Quote: sootyj @ June 10 2013, 1:26 PM BST

I wish the left wing would stop sitting in a box marked "please ignore" and talking to themselves.

We need them.

I am so flipping annoyed with ATOS facebook posts. That are clearly fake about paralysed people, or profoundly learning disabled people losing benefits.

When the real battle is about people with hidden disabilities, like persistent back pain, schizophrenia or epilepsy who are getting pushed into the hands of Working Links for none jobs. And have just had their funding for bnenefits advice wiped out.

There is no opposition its like the 1980s again.

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Look at the Peoples Assembly, I hold out great hopes that this non party umbrella organisation of the left can be utilised in the same way that many think tanks of the right were in the eighties but of course from the left. We need pressure groups from the left to make the Labour Party more than a mimic of the Tories with a smiley face. You only have to look at the success of UKIP to see nature abhours a vacuum.

Quote: Lazzard @ June 10 2013, 9:33 AM BST

Jeez -that was quick - he only announced it a couple of months back...

If you like sci-fi, try his stuff written under the Iain M. Banks moniker.

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Iain Banks isn't/wasn't a typical Science-Fiction writer; his SF stuff is acclaimed by main mainstream writing critics, probably because he wrote both mainstream and SF and for those critics who strayed into reading his SF books, it was the first SF they had read so naturally it seemed wonderful to them.

