Imagine who survives the pre-selection of sucking up, networking and attending ‘functions’ in current-day Western political practices: the surprise is that there are a few that aren’t cretins.
They dig them up from the NUS. (I remember him as an ineffective president of the University of London Union in the 80s– I seem to remember him being one of the players in Operation Icepick, the group that ballot rigged a NOLS election to prevent Militant from getting a foothold, but I could be mistaken. I vividly remember was wondering why that crowd were involved in petty and unimportant stuff like that when they would be either studying or supporting the miners strike — current Children’s minister Delyth Morgan, who was actually dead nice, was another — now I know!).
I’m sorry to say that he beat me in a NOLS election in the mid-1980s at a conference at York (as the ultra-left candidate I didn’t stand a chance against Clause 4 and Militant). I think Operation Icepick was something C4 did, rather than being a group. He and John Mann were the key players – interesting to see how the Stalinist fellow-travellers of the eighties morph so easily into new Labour suits.
My old schoolmate Jo Moore (of burying bad news fame) was another of them in OI. Lovely lot.
I can’t help feeling that in a better world I’d not be so pleased to see Purdey doing so brilliantly. Still, she is, I am, and it isn’t (if you know what I mean).
As John Oliver noted (on the podcast he does with Andy Zaltzman) when you have the Mail pissed off with you about a policy designed to keeps out immigrants, you’re on to a loser.
Woolas is such a sorry sack of shit; where does government keep digging these cretins up, and who is it that keeps voting for them?
It’s a standard downward slope thing, surely? John Major also had a lot of careerist numpties as ministers. The most embarrassing examples today were elected in 1997 or later, and have never known the lean days of opposition. So you get Woolas, Smith, Burnham and a couple of others who are really just the mirror-image of David Mellor and some of the other mid-90s nonentities. One thing that you can say about the people in Blair’s first cabinet: they were keenly aware that being part of a governing majority was a privilege and not a right.
I enjoyed watching it too, but I think you could have swapped titles with the post three places down and called this one ‘knowing your place’. There’s a definite feeling of right of birth being brandished.
Commenting further on the whole affair, I can’t for the life of me understand the obtuseness of the current government on this matter. Is it really only a politically tone-deaf bureaucratic green eye-shade bean-counter sort of thing that initially caused this obstinant refusal to honor the service (volunteered, btw, and for damned little pay) of these brave souls? Or is it also partially racial and tied up in the larger immigration issues? Whatever the reason, the whole affair from start to finish reeks of callousness and has been an utter disgrace and a black mark on the political party that prides itself on being on the side of the “little man.”
Sock Puppet of the Great Satan05.11.09 at 10:17 pm
“I’m sorry to say that he beat me in a NOLS election in the mid-1980s at a conference at York (as the ultra-left candidate I didn’t stand a chance against Clause 4 and Militant). ”
Heh. Chris, were you in Socialist Organiser/WSL then? Or the IMG?
{ 19 comments }
Barry 05.07.09 at 10:26 pm
It looked to me like he got out of it with a squid-ink cloud of blather.
lisa 05.08.09 at 4:14 am
It’s kind of amazing to see Patsy box in a government official.
NomadUK 05.08.09 at 7:25 am
Lumley’s simmering fury just looks like its ready to blow; I would not want to be on the receiving end of that.
Woolas is such a sorry sack of shit; where does government keep digging these cretins up, and who is it that keeps voting for them?
JoB 05.08.09 at 8:01 am
Imagine who survives the pre-selection of sucking up, networking and attending ‘functions’ in current-day Western political practices: the surprise is that there are a few that aren’t cretins.
harry b 05.08.09 at 12:17 pm
They dig them up from the NUS. (I remember him as an ineffective president of the University of London Union in the 80s– I seem to remember him being one of the players in Operation Icepick, the group that ballot rigged a NOLS election to prevent Militant from getting a foothold, but I could be mistaken. I vividly remember was wondering why that crowd were involved in petty and unimportant stuff like that when they would be either studying or supporting the miners strike — current Children’s minister Delyth Morgan, who was actually dead nice, was another — now I know!).
