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We’re all getting old,
of course, but you’re not acquiring the virtues of age. There’s still an
ineradicable daftness about you.
John Buchan - The Island of Sheep (1936)
There is problem with being almost the same age as Jeremy
Corbyn. In my younger days I knew people just like him, faux political radicals
who were never going anywhere but a safe and comfortable niche in the public
sector.
Even then it was obvious where they would end up. Even then
it was clear that their talk was merely talk, a kind of futile strutting with
no more substance than a mission statement.
That is the problem with being almost the same age as Corbyn. I find it almost impossible to take the chap seriously - it's the ineradicable daftness of the man. He should have grown out of it long ago.
7 comments:
There should be some kind of portmanteau word (perhaps the Germans already have one) for the stage when you realise that a group of people whom you once regarded as older and wiser than you are in fact the same age or younger - that applies especially to politicians, policemen and dentists.
Back in the late 70s, the BBC comedy 'Citizen Smith' featuring the Tooting Popular Front, did an excellent job of poking fun at the likes of the young Jeremy Corbyn.
I imagine the atmosphere at the BBC would prevent anything of the sort being made today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Smith
Some of what Corbyn says is OK and a lot seems hopeless wibble. He survives because there is nothing better.
The key problem seems a lack of political diversity in the UK. Like America we have descended to 2.01 political parties. Contrast with Germany, France and Spain. A combination of idleness, big money, media ownership and a phoney call for 'strong government' has led to our current mess.
Corbyn is I think a symptom, the disease is worse and I think a mere election will not cure the disease.
Time the Left was represented (again) by someone from the working class?
The man who never grew up.
Sackerson - Wash your mouth out! You'll be advocating politicians without a second in PPE or a Common Purpose indoctrination next!
There are no Ramsay Macdonald's in the Labour Party any more, or Bevin's or Bevan's etc. and what is striking is the absence of intellect as well. All we have is a pack of media types, words without meaning and policies without reality. As for Jeremy most of his generation had and did jobs of work of one kind or another while he was sitting in meetings on Islington Fantasy Island.
Macheath - I remember Citizen Smith quite well. Although the BBC has obviously moved away from that kind of satire it is not easy to tell if it followed or led the change.
Roger - I'm sure we do lack of political diversity in the UK. It feels like a kind of convergent evolution to me, but towards what I'm not sure. Nothing good is my guess.
Sackers - yes, although someone who has actually worked at all would be a bonus.
James - Jeremy Pan, Peter's brother. Except Jeremy can't fly.
DCB - yes it sounded a little sacrilegious to me too.
Demetrius - I spent too much time in meetings as well. Its not good training for the real world.
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