Happy frame of mind?

[Jazzrook]

Recorded in 1963 but not issued until 1976 here's the title-track from Horace Parlan's overlooked BLUE NOTE album 'Happy Frame of Mind'(not for me after the election!) with the great Booker Ervin & Johnny Coles: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XxkVDO8M1c

[PUSB]

Recorded in 1963 but not issued until 1976 here's the title-track from Horace Parlan's overlooked BLUE NOTE album 'Happy Frame of Mind'(not for me after the election!) with the great Booker Ervin & Johnny Coles: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XxkVDO8M1c

We need a lot of cheering up after last night - what on earth were some people thinking when they voted for the loathsome Tories?

[Serial_Apologist]

We need a lot of cheering up after last night - what on earth were some people thinking when they voted for the loathsome Tories?

Themselves - however misguidedly?

BTW I've always wondered what your initials stand for: public sector broadcasting?

[PUSB]

It is a football reference - Play up Sky Blues (Coventry City).

[PUSB]

Presumably a lot of unhappiness in British jazz after jazz for Labour. I would have thought there will be even less help for the music in the second term of this government.

[Serial_Apologist]

More and more will depend on the youngsters getting together and sustaining the scene - like this lot - and I don't know what the jazz scene is like in Coventry, which I presume is your manor?

http://theoxfordjazz.com

[Ian Thumwood]

The general consensus amongst my colleagues at work today that a disaster had been averted in that Labour were not swept in to power. There was a palpable feeling of relief that Miliband did not get in.

Part of my agrees with this as I think he would have been a disaster. I could not bring myself to vote for him and chose the only alternative "progressive" party available to me. The problem with Labour is that they stand for nothing. The best option was, unfortunately, not available to the English as Nicola Sturgeon seemed by far the most credible leader. Alec Salmond has the kind of face you want to hit and it is easy to see why he rubbed the English up. Under Sturgeon the SNP have a far softer and more credible edge, a sense of purpose and identity which Labour has not had since the 1970's and the ability to conger up the imagination of a whole nation. Labour got tonked because the SNP effectively stole their ground.

I think that we now live in a fascinating political era. The Tories have inherited a poisoned chalice and when the economy suffers from stagflation and the consequences of quitting the EU come home to roost, most English people will wish they were Scottish. The Tories got in purely by the kind of Nationalism displayed by UKIP as they demonised the SNP and a nation which had recovered it's sense of what democracy was about . It will be good if the UK fragments as the former components will then need to be more involved in the EU and broader constitutional questions can then be asked about such issues as monarchy. Westminster no longer has an political mandate in Scotland and the Scottish MPs should quite rightly contest all Tory legislation where it will impinge upon Scotland. This effectively means challenging every vote.

The interview on Radio 4 tonight with Tristan Hunt was illuminated as we suggested that Labour need to appeal to people's aspirations. This is precisely what it should not be doing as it will turn it in to another Conservative party. The Liberals got their just desserts after aligning themselves with the devil five years ago. If the Labour Party wants to become relevant, it needs to step away from electing freak-show leaders like Miliband and get some genuine Working Class people involved. It must re-connect with the people just as the SNP has done and the ridiculous debacle of campaigning with laughing stock celebrities like Eddie Izzard must stop and campaigning with ordinary people that the voters can recognise with must start. There are too many Oxford types in all the parties but in a left leaning party like Labour this just seems too intellectual and false and alienating.

Coventry City are almost more of a basket case than Red Ed. I'ms glad SISA didn't take over Saints but chose the Sky Blues instead. And to find yourselves not playing at the Ricoh Arena ...... surely one of the greatest signs that the sport has taken leave of it's sense.

[PUSB]

The general consensus amongst my colleagues at work today that a disaster had been averted in that Labour were not swept in to power. There was a palpable feeling of relief that Miliband did not get in.

Part of my agrees with this as I think he would have been a disaster. I could not bring myself to vote for him and chose the only alternative "progressive" party available to me. The problem with Labour is that they stand for nothing. The best option was, unfortunately, not available to the English as Nicola Sturgeon seemed by far the most credible leader. Alec Salmond has the kind of face you want to hit and it is easy to see why he rubbed the English up. Under Sturgeon the SNP have a far softer and more credible edge, a sense of purpose and identity which Labour has not had since the 1970's and the ability to conger up the imagination of a whole nation. Labour got tonked because the SNP effectively stole their ground.

I think that we now live in a fascinating political era. The Tories have inherited a poisoned chalice and when the economy suffers from stagflation and the consequences of quitting the EU come home to roost, most English people will wish they were Scottish. The Tories got in purely by the kind of Nationalism displayed by UKIP as they demonised the SNP and a nation which had recovered it's sense of what democracy was about . It will be good if the UK fragments as the former components will then need to be more involved in the EU and broader constitutional questions can then be asked about such issues as monarchy. Westminster no longer has an political mandate in Scotland and the Scottish MPs should quite rightly contest all Tory legislation where it will impinge upon Scotland. This effectively means challenging every vote.

