tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36841665.post4849840677458157779..comments2023-12-31T13:47:05.758+00:00Comments on Fat Man on a Keyboard: Putting the liberal in the liberal leftThe Plumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244528534476387323noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36841665.post-13653418909139878562008-09-03T13:06:00.000+01:002008-09-03T13:06:00.000+01:00"I expect the 'dire situation' existing then was m..."I expect the 'dire situation' existing then was much tougher elsewhere."<BR/><BR/>Hence why our host says "Labour finds itself" not "the UK finds itself". Things indeed aren't at all bad for the country - but the party's 20 points behind in the polls, which is pretty damn disastrous...John Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17024263999778310292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36841665.post-29728891136954395522008-09-03T12:37:00.000+01:002008-09-03T12:37:00.000+01:00The whole spectrum from Nick Cohen to David Marqua...The whole spectrum from Nick Cohen to David Marquand? That's like the whole Atlantic, from Dover to Calais!Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17153530634675543954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36841665.post-24553866639438166372008-09-03T09:13:00.000+01:002008-09-03T09:13:00.000+01:00"In an attempt to find some way to recover from th..."In an attempt to find some way to recover from the dire situation Labour finds itself in, etc.,"<BR/><BR/>What dire situation is this? I have recently been touring in the UK. Everywhere (almost) signs of wealth, borrowed or otherwise and improvements. Places where a stale sandwich and everything shut at five o'clock were the norm twenty years ago have developed café society and haut cusine!<BR/><BR/>At one stop in a cupboard I came across a memory of long ago: Used as a storage container now stood a large tin with a faded label "National Dried Milk". I remember walking (we had no money for the buses) with my Mother to collect this luxury item, through dingy streets of abandoned premises and boarded up bomb damaged buildings where, in a draughty dark office, people dressed in long black clothes and looking down at me through half moon glasses handed over our share of the Second Labour Government's largesse. This was London in 1949-51. I expect the 'dire situation' existing then was much tougher elsewhere.<BR/><BR/>People who do not have to worry about where their next meal is coming from – I am myself overweight – do not relapse into pleasant reverie today, but bilious discontent. It is this phenomenon aided by a reckless media which is dire.<BR/><BR/><BR/>I remember David Marquand giving interviews around the time of the Gang of Four. Not a pleasant memory. Even with the active encouragement and support of broadcast interviewers anxious to prove their own Thatcherite credentials his was a mediocre performance. But he served his purpose.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com