Richard has dug out George Orwell’s “STATEMENT ON ‘NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR” and has reproduced it for your consumption, here.
Good work Richard. A true gem.
Archive | April, 2007
Roy & Me
30 AprI haven’t congratulated my beloved Sunderland AFC for their recent promotion on the blog yet, maybe I have been a little too obsessed with the Cricket, but here goes…
C’mon you Mackems!
Roy Keane has of course been brilliant. Promotion began to seem inevitable as we kept coming from behind and pushing for the win.
And, it seems, that Roy and I share a love of green tea: –
“I just drank plenty of green tea – that was my way of celebrating. I’m delighted, but everyone celebrates in different ways, my way is just chilling out at home.”
Anytime you want to pop around for a brew Roy, just ask… oh, and thanks. Brilliant.
A bad week for democracy
30 AprHaving read the investigation in The Sunday Times about alleged voter fraud in Leeds, I’m torn between disenchantment and mild scepticism.
I think one should be sceptical of newspaper articles. But this is not the first time Labour’s tactics have been called into question. We all know the sort of tricks the Lib Dems get up to, so it’s only right that Labour supporters take allegations against their own party seriously.
The question I ask those who look to cheat the system is: why are you in politics?
If Graham Hyde and Keith Wakefield are guilty of perverting the course of democracy, to ensure Labour success next month, what is their wider political motivation?
Are these people so tribal that they’d happily win through fraudulent means? Clearly, as we have seen in the States, many people are indeed happy to win through deception. This is very dangerous.
The Loans for Peerages scandal, which is yet to be taken to the prosecution stage, is a perfect example of how the political establishment are undermining the very system that gives them power. Can Labour actually, physically contemplate defeat?
Last year Labour was delivered a bloody nose in the local elections, but it was not a knockout punch. This year, another big right-hander – possibly including losing control of Holyrood, would mean Labour is in serious electoral meltdown. Mind you, even by considering such a defeat, Labour is indicating the extent of its woes.
Personally, I’d rather Labour lose than know we won by perverting the democratic system. Maybe I’m a naïve idealist, but for me, politics is about representation, not power for power’s sake.
Another article that has been brought to my attention (hat-tip anticant) is this post on Craig Murray’s blog. Murray accuses party apparatchiks, placed within Dundee University, of not only politicising the mechanics of the university governance, but of also allowing Scottish First Minister, Jack McConell, to make political capital from a proposed tie-up between the Uni and The V&A Museum. Murray explains: –
That really is too much. This has nothing to do with New Labour – the discussions have been between the University and the V&A. To try to use this University initiative to New Labour advantage is completely illegitimate. The University of course sits in Dundee West, a key Labour/SNP marginal. I therefore said at Court that the University needed to be careful to avoid identification with any political party.
For all the talk of Gordon Brown’s Stalinist approach at the Treasury, it appears that wider New Labour machine needs no advice on how to politicise every facet of public life. Are all our universities infiltrated by scores of happy apparatchiks? It makes you wonder.
Stories such as Murray’s make me very concerned about democracy. Britain’s dire electoral turnout already tells you everything you need to know about the public perception of politics and politicians.
Ask half-a-dozen people in the street and I’ll guarantee you’ll get a couple that say “they’re all the same – only in it for themselves†(or some variation on this sentiment). It’s been said a thousand times – and is becoming yet another tired media cliché, but many people genuinely care more about reality TV than reality in Westminster.
And how do politicians respond to massive disillusionment among the electorate? Do they rediscover their ideology, apply it to today’s specific challenges, and look to sell it to a new generation, or do they pervert both the message and the system in a desperate attempt to cling to power?
We now have our answer.
SALE! ‘World Class’ goalkeeper just €71.00
29 AprA disgruntled AC Milan fan attempted to eBay the team’s Brazilian goalkeeper following the poor bloke’s series of blunders which saw Manchester United celebrate a 3-2 win in the first leg of the Champions League semis, Reuters reports.
[…]
Users of the world’s favourite tat bazaar seem to agree with the prevailing opinion of Dida’s form. The bidding had reached just €71 before eBay blew the final whistle on the auction earlier today.
Quite how Milan has put up with one of the most overrated keepers of his generation (and there are a few) for so long is beyond me.
Pissing on the memory of Allied war dead
28 AprEstonia, our recently welcomed EU partner, is in the midst of a potentially violent controversy between the government and its ethnic Russian minority (about 26% of the population).
The government has removed a bronze statue of a Soviet soldier in the capital, Tallinn, and plans to excavate the buried fallen entombed below. The move has led to an ongoing demonstration by angered Russo-Estonians in the city. Hundreds have been arrested, and Moscow is considering severing all diplomatic relations with the Estonian government.
It should be remembered at this point that many Estonians were complicit with the fascist Nazi war machine of the early forties. Indeed, the Waffen-SS drew heavily from the supportive Estonian population. Over the past few years, Nazi-sympathisers have worked to have The Monument of Lihula, a tribute to the Estonians who died fighting for the Germans, erected in the country.
Estonia has also dismissed evidence provided by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, the Jewish human rights organisation that exposes Nazi war criminals, on numerous Estonian citizens.
This is not a pro-Soviet post. Many Estonians saw the Nazis as liberators (they had been occupied by the Red Army for almost a year when the Germans arrived), and the collapse of Germany in 1945 ushered in 50-years of Soviet rule. No tears are spilt remembering the USSR on this blog, but it does appear that Estonia is somewhat proud of its Nazi collaborating past, and is prepared to fracture relations with its ethnic-Russian citizens, as it erases their contribution to WW2.
25 million Soviets died during the war years, a contribution that is often forgotten in the West. Had the USSR capitulated in front of the Nazi war-machine, it’s hard to imagine that the Allied attack would have succeeded on the Western Front.
tygerland archive 