The interview on Radio 4 tonight with Tristan Hunt was illuminated as we suggested that Labour need to appeal to people's aspirations. This is precisely what it should not be doing as it will turn it in to another Conservative party. The Liberals got their just desserts after aligning themselves with the devil five years ago. If the Labour Party wants to become relevant, it needs to step away from electing freak-show leaders like Miliband and get some genuine Working Class people involved. It must re-connect with the people just as the SNP has done and the ridiculous debacle of campaigning with laughing stock celebrities like Eddie Izzard must stop and campaigning with ordinary people that the voters can recognise with must start. There are too many Oxford types in all the parties but in a left leaning party like Labour this just seems too intellectual and false and alienating.

Coventry City are almost more of a basket case than Red Ed. I'ms glad SISA didn't take over Saints but chose the Sky Blues instead. And to find yourselves not playing at the Ricoh Arena ...... surely one of the greatest signs that the sport has taken leave of it's sense.

Southampton had a lucky escape from SISU.

[MrGongGong]

The general consensus amongst my colleagues at work today that a disaster had been averted in that Labour were not swept in to power. .

Jazz.... the music that stemmed from the oppressed

I dare you to stand up at the Vortex and say that in a loud voice

[Dave2002]

We'll now never find out whether we avoided a disaster due to Labour this time round, but it's certain that we will find out more about the Tories.

[gurnemanz]

We'll now never find out whether we avoided a disaster due to Labour this time round, but it's certain that we will find out more about the Tories.

Succinctly put. Most probably, the main reason why Labour lost is that floating voters in the key constituencies that ultimately decide elections feared that such a disaster was almost certain. Not surprising, since even many Labour activists were convinced that Ed Mlliband was the wrong man.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Most vacuous Labour mission statement
ever. Tristram Hunt today: "Labour must be on the
side of people who want to shop at John
Lewis". Agggggggh, oh, that " wanting". WTF, as the young people say.

New Labour just keeps on giving. And giving. Mandelson was talking about "values" this morning. Values. Mandelson.

BN.

[Dave2002]

Not setting the sights too high then! Fortnum and Masons, Harrods .....!!!

Wanting to bank at Coutts also, perhaps.

Agree - that sounds pretty silly.

D.

[Ian Thumwood]

Where Labour is getting things totally wrong is that it continually sees itself needing to match the electorate's aspirations whereas it is not the affluent in needs to appeal to but the working people who are on zero hours contracts, have little employee rights or live in communities which are run down and need investment. I'm staggered by the support that the Conservatives gets as, when you put it down to the basics, they stand for a Free Market economy where an increasingly small proportion of the population benefit at the expense of the majority and it is against everyone's interests that they remain in power. I work outside of Andover , the countryside around about is Tory heartland. No other party stands a chance in the Test Valley yet in the town itself most of the principle shopping chains have departed and the shops are full of Poundland-style outlets. The pubs are boarded up and everywhere has a weary feel about it. Working in the construction industry there is the perception of the economy going from strength-to-strength with labour shortfalls being a massive problem in the not-too-distant future as no one has invested in training since 2008. However, when you visit places like Andover you realise just how unbalanced the "recovery" is and Labour's continued banging on about "the cost of living crisis" totally missed the point that what is really happening is that the social divide between rich and poor is actually becoming unbridgeable.

I had to laugh this morning when the SNP announced that they are the "true" opposition despite the fact that they only represent 7% of the population. However, Labour should learn from the SNP in that people want to be presented by the kind of MPs who they can relate to. The BBC's excellent profile on the new intake of SNP MP's clearly showed that people put more trust in their politicians when they have held "real" jobs like school teachers, workers in councils, construction company , bosses. I think that the SNP election success has been salutary and is probably the greatest single populist movement in the UK since 1979 . The SNP has shown that it is possible for people to claim back politics and it is a democratic success story with a categorical rejection of Westminster politics / spin / Whip-dominated political system. Labour should be following this model, in my opinion and it needs to re-claim the left from SNP. People forget that the economy is there to serve people and people not there to serve the economy. This is what Labour has lost sight of. All this is a consequence of the hapless Neil Kinnock's attempt to "modernise" the party and rid it of Militant so that the party transformed in to a politically -correct version of the Tories.

[Jazzrook]

Jazz.... the music that stemmed from the oppressed

I dare you to stand up at the Vortex and say that in a loud voice

The reelection of an unrestrained rightwing Tory government is a disaster - for the working class, the welfare state, the NHS and public services.