ValenciaOwl
03 February 2013 5:30pmLink to this comment
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So basically the next election will be a choice between continued austerity from a Conservative led government or alternatively continued austerity under a Labour led government. (What’s left of the Lib Dems at the next election will be able to fit inside a Taxi)
Is it any wonder why democracy in Britain is in such a poor state. As another poster wrote earlier, the main parties might as well merge together and stop this fake opposition and petty bickering between them.
Economic illiteracy
Astonishingly, in the face of the overwhelming evidence, some organisations are still failing to see the wood for the cuts. It is perhaps no coincidence that they are the same groups that take any opportunity to try to undermine unions like ours.
Take Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, an organisation set up and funded by big business interests, but which still refuses to disclose exactly where its money comes from.
He starts well by identifying that “the government has failed to get to grips with the economic crisis”.
But he goes on to prescribe “bold steps to cut spending and taxes in order to stimulate the economy”.
It would be hard to match this for economic illiteracy, but the Institute of Directors’ Graeme Leach has a go, urging people whose lives are being shattered by this government’s ideological obsession with cuts to: “Hold back on the doom and gloom.”
Meanwhile John Cridland, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, predicts: “Growth will continue to be fairly flat through the winter but momentum will gradually build later in the year, as the global economy picks up a little and confidence lifts.”
If it sounds familiar, that’s because it is. The CBI said exactly the same in 2011 and 2012. And it didn’t happen”
http://edinburghagainstcuts.org.uk/?p=569
Confession time…. At 18, my first vote went to SNP. Thereafter, I ceased thinking local level and voted, on a national basis, for Labour. Until, that was, Blair showed himself as sky-blue Tory. Then Libdems (shhhhhhhh) got my vote. Changed horses again when, hallelujah, Gordon Brown took over. Tony Blair comes over all nicee-nicee but you can see the chink of self-interested shark showing through. It was all done through the media, which TB could manipulate. Does that speak to deviousness? Is that why GB “failed” to gain a majority at the general election of 2010? That his policies SHOULD have appealed to Libdems but, due to absolute power-hungry Nick Clegg, were ignored in favour of purple-tied David Cameron.
In short (tablets kicking in!!) Labour needs to get back to fighting for the people, not the upper middle class who have lost child benefit, but those who are dying at the rate of 73 a week. And Alan whatsit says there isn’t carnage…..but, to Progress, maybe those deaths aren’t carnage, just collateral damage.
“Give to me to drink Mandragora!”
I swear, the Labour Party just turns on its own fragmented delusions, and one has to ask – just what are they drinking/smoking/lining up to snort?
They can’t just tear up the base of their Socialist and Working Class foundation and re-write it as if no-one could possibly notice. I don’t want to appear vulgar here, but I can’t resist saying f*ck the ‘Progress’ Part-within-a-Party. Even on paper it reads like a bloody ‘Odessa’ Organization. “Yes, ve can get you over ze border with ze false papers and new identity, but after that..you vill be on your own!” When Labour undermines the Unions, it simply saws away at the branch it is sitting on! I can hardly believe I am reading this in 2013, and especially when we have our very own ‘Posh Boy’ at the helm. He’s a F*cking Idiot: a MAJOR LEAGUE, ROSETTED, TOP-OF-THE-CLASS IDIOT!
For who but an idiot of ‘epic’ proportion would TRUST a Labour leader who rubbished those who BANKROLLED his own party? Who in their right mind would VOTE for a Party who used IDENTICAL RHETORIC to their Political ‘enemies?’
NAZIS one can see… Or NAZIS one cannot? Hmmm?
At least those one CAN see can be shot from a distance!!
Besides, who the HELL ever heard of a LABOUR PARTY where ONE HALF OF THE PARTY ARE WORKERS , BUT WHO HAVE BEEN ENCOURAGED AND EVEN SANCTIONED TO HATE THE OTHER HALF WHO ARE NOT – ESPECIALLY WHEN THE LABOUR PARTY WAS CREATED TO REPRESENT ALL OF THE WORKING CLASS – NOT JUST SOME OF THEM!!
Ed. No -one will forgive you if all you do is parrot the hatred of the Tories. Indeed, we’ll put you out of f*cking office mate.. I don’t need any narcotics to dream THAT up either!
It’s become more like the Mental United States where the choices are ‘right’ and ‘ridiculously right!’ So a world economic crisis caused by the gambling of the super-rich is to be paid for by the poorest, and easiest soft targets? ‘Tis time for change, and to make a lot of noise people of this land!
I’m pretty certain, had John Smith lived, he would have won the 1997 election. As i recalled at the time, people were utterly sick of the tories. Nothing to do with New Labour who hijacked the Labour party.
We do need a new political party, that will serve the people and not the 1%. Times have changed since 1997. We need politicians with integrity that are not prepared to sacrifice the sick and disabled, the elderly and the poor for the benefit of the rich.
i did say blairites look to ed who said lets look at bringing him back well posted off to him asking if he liked to still be on the outside looking in but then they learn nowt so could be on the outside looking in for a while longer how can they allow this nah blair took us to toryism not labour and there are some still calling out this well i say bye bye as people will not vote for you if you follow that path jeff3
Alan Johnson was head of my union when i worked for Royal Mail, no wonder we got fuc*** over totally in his time in office.
Would you mind adopting the North of England? The South don’t want us…:P
We should have initially dealt with this the way Iceland did, rather than the way America did. The banks were never ‘too big to fail’ – we should have let them fail and prosecuted the people at the top who broke the law. Fraud, embezzlement etc are crimes and should have been dealt with as such. Protect peoples’ savings, allow those private businesses to go belly-up and sort out their own problems and then chase down the 5.2 billion evaded in tax each year by the rich elite, which would cancel out the benefits cuts.
This would have given us a fresh slate and a chance to encourage growth. Less privatisation and more nationalisation would also have helped balance things out, and still might if we can manage it. Although not likely with the Con Dems still in. Bit simplified as there’s alot more to it that this, but it’s a start!