Anji 05.08.09 at 1:13 pm
Good old Joanna! They won’t slip anything past her.
MR Bill 05.08.09 at 2:07 pm
Way to go, Pats!!
Ed 05.08.09 at 2:08 pm
He was general secretary of Manchester University union, and then went on to be president of NUS.
Chris Bertram 05.08.09 at 2:22 pm
I’m sorry to say that he beat me in a NOLS election in the mid-1980s at a conference at York (as the ultra-left candidate I didn’t stand a chance against Clause 4 and Militant). I think Operation Icepick was something C4 did, rather than being a group. He and John Mann were the key players – interesting to see how the Stalinist fellow-travellers of the eighties morph so easily into new Labour suits.
harry b 05.08.09 at 5:21 pm
My old schoolmate Jo Moore (of burying bad news fame) was another of them in OI. Lovely lot.
I can’t help feeling that in a better world I’d not be so pleased to see Purdey doing so brilliantly. Still, she is, I am, and it isn’t (if you know what I mean).
roy belmont 05.09.09 at 12:25 am
Lumley’s not a one-trick pony by a long stretch. She played an eccentric crone sans glamour on Saunders’ post-Ab “Jam and Jerusalem” most brilliantly.
harry b 05.09.09 at 1:11 pm
Ed, you’re right. Now I’m struggling to figure out who the ULU person was.
BA in Philosophy from Manchester, I see.
nick s 05.09.09 at 3:20 pm
As John Oliver noted (on the podcast he does with Andy Zaltzman) when you have the Mail pissed off with you about a policy designed to keeps out immigrants, you’re on to a loser.
Woolas is such a sorry sack of shit; where does government keep digging these cretins up, and who is it that keeps voting for them?
It’s a standard downward slope thing, surely? John Major also had a lot of careerist numpties as ministers. The most embarrassing examples today were elected in 1997 or later, and have never known the lean days of opposition. So you get Woolas, Smith, Burnham and a couple of others who are really just the mirror-image of David Mellor and some of the other mid-90s nonentities. One thing that you can say about the people in Blair’s first cabinet: they were keenly aware that being part of a governing majority was a privilege and not a right.
engels 05.09.09 at 3:38 pm
I enjoyed watching it too, but I think you could have swapped titles with the post three places down and called this one ‘knowing your place’. There’s a definite feeling of right of birth being brandished.
Righteous Bubba 05.09.09 at 3:51 pm
It reminds me of a less pleasant example in which George W. Bush lords it over Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan. I wish I could dig video up of that.
Zeba 05.09.09 at 5:00 pm
I bet if she stood for PM in next year’s election she’d win by a landslide…
virgil xenophon 05.09.09 at 5:40 pm
Zeba/
And she just might be the most level-headed one of the entire lot–current or potential,
virgil xenophon 05.09.09 at 5:52 pm
Commenting further on the whole affair, I can’t for the life of me understand the obtuseness of the current government on this matter. Is it really only a politically tone-deaf bureaucratic green eye-shade bean-counter sort of thing that initially caused this obstinant refusal to honor the service (volunteered, btw, and for damned little pay) of these brave souls? Or is it also partially racial and tied up in the larger immigration issues? Whatever the reason, the whole affair from start to finish reeks of callousness and has been an utter disgrace and a black mark on the political party that prides itself on being on the side of the “little man.”
Sock Puppet of the Great Satan 05.11.09 at 10:17 pm
“I’m sorry to say that he beat me in a NOLS election in the mid-1980s at a conference at York (as the ultra-left candidate I didn’t stand a chance against Clause 4 and Militant). ”
Heh. Chris, were you in Socialist Organiser/WSL then? Or the IMG?
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