LOL

+Up until about a week ago, nobody had heard of Jamie Driscoll, the Labour executive mayor of North Tyneside. But now a lot more people have, thanks to his disbarment by Labour to get his name onto the shortlist for a newly created regional mayor candidacy in his area. By all accounts Driscoll has been successful in his last four years as mayor, but his crime, in the eyes of the anonymous puffed up pigeons who control these things, is that he shared a platform with Ken Loach, the film director who was expelled from Labour a while back for not toeing the party line. Other Labour mayors have come to Driscoll’s defence. That I’m sure will be held against them for future reference. This affair I think is one of the most dispiriting developments yet in the sorry tale of Keir Starmer’s pathetic ‘leadership.’ Purge, purge, purge—such things have always happened (I know from experience) but never on the  industrial scale now mounted. Is this a formula for electoral success? I doubt it. Such moves test the patience of members who normally would throw themselves into the electoral battle. The only thing remaining to speak positively about is ‘Well, we could be a bit better than the Tories’ or—maybe wishful thinking here—Labour’s collective social conscience is stronger than theirs. It’s not a lot to go on, but it’s just sufficient to keep the spirit alive.
 
Frankly, despite the desire of candidates up and down the country to get local party members out door knocking, I suspect that the central party doesn’t care about that as much as what they can purchase on social media. It is clear that members can be a bit of nuisance, and may (horror upon horrors!) have independent views as to how society ought to be organised. Yesterday I referenced a quote taken from a book by Tom Baldwin, Ctrl Alt Delete. This book is invaluable in its dissection of the current decrepit nature of our politics, and I will return to it. I don’t think I have read a better account of how things are going, even if it was published five years ago. It charts a destructive curve we are still on—and which those in power don’t know how to escape.
 
+Anyway, here’s another quote taken from Baldwin’s book that made me laugh out loud (for some reason):
 
‘One journalist, who insists on speaking anonymously, complains  ‘I might ask Jeremy Corbyn about his position on Brexit and he’ll reply by saying ‘”Well, what I really want is world peace.” I’ll try again and he’ll say “I find it very strange you don’t seem interested in asking me about world peace.” You never know if the trolls will emerge– and what began as a perfectly reasonable question will end up with me then hating world peace.’
 
Which is to beg the question ‘What is the real question?’ As ever, in politics, the real question is too often beyond what is considered reasonable. Cheerio Jeremy!