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Showing posts from July, 2022

The Lynch Effect: This Is What Real Leadership Looks Like

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Let’s talk about the Lynch effect today.  I don’t think many of you had even heard of Mick Lynch just 2 months ago - I know I hadn’t - but the boss-bodying Tory-trashing General Secretary of the RMT Union has arrived on the 20.22 from Paddington and become one of the most talked-about people in Britain.  See, we’ve been here before. A popular figure is propelled out of nowhere to challenge the rich and powerful wealth-takers, the establishment media, and the government of the day, and they inevitably have a target painted on their backs by the aforementioned.  “Barons”, “dinosaurs”, “militants”, “Marxists”, and in the case of Mr Lynch, “Union hard man”.  Lynch says of his apparent “hard man” reputation: “I’m not Schwarzenegger. I’ve got the same sensibilities as everyone else. I’m not a hard nut. But I do like to win the argument, and sometimes it involves a campaign that leads to industrial action.”  We live in a capitalists playground, you are told that authentic leaders such as Lync

Vindication For The Left - Privatisation From The Right

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‘Some anti-Corbyn elements seized on antisemitism as a way to attack Jeremy Corbyn’. Imagine this for just one moment and you’ll get a rough idea of where I am with the Forde report, now the initial satisfaction of knowing we were right is beginning to wear off.  Anyway, what if…  Senior Labour officials, supportive of Jeremy Corbyn, made disgusting racist remarks towards Margaret Hodge? The same officials used to ring a bell in the office every time they managed to purge another centrist from the Labour Party for tweeting something controversial like, “I fucking love Coldplay”?  Figures from the Labour left set up a secret account with £135,000 in the kitty to support ‘anti-centrist’ Labour candidates, with enough left over for a jar of Jeremy’s finest plum jam and a cheeky £20 donation to my PayPal? Senior officials from the left of the Labour Party, found guilty of some of the most repulsive abuse - and mostly criticised by Martin Forde in his report - have been elevated in the Labo

Voted In By A Minority, Wanted Out By A Majority - Is This Really The Best We’ve Got?

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It’s already beginning to feel like the Tory leadership contest has been dragging on for longer than the disgraced Boris Johnson’s eternal and undoubtedly lucrative goodbye.  I shouldn’t really care. We will still have a right-wing Tory government, whoever wins this marathon of mendacity.  My life won’t change very much, I doubt yours will.  Food banks won’t suddenly disappear - far from. Hard working families will still have to rely on food parcels and in-work benefits to feed their families.  The unprecedented pressure on the NHS won’t suddenly subside - what we used to call a “winter crisis” is now an all-year-long crisis and the private sector healthcare firms will still be filling their corporate boots, many of whom donate to the Conservative party coffers. Thousands of human beings will still be sleeping rough, millions of children will still be living in poverty, and billions of pounds of tax will still be avoided, perfectly legally, to the detriment of our vital public services