howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
from a traditional blue columnist in the the telegraph.
It has taken me more than 30 years as a journalist to ask myself this question, but this week I find that I must: is the Left right after all? You see, one of the great arguments of the Left is that what the Right calls "the free market" is actually a set-up.
The rich run a global system that allows them to accumulate capital and pay the lowest possible price for labour. The freedom that results applies only to them. The many simply have to work harder, in conditions that grow ever more insecure, to enrich the few. Democratic politics, which purports to enrich the many, is actually in the pocket of those bankers, media barons and other moguls who run and own everything.
In the 1970s and 1980s, it was easy to refute this line of reasoning because it was obvious, particularly in Britain, that it was the trade unions that were holding people back. Bad jobs were protected and good ones could not be created. "Industrial action" did not mean producing goods and services that people wanted to buy, it meant going on strike. The most visible form of worker oppression was picketing. The most important thing about Arthur Scargill's disastrous miners' strike was that he always refused to hold a ballot on it.
A key symptom of popular disillusionment with the Left was the moment, in the late 1970s, when the circulation of Rupert Murdoch's Thatcher-supporting Sun overtook that of the ever-Labour Daily Mirror. Working people wanted to throw off the chains that Karl Marx had claimed were shackling them - and join the bourgeoisie which he hated. Their analysis of their situation was essentially correct. The increasing prosperity and freedom of the ensuing 20 years proved them right.
But as we have surveyed the Murdoch scandal of the past fortnight, few could deny that it has revealed how an international company has bullied and bought its way to control of party leaderships, police forces and regulatory processes. David Cameron, escaping skilfully from the tight corner into which he had got himself, admitted as much. Mr Murdoch himself, like a tired old Godfather, told the House of Commons media committee on Tuesday that he was so often courted by prime ministers that he wished they would leave him alone.
Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
Thank you Marek - I am still a techno-crap!!!
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
blimey howard
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
technophobe myself bern, that is why i just copy and paste if i had copied the full article it would have taken up too much space.
slap yourself on the back keith, barry will be congratulating you next time he logs on.
best to have a membership card to hand.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
he might make sure the kettles on
not sure what he would put in the coffee though lol
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Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
I don't agree at all, it's a lot of nonsense - no one keeps anyone down who has had a good education and it doesn't need a degree.
For an ordered society, there are always those who lead and those who follow and learn how to lead, then it's their turn - whatever level of society you aspire to.
I left school at 15 with no "O" levels. I got a job at a builders merchants and went to a College of Further education in St. Albans, where I was born and brought up - in a Council house, to get some qualifications - which I eventually did.
I had several jobs, each one a little better than the one before, until I got a job with NatWest at their computer centre in London, where I worked for over 24 years.
I had an unpolitical/non-political upbringing, it was a Council house area, where everyone was the same, but the Fathers worked, Mums brought up the kids.
There was no oppression, no big magnates keeping us down; all my brothers and sisters got jobs and worked well.
If you work at a decent education, it will be the key to freedom: freedom from poverty, freedom from boredom and frredom to do what you want to do, to realise your dreams.
There's always someone better off than you, as there are people worse off than you.
I'm comfortable where I am, because I have worked for it.
Roger
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Nice one Roger. That philosophy is at the core of decent people of all political leanings with the exception of certain fringe groups.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
getting back to rogers post no.8. he mentions that there was no oppression then.
that is the main core of the thread starter, the writer agrees that there was none then rather a lot now though.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
Oppression on whom Howard and by whom ?
Roger
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
the link is not working roger and the telegraph website has taken it off, so cannot add anything.
the last paragraph in the original post is a pointer to where the argument was going.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
interesting posts though
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