[imposs1904]

I know it sounds trite but capitalist politics boils down sometimes to nothing more than a popularity contest, and Starmer has never had that ‘It Factor’, that likeability. I would be genuinely surprised if he was able to turn around his own personal popularity rating to any significant degree.

He’s a liability for Labour at this point. What’s troubling for Labour is that there’s no popular figure at hand within their ranks to step into his shoes.

(That’s enough cliches for one post.)

[imposs1904]

“. . . the over overriding message on the door step was anti Starmer and rightly so.”

I called it. I said in various SPGB Zoom Meetings that Starmer was always a liability for Labour. The question is: will he get ditched by his ‘friends’ and colleagues before the next election?

I still think this could be a one-term Labour govt.

If Farage wants it enough – and I’m not sure on that point, tbh – he could be the next UK Prime Minister.

• This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by imposs1904.

[imposs1904]

An absolute banger from back in the day:

[imposs1904]

The late Ron Elbert really was a funny writer when he turned his mind/pen to it.

From the WSPUS journal, the World Socialist Review, in 1993, the short story, ‘Talking about a revolution. No apologies to Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin or Mao!’:

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2024/12/talking-about-revolution-no-apologies.html

[imposs1904]

This should have been posted on the thread about a week ago.

The Coup’s 2001 classic “5 Million Ways to Kill a C.E.O.”

• This reply was modified 5 months ago by imposs1904.

[imposs1904]

Following on from Friday’s Zoom meeting about the Life and Times of the Socialist Standard, here’s a link to The Place Where I Live articles from the mid-1980s that I mentioned in the meeting:

October 1983: Black Country blues by Ron Cook (West Bromwich)
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2015/07/black-country-blues-1983.html

February 1984: Mancunian monument by John Critchfield (Manchester)
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2015/09/mancunian-monument-1984.html

March 1984: From market town . . . by Les Dale (Basingstoke)
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2015/10/from-market-town-1984.html

January 1985: On Moscow’s hit-list by Pieter Lawrence (Tatsfield, Kent)
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2015/09/on-moscows-hit-list-1985.html

February 1985: Where there’s muck . . . by Richard Cooper (Yorkshire Dales)
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2016/02/where-theres-muck-1985.html

May 1985: Glorious Aldershot by John Armstrong (Aldershot)
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2015/07/glorious-aldershot-1985.html

August 1986: Capitalism in the Peak District by Carl Pinel (Peak District, Derbyshire)
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2016/12/capitalism-in-peak-district-1986.html

All interesting articles. Worth a read.

[imposs1904]

Following on from Mike Foster’s zoom talk last Friday on political comedy, one of my favourite current comedians, Bill Burr, chimes in on the CEO being assassinated in Manhattan:

[imposs1904]

I’m just scanning in the November 1981 Socialist Standard, and I think this is a terrific article from that issue:

Are socialists utopians? by Clifford Slapper

http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2024/11/are-socialists-utopians.html

I never knew that passage from Chaucer.

[imposs1904]

“It is true that the Greens only stood a paper candidate. No leaflets and just one letter in the local media. They didn’t seem to want to win.”

Kind of cynical when you think about it.

[imposs1904]

Fair play to the comrades who worked on the campaign.

I won’t lie. I’m a little disappointed that we weren’t able to get more votes than the guy from Phoenix Nights.

[imposs1904]

The late Ralph Critchfield – ‘Ivan’ in the Socialist Standard – really was a terrific writer.

An excellent article of his from 1965 on the Labour Left that’s just been scanned in. Totally on point:

http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2024/11/confusion-on-left-1965.html

[imposs1904]

Genuinely shocked that I haven’t posted this before. This would be my walk on song for the darts.

Cardiacs – Is This The Life

[imposs1904]

Kylie Minogue covering Prefab Sprout:

[imposs1904]

There’s not enough German hi-energy euro-pop on this thread.
Posting this unironically. This is a stone called classic.

Anyone recognise the tune they’ve *cough* lifted.

[imposs1904]

This is an interesting long read from the London Review of Books from 2010 on the evolution of the RCP. I know the article is nearly 15 years old but it does give a lot of interesting background on them:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n13/jenny-turner/who-are-they

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