DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived post-Murdoch era

i'm by no means a brand cheerleader (can't bring myself to watch the 10min interview or read the zillion-word unedited screed tbh) but that lustig blog is pure distilled establishment reactionary that makes me want to shout NO, YOU HAVE FOBBED US OFF WITH THIS BULLSHIT ENOUGH, YOUR TIME IS DONE

^

it's also snobbish & dismissive

ya. comparing our current electoral situation to one in which black south africans could vote for the anc is ermmm a little bit disingenuous at least. i'm really not sure what him or paxman are looking for from brand. why isn't a call to organise a valid starting point?

The question is: organise what? When pressed by Paxman on what exactly he would do, RB fell back on our old friend Communism, which has repeatedly proven so successful over the last century.

In other words, he has a great grasp of the problem but I'm not convinced that he has a feasible solution.

I don't really expect Russell Brand to have a solution to the fundamental political problems of our era

^ this

http://www.channel4.com/news/russell-brand-jeremy-paxman-anti-capitalist-revolution-bbc

^^^ This is better.

this is quite a serious discussion about a new statesman piece that talks about nothing in particular

"To genuinely make a difference, we must become different; make the tiny, longitudinal shift. Meditate, direct our love indiscriminately and our condemnation exclusively at those with power. Revolt in whatever way we want, with the spontaneity of the London rioters, with the certainty and willingness to die of religious fundamentalists or with the twinkling mischief of the trickster. We should include everyone, judging no one, without harming anyone."

So how does RB propose people make like rioters or 9/11 bombers "without harming anyone"?

xps i don't disagree marcello, but neither paxman or lustig seem particularly interested in the problem that he's grasped and that he's providing a v rare mainstream voice for. lots of people are thinking hard about the question of what kinds of organisation would be suitable and adequate for this kind of far left project - e.g. http://novaramedia.com/2013/07/turn-out-dont-burn-out-four-suggested-projects/ - and if brand can be someone who helps people see that this kind of thing is happening, then, gr8.

It's all a bit Let's Levitate the Pentagon

NI you seem very confident that Labour will reconfigure society

― HAVE YOU SEEN ME? Please don't hesitate (imago), Thursday, October 24, 2013 8:32 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you read too much into it, i'm at least confident labour won't continue hammering the poor & weak in favour of their rich mates in londontown, or at least to the same degree. this really need to spelled out?

Yvette Cooper said this week that a Labour government wouldn't repeal the coalition's Immigration Act. So she and they can go fuck themselves. I think this isn't being spelt out enough.

what should i do to get the immigration act repealed?

my options currently appears to be:
- vote for someone
- don't vote
- shag russell brand

or moan about russell brand's audacity to write a shit article on new statesman

It's a bamboozlement, for sure.

i'm at least confident labour won't continue hammering the poor & weak in favour of their rich mates in londontown

I thought they were promising to be tougher on Welfare?

with the certainty and willingness to die of religious fundamentalists

This is a thoroughly bizarre line.

we should also judge no one which should really include politicians

The whole paragraph is a shocker really. After saying several things that are true but were widely discussed during Occupy and similar post-2008 movements, he kind of craps out at the end. I'm surprised he's had such a glowing reception for this.

i'm at least confident labour won't continue hammering the poor & weak in favour of their rich mates in londontown, or at least to the same degree.

THEY'VE GOT MY VOTE

"A New Britain In Which Government Doesn't Continue to Hammer the Poor and Weak to the Same Degree"

the main political action that anybody can take thru our electoral system today is to deny the existing parties credibility by not supporting them

the main political action that anybody can take thru our electoral system today is to deny the existing parties credibility by not supporting them

this hasn't stopped them acting as if they have credibility for the past decade-plus

(i completely agree)

neither paxman or lustig seem particularly interested in the problem that he's grasped and that he's providing a v rare mainstream voice for

^^this is the crux of the matter really - i don't even consider paxman a particularly awful example of the establishment but it's telling that even he can't seem to understand the problem

brand himself is a hugely flawed figure of course (MISOGYNY ALERT x a milli, for starters) but christ knows having these ideas injected into the mainstream can't be a bad thing, as eye-rolly as the presentation might be

paxman is a particularly awful example of the establishment

i more or less hate Brand but i respect him to a degree for at least attempting to use his public presence to talk about this

‘Labour will be tougher than the Tories when it comes to slashing the benefits bill, Rachel Reeves, the new shadow work and pensions secretary, has insisted in her first interview since winning promotion in Ed Miliband’s frontbench reshuffle.

The 34-year-old Reeves, who is seen by many as a possible future party leader, said that under Labour the long-term unemployed would not be able to “linger on benefits” for long periods but would have to take up a guaranteed job offer or lose their state support.

what are "these ideas" though really aside from "fight the war fuck the norm" which we already got from zach de la rocha in the 90s

Yeah, agree tho don't hate him just can't discern what his talent is (xxxp)

not sure if brand does even more damage by appearing as a the sort of lefty a right-winger would caricature. i mean that was basically his role on newsnight, as a caricature.

it's one of the tragedies of being a lefty that most of us are open to caricature to some degree, when we talk about political beliefs

caricature is inherently reactionary and we'd do well to avoid it

probably same for a righty tbf

xpost

Where oh where are the easily-caricaturable right-wingers?

^^

righties happily caricature themselves

can't imagine any reductive cartoon posture that a Peter Hitchens wdn't happily adopt

Where oh where are the easily-caricaturable right-wingers?

in government

anyway, the fact that someone has to be famous to be left wing on newsnight is problematic in itself. the fact that someone has to be utterly removed from politics (with no likelihood of ever being seriously involved in it) to even espouse notions of simple idealism like eg "equality" on bbc.

i think the main problem is that we've all become victims of the in house drive-by

they say "jump", and we'd say, "how high?"

anyway, the fact that someone has to be famous to be left wing on newsnight is problematic in itself. the fact that someone has to be utterly removed from politics (with no likelihood of ever being seriously involved in it) to even espouse notions of simple idealism like eg "equality" on bbc.

― Legitimate space tale (LocalGarda), Thursday, October 24, 2013 3:31 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

painfully otm

because those notions are deemed the notions of a rockstar, not a politician.

I mean the biggest problem the British left has right now is not one of emotional resonance or even economic understanding but a more nebulous "credibility". Obviously the question that follows is "credibility with WHO?" are eventually the people able to bestow that credibility will die off or be seen as irrelevant but yeah it would be better to have these arguments brought into the mainstream by people who don't come over as overgrown children.

You could argue that they're in the mainstream anyway, and that it's the BBC that's behind here.

as one grows up one comes to accept that the poor will always need grinding

no they can grind themmselves.

the rich upgrade to grindr premium

xp No that's not true. You do get left-wing politicians and pundits on Newsnight, albeit drawn from a small pool. They used to employ Paul Mason, ffs, who specialised in covering this stuff.

Brand just proves that a celebrity delivering vague yet stirring we-can-build-a-better-world rhetoric generates more buzz than an activist or union rep trying to get to grips with the details. Of course it's exciting if you sound like a randy cockney version of the guy at the beginning of Kick Out the Jams.