howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#1
Stumbled across this and have to say that the report is deadly accurate as I was at that meeting on a sweltering July evening.
https://www.redpepper.org.uk/labour-and-reselection-the-panic-last-time/Weird Granny Slater
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 3,095
#2
Certainly that 'moribund' description matches my brief experience as a party member in the early 80s. My local branch members were more interested in the raffle than in revolution, and neither the four horse-people of the SDP nor the wicked witch could get them off their collective aris. It would have been ripe for new energy, but I was thoroughly disheartened by it and, happy to say, it put me off party politics forever. Got to say Michael Foot gave a decent election speech at the Girls' Grammar though.
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#3
The press lapped it up describing those present as reds/trots/commies living in bedsits. Me and the Mrs were in the process of buying our first house, most of the rest were family people that worked in the docks, on the railway or for the gas board. There were a couple of teachers so they could be classed as dangerous intellectuals!!
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 3,095
#4
1975. 2018. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Bold caricature sells but the subtleties of character make uncomfortable reading. The parliamentary parties offer quid pro quo as it confirms them as the 'reasonable' option and paints opposition as 'extreme', thus helping to reinforce the convenient status quo.
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
