The Left: Moribund.

[rauschwerk]

As a matter of interest, what have you done between 49 and 66?

I have worked as a freelance musician - mainly private music tuition which fortunately I enjoy. For the last eight years I have also given driving instruction but am now giving that up as it's become a mug's game - too many instructors chasing too few impecunious pupils.

[Lateralthinking1]

Interesting. Maybe I should go back to the guitar and try to move forward from Malaguena and House of the Rising Sun.

[MrGongGong]

Sorry but you haven't answered the questions. I can only assume that you are trying to live the short-term dream while pretending the future away. I don't think I was rude but I have no tolerance for middle aged people whose over-emphasis on comfort requires the elderly to die in poverty.

PS. I note your comments am. Confused......not for the first time!

absolute bullsh*t and Bollo*cks

comfort , don't make me laugh

and spare us the "I live in a shoebox in the middle of the M62" tales

[Bumfluff]

Please good people.

This is another Mandy wind-up

Motives unknown

Save your sanity & move on.

I think the motives are known and clear: their avatar is Ayn Rand. Hence the statement that there is no alternative to capitalism, whatever that means.

Hello, I'm new.

[french frank]

Hello, I'm new.

Hello, erm, Bumfluff. Welcome. Pitch in (oh, you have )

[Bumfluff]

Hehe. Yes. Hi french frank, great place you got here. Long time reader, first time poster.

[french frank]

On reading the rest of this thread, I do think :

1) the OP is an apple of discord (roll it down the table and then stand back and let people squabble over it

2) it seems to be working.

In fact, as a discussion topic, I don't think it has any mileage at all. Whatsoever. The way it's going, it looks as if will be gone from visible sight before too long.

[John Skelton]

On reading the rest of this thread, I do think :

1) the OP is an apple of discord (roll it down the table ...

The way it's going, it looks as if will be gone from visible sight before too long.

That's gravity and tables for you. Eventually the apple reaches the edge, then ... thump. And there it is, on the floor, somewhat bruised.

[Bumfluff]

Guess you're right. There's a good discussion to be had about the position of the left, mind you, especially in the wake of the successful Occupy movement, which has reintroduced important "leftist" concepts back into the discourse, to the extent that even Sarah Palin has been using them to inveigh against the kind of opportunist exploitation of the political system for profit by politicians, which she is a Grand Master of.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204323904577040373463191222.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[Pilchardman]

The malaise in which the Left finds itself - with the Labour leadership dithering, a la Kinnock, about what to do

The Labour leadership isn't of the left. So looking to them for any left answers to the banking crisis or Eurozone woes isn't going to help you. The Labour leadership is just a faction of the neoliberal right to which the Tories and the LibDems also belong. Any "solutions" they come up with will be informed by the neoliberal orthodoxy.

I don't actually think the TUC represents the left, either. Not now nor ever. They are almost as much a part of the political establishment as New Labour. However, on this occasion they are on the side of the angels. 26 public sector unions are preparing to strike on Wednesday.

[Pilchardman]

I think the motives are known and clear: their avatar is Ayn Rand. Hence the statement that there is no alternative to capitalism, whatever that means.

Indeed.

[amateur51]

I think the motives are known and clear: their avatar is Ayn Rand. Hence the statement that there is no alternative to capitalism, whatever that means.

Hello, I'm new.

Welcome Bumfluff!

Mandy don't know a Lord from a Wiscount neither, do he?!

[teamsaint]

Fighting amongst ourselves, (employed /self employed,state/private, retired/working etc) is EXACTLY what the powerful manipulative elites want.

Rauschwerk is absolutely spot on.

Incidentally, enterprise, hard work, trade might just get us out of this mess, (along with a completely altered view of how to run our society for the benefit on all).

The current peverted, corrupted version of capitalism run by and for the markets will lead only to impoverishment for most of us.

In my humble opinion, the west needs to decide to lower its standard of living, and learn to live within its, and the planets, means.

Including me.

As Jake Burns said " I want an equal share, even if it means I have to give"

[teamsaint]

oh yes, and as for the left, well what a joke.
Gave up on them years ago........but a labour party that won't support strikes to save pensions? give me strength.

And just look at the latest recruits to the labour front benches. Yet more city lawyers and Bank of England insiders.

[Lateralthinking1]

I agree with number 28. It includes me too. Funnily enough, the need for everyone to make sacrifices is exactly what Cameron, Osborne and the increasingly sinister-behind-blandness Alexander say is necessary. They also argue for exactly the opposite!