And I think I've finally understood them.
It's as if Labour was someone who lived a few doors down the street from me. We grew up together in the exact same community, sharing the same ups and downs. Then, as adults, we became lovers and thought we'd never part from each other because we were just so alike in so many ways.
Then my lover started reading magazines about London and became more and more attracted by its glamour and glitz. There would be days when I'd find my lover lost in dreams on the internet, thinking of the golden pavements and dancing on the international stage.
Eventually, they decided to go to London "just to see what it's like" and promised they'd be back. But they never returned. They'd fallen in love with someone else and I was left in sorrow.
Time passed. My lover has moved on but so have I. I don't hate my former lover and I wish them well in their new life in their new home - far, far away from me.
But I'm still here, in my old, run-down house, with my new lover and I'm happier than I've ever been before. We're looking forward to the future together and have plans for doing up the old place, make it a proper home.
Then my old lover turns up, not really wanting me but jealous I'm with someone new. They try to convince me we've still got something and I should dump who I'm with now. But it's never going to happen.
And then I tell them, in the words of Gloria Gaynor:
I should have changed that stupid lock
I should have made you leave your key
if I had known for just one second
you'd be back to bother me
For those of you who've read the angst of my last few posts, you'll be pleased to know I've finally figured out my feelings. When I started writing this, I never expected to end up with the lyrics of I will survive, lol!! But thinking about it now, I could have saved myself a lot of soul searching if I'd remembered that old favourite a long time ago.
Sometimes, poetry says it better. So here, in song form, is how I feel about Labour:
I wonder readers - do any of you feel the same?
Sometimes, poetry says it better. So here, in song form, is how I feel about Labour:
I wonder readers - do any of you feel the same?
I liked Michael Foot - he was obviously an intelligent man and stood for good socialist values. Yet as the 80s brought in the image and presentation and Saatchi & Saatchi it was obvious he didn't fit into the new era and had no chance of being elected. In Kinnock Labour found a leader with a better image but little gravitas. John Smith had both and had he lived on he might have moulded the Labour Party to be a modern Socialist party.
ReplyDeleteWhere it really went downhill for Labour was with Blair. He had image and could fake gravitas, especially with Mandelson and Campbell manipulating the media and pulling the party to the right. Blair was no socialist and going to war in Iraq over a ill researched dossier a crime that caused many to 'fall out of love' - as you put it - with Labour.
Brown was all bluster and full of his own importance. Perfect for a PM you might think. Its just his policies were awful and his political instinct was a whole lot worse.
And now we are landed with Milliband. His misfortune is to lead a party without any socialist conviction and continue pushing the party further to the right. This is obviously an attempt to win over England which has lurched more right wing in every passing year.
The English voters have little place else to go: the Greens of England and Wales are lacking strength; and UKIP and the Conservatives are (just) more right wing than Labour. Its fortunate that in Scotland and Wales that there are other more left wing parties which put social justice at the heart of their policies.
Its as well the Union is dying. Its become so clear that Scotland and England have their own distinct political journeys to make.