As far as I remember his SF stuff is rather convoluted introspective stuff, but I would have to re-read some to be sure and I don't think I actually have any of his in my collection. He is a sort of successor to the NEW WAVE Science Fiction.

~~~~~~~~~~~

PS: The term sci-fi is usually applied to video/film versions of Science Fiction; simplified, shortened and most often of the Space Opera variety (Star Trek, Stargate... etc). The written stuff is usually called by the full name Science Fiction or abbreviated to SF.

Quote: keewik @ June 7 2013, 10:12 PM BST

So, the old shit is in hospital ( around his birthday, too) but his wife ( the Queen) won't be visiting him this weekend! They've been married x + infinity years and have 4 children, but she won't be visiting him! I swear the Royal Family are a bunch of f**king aliens and that's an insult to aliens.

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I hear she went today. The Queen to visit him I mean - not having a shit.

Quote: keewik @ June 9 2013, 9:56 PM BST

Iain Banks has died. This morning I was reading a review of his latest book and hoping he might keep going for a bit longer.

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Quote: Lazzard @ June 10 2013, 9:33 AM BST

Jeez -that was quick - he only announced it a couple of months back...

If you like sci-fi, try his stuff written under the Iain M. Banks moniker.

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You mean Iain Banks and Iain M Banks were the same person!

Yes, they were.

Quote: Pingl @ June 10 2013, 1:32 PM BST

Look at the Peoples Assembly, I hold out great hopes that this non party umbrella organisation of the left can be utilised in the same way that many think tanks of the right were in the eighties but of course from the left. We need pressure groups from the left to make the Labour Party more than a mimic of the Tories with a smiley face. You only have to look at the success of UKIP to see nature abhours a vacuum.

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I did its the same tired old faces and the same third old arguments.

And in the end will do little more than generate column inches for gleeful daily mail arseholes.

Sadly Tony Blair is or was the face of electable labor

Quote: keewik @ June 10 2013, 9:15 PM BST

Yes, they were.

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Never! Who'd have thunk it. Talk about a clever pseudonym.

Quote: sootyj @ June 10 2013, 9:32 PM BST

I did its the same tired old faces and the same third old arguments.

And in the end will do little more than generate column inches for gleeful daily mail arseholes.

Sadly Tony Blair is or was the face of electable labor

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That is defeatism my friend. Tired old faces can be joined by new youthful ones. Never underestimate of lobbying to get under the skin. The best way to renew democracy and socialism is to take it back to the people, re-energise and reignite debate. The politics of absence simply allows those who would do wrong to do wrong. If democracy is stagnate than it is best to stir the pool, otherwise we may as well give in and start digging our own graves. Don't worry about the Daily Mail or the printed press as a whole their day is over, the flow of information moves at a different pace and to a wider electorate now.

What is The People's Assembly? Is it an English thing or a Labour thing?

Prior to this event at E3, much criticism was levelled at Microsoft over rumours it would force gamers to be "always online" when playing Xbox One.

The demos here were not merely theatrical trailers, but gameplay footage - the first real indicator we have had as to how the console will actually really feel.

Do you ever get the feeling that you don't know what the f**k is going on ?

Quote: keewik @ June 10 2013, 11:34 PM BST

What is The People's Assembly? Is it an English thing or a Labour thing?

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Tony benn and a few other old laborites with some left wings groups

Quote: Pingl @ June 10 2013, 10:56 PM BST

That is defeatism my friend. Tired old faces can be joined by new youthful ones. Never underestimate of lobbying to get under the skin. The best way to renew democracy and socialism is to take it back to the people, re-energise and reignite debate. The politics of absence simply allows those who would do wrong to do wrong. If democracy is stagnate than it is best to stir the pool, otherwise we may as well give in and start digging our own graves. Don't worry about the Daily Mail or the printed press as a whole their day is over, the flow of information moves at a different pace and to a wider electorate now.

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No but the failure of most political parties is only talking to those who agree with themselves.

And following a party lead up by Tony benn is like basing your cavalry tactics on Custer.

I want a party that can win back the middle ground, then start building, schools, hospitals and decent jobs. As well as reforming welfare and employment .

Not eeyorishly bray I don't like it at everything the government does, whilst making plans about economy and tax so naieve that the Jimmy savilles innocent party gets more respect

Quote: sootyj @ June 11 2013, 7:18 AM BST

Tony benn and a few other old laborites with some left wings groups

No but the failure of most political parties is only talking to those who agree with themselves.

And following a party lead up by Tony benn is like basing your cavalry tactics on Custer.

I want a party that can win back the middle ground, then start building, schools, hospitals and decent jobs. As well as reforming welfare and employment .

Not eeyorishly bray I don't like it at everything the government does, whilst making plans about economy and tax so naieve that the Jimmy savilles innocent party gets more respect

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All politics starts with people who think they agree with each other, but soon find they don't. Hopefully by making an open discussion within the left and not just a closed shop involving the old guard some new thoughts may be forthcoming. The intention is really to force Labour from the middle ground and further to the left, which is what I want. To say that plans to veer away from austerity to growth tactics is not naive, it is something even the IMF are saying. I don't think some wishy washy middle ground is the answer, personally I am no fan of Benn, except as an honourable man, but it should be open to all. We tried the middle ground we got Blair, I say lets go left and see what happens, it can't be any worse than at present.

We got Blair and if embittered socialists could stop looking at everything through the lens of the Gulf war.
Would see he rebuilt most of the wreckage of Thatcher, boosted employment and put money in the pockets of those who needed it.

I hate the conservatives. I hate their bitterness, their hypocrasy and I think they're mugging the disabled and the impoverished. So the middle classes won't notice when they get their pockets picked.

So I despair at Labor MPs mouthing empty platitutdes, to keep those dim bulbs who still believe in a general strike happy.

And don't forget charmless anonymous Major beat Kinnock.

Quote: sootyj @ June 11 2013, 10:44 AM BST

We got Blair and if embittered socialists could stop looking at everything through the lens of the Gulf war.
Would see he rebuilt most of the wreckage of Thatcher, boosted employment and put money in the pockets of those who needed it.

I hate the conservatives. I hate their bitterness, their hypocrasy and I think they're mugging the disabled and the impoverished. So the middle classes won't notice when they get their pockets picked.

So I despair at Labor MPs mouthing empty platitutdes, to keep those dim bulbs who still believe in a general strike happy.

And don't forget charmless anonymous Major beat Kinnock.

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You shouldn't underestimate Major, he was a clever and actually quite charming man. I look back on the Major era with a degree of fondness, he was in my opinion the last truly one nation Tory to gain power. Although he made some stupid mistakes, Rail privatisation and protection of the ERM, he left the Labour government and very favourable economic legacy, possibly more by luck than judgement perhaps, but then the same could be said of Blair. Labour will only change by the real breaking of the new consensus, no one is talking strikes, quite the opposite. What we need is Government encouraged growth, an end to a blinkered austerity programme and the persecution of the poor and infirm. Whilst the left splinters or calls each other windbags UKIP will reap the whirlwind. The left must configure a palatable and practical growth policy. By taking it back to the people I hope some new and dynamic figures may emerge. PS Kinnock was never going to win anything, lovely man, sincere politician but could never overcome a public perception that painted him into a corner. The British hate people who want power to much or expect it. He is and always will be less of a what if more of a I wish, Smith on the other hand like Gaitskill is one of the great what ifs.

Quote: Pingl @ June 11 2013, 11:04 AM BST

no one is talking strikes, quite the opposite.

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Wouldnt usually pick one sentence out of a post.

But read the assembly website, it was my read on the way into work today.

And they talk about; civil disobedience and a general strike repeatedly.

Quote: sootyj @ June 11 2013, 11:07 AM BST

Wouldnt usually pick one sentence out of a post.

But read the assembly website, it was my read on the way into work today.

And they talk about; civil disobedience and a general strike repeatedly.

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The unions talk about it, but it is a proposal that I hope can be blocked, they are so obviously counter productive and anti the growth agenda as to be I agree a digression. But the use of strikes as a weapon must always be left open. The great threat within any assembly of the left is the removal of labour, but that is one bomb, that with the history of the eighties, may be more of a deterrent than a weapon of destruction. Cases must be fought within and won, that is democracy. I am always in favour of civil disobedience, it is the last refuge of the decent and caring.