[A-List] Islip Political Newsletter for June 2010

[Midhurst14 at aol.com]

Islip  Political Newsletter
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Thanks to the conjunction of local council voting with the parliamentary  
voting, on May 6th, which is always higher, usually advantageous to Labour,  
there were considerable gains in the borough councils for Labour, which 
gained  415 seats since the last election, in­creasing its number of 
councillors to  2,945 - its best performance since the party's landslide victory in 
1997.   
Labour has also gained control of 17 councils across the country, 10  of 
which are in London, bringing the total number of local authorities under its  
control to 40.  
Most notably in Barking and Dagenham where the BNP were totally wiped  out, 
restoring a 100% Labour council, Islington where Labour gained a 24 seat  
majority and Camden gaining a 30 seat majority. 
This is a good base for the fight back to restore Labour to victory  at the 
next general election, given of course they have a leader totally  
committed to ditching the New Labour project; that unfortunate episode, losing  the 
Labour Party five million votes nationally. 
Whatever Chou en Lai meant when asked about the impact of the French  
Revolution, he replied “It is too early too say”, it has certainly had a current 
 response in the minds and writings of the supporters of the “acceptable 
face of  capitalism”. 
For example, the historian Simon Schama revealed his thoughts on the  
conundrum in the Financial Times of May 22nd. 
The world teeters on the brink of a new age of rage, he wrote, Historians 
will tell you there is often a time-lag between the onset  of economic 
disaster and the accumulation of social fury. Objectively, economic  conditions 
might be improving, but perceptions are everything and a breathing  space 
gives room for a dangerously alienated public to take stock of the brutal  
interruptions of their rising expectations. The stock epithet of the French  
Revolution gave to the financiers who were blamed for disaster was "rich  
egoists". In the France of 1789, the erstwhile nobility became regular  citizens, 
ended their exemption from the land tax, made a show of abolishing  their 
own privileges, turned in jewellery for the public treasury; while the  
clergy's immense estates were auctioned for La Nation. 
So we face a tinderbox moment; a test of the strength of democratic  
institutions in a time of extreme fiscal stress. 
For instance, he went on, The best way to understand the US Tea Party, is 
to see it as akin  to the Great Awakenings and the Populist furies  of the 
end of the 19th century. These  radio demisers are pitch-perfect orchestrators 
of hatred for listeners in  bewildered economic distress, he concluded. 
These thoughts echo my own as I follow the events in Thailand and  Greece, 
the latter which I see as a dress rehearsal for revolution, and similar  to 
the events in Russia in 1905. 
In the same day issue of May 22nd the employing class worries and  open 
concerns were revealed on three different subjects. 
For instance, The Palais de Tokyo director advised the thieves who stole 
five  paintings worth €100mn, "You cannot do anything with these paintings; 
return  them” Sadly this is not the case. Art is frequently used as collateral 
for  drugs, weapons and money laundering. One of the most pristine examples 
of a free  market is the black market 
Next, this time on selling short. Politicians hope to prop up the markets 
when they attack short  sellers, and the evidence from history suggests there 
can be short-term  gains. 
But in the long run, short-selling bans do nothing to stop markets  
plunging. 
Short sellers are in the business of betting on falling prices; they  
borrow and sell shares they expect to fall in price, hoping to buy them back for  
less. 
Historically, bans have come and gone since1609, when the Dutch East  India 
Company complained about short sellers-just seven years after it became  
the first listed company. 
This week, Germany, banned "naked" short selling in 10 local  financial 
stocks 
For the first time it also banned naked shorts and credit default  swap 
positions on sovereign debt, a way of betting that bond prices will fall.  
Yesterday the Netherlands called for similar limits. More may  follow. 
Finally, When the Senate and House versions of the US finance bill are 
finally  mashed together, the probability of another crisis will not fall one 
jot from  where it will always be; 100%. New legislation never works because 
it is  invariably backward looking-no one knows from what quiet corner the 
next monster  will emerge. It is a pity US politicians have wasted so much 
effort doing the  wrong things. 
So as I contemplate revolution, and see Cameron and Clegg canoodling  on 
the front bench for the benefit of all when in fact they have less in common  
than they have a mutual interest. Osborne for instance worked in the Tory 
head  office at the beginning of his political career on developing strategies 
to  destroy the Lib Dems. I therefore view their antics as window dressing. 
as  Cameron tries to re-introduce “one-nation Toryism”, and see this only 
as a  temporary setback to the advance to Socialism, along with our European 
allies,  here in Britain. 
And I shan’t be turning to nitwits employed by Harvard University for  
guidance either, since one such luminary can make statements like the one  
below, 
The ideology of communism is long gone-Joseph Nye-University Distinguished 
professor at  Harvard. 
Almost as bad as Philip Stephens, senior leader writer for the Financial 
Times “Anybody but Livingstone” remark and repeated several times. 
Another such gem, this time in the field of climate change, in the  book, 
Turned Out Nice; How the British Isles Will Change as the World  Heats Up- by 
Marek Kohn, also promising future Britons an apocalypse  described as, An 
exploding population will lead, for many, to “superdense” living  of the 
sort experienced in the poorer tenements of Naples or Marseille.  Especially 
blighted areas will be occupied by climate refugees who work as  servants for 
the propertied classes. And other such horrors, in an Observer book review 
of May 23rd. 
All of course against the background of an economy which as The Observer of 
May 30th reminded us could be a repeat of the Great  Depression. 
The bull market on Wall Street began in 1923 and led to an  unprecedented 
period of share trading.However, by 1929 there were signs of  instability.The 
bubble finally burst on 24 October 1929. A then record 13mn  shares were 
traded, with losses as high as $5bn. Worse followed on 28 October  when US 
markets went into freefall and the contagion spread around the world and  the 
market recorded $14bn in paper losses. July 1932 reached the lowest point of  
the Great Depression. Global unemployment rose for years and it took 23 
years  for the US market to recover. 
It’s also currently about the elephant in the room that is Europe,  now 
seen in an alarming light by Europhile Will Hutton. 
Europe has just six weeks to save the euro from complete collapse.The  
future of Europe is in the balance.Europeans need to become more German and if  
they don't they should leave the EU. 
So we move into a new situation, characterised by yours truly in a  May 
30th message to Jeremy Corbyn, fellow optimists and MPs who then had yet to  
decide on who to nominate for Labour leader. 
After a mere 24 days since the General Election, the Laws resignation  must 
mean the beginning of the end for the coalition. Along with the collision  
between the left and right in the Tory party over the Capital Gains Tax, 
Cameron  must now be finding it difficult to hold the coalition together. The 
front  running Miliband twerps offer only a continuation of Blairism and the 
New Labour  Project.  
Only the other three candidates, Abbot, Balls and Burnham offer an  
opportunity for a break with the past. Let us therefore campaign in the three  arms 
of Labour Party voting, the unions, constituencies and Labour MPs to make  
the best choice.   


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