March 10, 2003
THIS IS NOT MY BEAUTIFUL WAR:
Is Labour fit to govern? (Daily Telegraph, 11/03/2003)Within a month, we should know whether Tony Blair stands comparison with Winston Churchill, or with Ramsay MacDonald. Will his resolution ensure that Britain can successfully take part in a war, renew the most important alliance in its history and rise above the carping short-sightedness of our two main EU partners?Or will an unpopular war break his hold over his party, offer an opening to the Conservatives and leave Britain friendless in a Europe that has decisively thrown off the American yoke?
In 1931, the first Labour prime minister was thought to have capitulated to the needs of capitalism in the slump. Will the latest, and hitherto most successful, of Labour prime ministers be dismissed for having slavishly prosecuted capitalism's war?
There seem to be many in the Labour Party who regard their leader as a traitor in MacDonald's mould. There is nothing about the coming war that they like. It is to be started by America and, worse, by a Republican president who, they believe, stole the election.
It is against a dictator who, though nasty, has the inestimable merit, in their eyes, of being Left-wing and anti-Israel. It is likely to take place without the support of that elusive "international community" of which they are such keen members.
It is opposed by UN panjandrums and Europhiles and bishops and Muslims and feminists and the BBC. And yet a Labour government is supporting it.
It is almost as if a Tory government were advocating the nationalisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party - it doesn't come naturally.
Which reminds us, for whatever reason, of this (perhaps a fit theme song for Labour in these confused times):
Once in a Lifetime (1984) (Talking Heads)Posted by Orrin Judd at March 10, 2003 10:07 PMAnd You May Find Yourself Living In A Shotgun Shack
And You May Find Yourself In Another Part Of The World
And You May Find Yourself Behind The Wheel Of A Large Automobile
And You May Find Yourself In A Beautiful House, With A Beautiful Wife
And You May Ask Yourself-Well...How Did I Get Here?Letting The Days Go By/let The Water Hold Me Down
Letting The Days Go By/water Flowing Underground
Into The Blue Again/after The Money's Gone
Once In A Lifetime/water Flowing Underground.And You May Ask Yourself
How Do I Work This?
And You May Ask Yourself
Where Is That Large Automobile?
And You May Tell Yourself
This Is Not My Beautiful House!
And You May Tell Yourself
This Is Not My Beautiful Wife!Letting The Days Go By/let The Water Hold Me Down
Letting The Days Go By/water Flowing Underground
Into The Blue Again/after The Money's Gone
Once In A Lifetime/water Flowing Underground.Same As It Ever Was...Same As It Ever Was...Same As It Ever Was...
Same As It Ever Was...Same As It Ever Was...Same As It Ever Was...
Same As It Ever Was...Same As It Ever Was...Water Dissolving...and Water Removing
There Is Water At The Bottom Of The Ocean
Carry The Water At The Bottom Of The Ocean
Remove The Water At The Bottom Of The Ocean!Letting The Days Go By/let The Water Hold Me Down
Letting The Days Go By/water Flowing Underground
Into The Blue Again/in The Silent Water
Under The Rocks And Stones/there Is Water Underground.Letting The Days Go By/let The Water Hold Me Down
Letting The Days Go By/water Flowing Underground
Into The Blue Again/after The Money's Gone
Once In A Lifetime/water Flowing Underground.And You May Ask Yourself
What Is That Beautiful House?
And You May Ask Yourself
Where Does That Highway Go?
And You May Ask Yourself
Am I Right?...Am I Wrong?
And You May Tell Yourself
MY GOD!...WHAT HAVE I DONE?Letting The Days Go By/let The Water Hold Me Down
Letting The Days Go By/water Flowing Underground
Into The Blue Again/in The Silent Water
Under The Rocks And Stones/there Is Water Underground.Letting The Days Go By/let The Water Hold Me Down
Letting The Days Go By/water Flowing Underground
Into The Blue Again/after The Money's Gone
Once In A Lifetime/water Flowing Underground.Same As It Ever Was...Same As It Ever Was...Same As It Ever Was...
Same As It Ever Was...Same As It Ever Was...Same As It Ever Was...
Same As It Ever Was...Same As It Ever Was...
Remarkable that they actually think of Saddam as "Left-wing." Perhaps the world is clarifying its ideologies, and the left is becoming openly philotyrannic.
Posted by: pj at March 10, 2003 10:38 PMSaddam is by definition left wing,
AND progressive, simply because he opposes, and is opposed by that "right wing neanderthal" in the White House. Saddam's desire to annihilate Israel (once more, the progressive in him) and his close relations with Arafat are also quite useful in this regard.
No, it's not all that difficult to become a darling of the left.
Kim's working hard at it, but he's at a huge disadvantage in that it's not easy for him to directly engage Israel, though he can provide the hardware.
The money quote in there is that today's British Left still considers that Macdonald sold out the pacifists in 1931.
Well, so he did, reluctantly, in the sense that from that point on he, and later Baldwin, abandoned the process of complete disarmament that Britain had embarked on after 1922. As it was, the UK just barely had enough weapons to preserve itself in 1940-41.
Presumably, the long list of opinion leaders mentioned in this essay regards that as deplorable.