Tony Benn RIP

[Richard Hakluyt]

He was prominent in British politics for over 50 years, though never in the highest offices of state his importance was that he provided an alternative view throughout that period. You need to know about Tony Benn if you are at all interested in British politics...................which you are probably not Otto 

I used to read the Telegraph daily but I've fallen out of interest these days, I was genuinely interested in British politics for a brief bit prior to and leading up to Cameron's election but he hasn't impressed me a whole lot so I've not paid attention in awhile. I also listen to the BBC satellite radio a lot during my hour commute as they've got good news, and they are slightly more British centric than the other news channels but it's the world service so it doesn't delve into British politics a whole lot. I did hear a long piece about the Scottish independence votes where one of the pro-independence Scots droned on about how in his grandparent's generation, the Empire gave Scots a feeling of belonging. In his parent's generation since so many people worked for the nationalized British industries they never would have wanted independence. Then his argument basically was "since we foolishly got rid of the national industries we might as well split off." 

Your lack of interest is perfectly understandable, British politics is going through a rather grim and tedious period, I'm close to losing interest as is much of the population...............must be deadly dull for non-UK folk.

[Gups]

Never forgave him for his egotistical challenge to Denis Healey. All the policies he implemented in Government truned out to be expensive failures - British Leyland, Concorde, Truimph.

[Sheilbh]

Your lack of interest is perfectly understandable, British politics is going through a rather grim and tedious period, I'm close to losing interest as is much of the population...............must be deadly dull for non-UK folk.

It's weird though. This should be a very interesting time. First hung Parliament since the 70s, first peacetime coalition in about 90 years. But it's not. The only remotely interesting thing is the Torywars and the rise of Ukip. Even that feels like a 90s encore that's gone on too long

[Gups]

Socialism is dead. Untrammelled Thatcherism is dead. Their is broad political consensus on gay rights, abortion, race etc. Crime has been going down for years.

Political arguments are nowadays largely about comparative trivialities.

We live in uninteresting times. Thankfully.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I agree with Gups.

It is all about managerial stuff nowadays, rather dull. Except for the Scottish referendum; but I'm even finding that tedious as it all seems to be about pulling the wool over the eyes of the more gormless parts of Scotland's electorate.

I took a look at the New Statesman recently. Zounds! It used to be full of serious stuff about socialism........now it seems to be mainly about hairstyles and the patriarchy and cis-women feminists being nasty to trans-women and intersectionalism. Their circulation is only 24,000 though, guess there have been a lot of splitters over the years.

[Capetan Mihali]

Political arguments are nowadays largely about comparative trivialities.

We live in uninteresting times. Thankfully.

Well, I think the reply from both the left and the right would been: "The government, across all major parties, is content to just refine little bits of a status quo that is fundamentally not serving the interests of a large number of people."

Although I can't speak for the UK, I'd find a good deal of merit in that reply as concerns the US.  And my sense is that Britain is largely in the same boat.  Although "culture wars" type things certainly continue to exercise us more over here than in the UK, they are in sharp decline from the froth of 20 or even 10 years ago. 

I think the idea of a basic consensus across the parties is apt.  And I think that that consensus is, for lack of a better term, the "neoliberal" consensus on the proper role for markets, social services, labor, and the state.  Which is certainly less of a lightning rod for divisive politics, but potentially no less alienating for a significant amount of people in these countries.

[Valmy]

It is all about managerial stuff nowadays, rather dull. Except for the Scottish referendum; but I'm even finding that tedious as it all seems to be about pulling the wool over the eyes of the more gormless parts of Scotland's electorate.

Fortunately Scotland has plenty of wool.  I take heart this looks to be far less of a nail biter than the Quebec thing was in 1995.  That one had me sweating.

[garbon]

That one had me sweating.

Why?

[Valmy]

I think the idea of a basic consensus across the parties is apt.  And I think that that consensus is, for lack of a better term, the "neoliberal" consensus on the proper role for markets, social services, labor, and the state.  Which is certainly less of a lightning rod for divisive politics, but potentially no less alienating for a significant amount of people in these countries.

I question if it is possible to have a society that does not alienate large numbers of people.  I guess you just want to alienate as few as possible.  Simply by having a culture at all people are going to feel left out.

[Valmy]

That one had me sweating.

Why?

Because it was so close.  I was in college at the time and really cared about that sort of thing.  Come to think of it I still am in college...damn.  Well I was the age one should be in college.

[garbon]

That one had me sweating.

Why?

Because it was so close.  I was in college at the time and really cared about that sort of thing.  Come to think of it I still am in college...damn.  Well I was the age one should be in college.

I just meant that while I can see noting being for separation, I don't know why one would be so overly concerned.

[Barrister]

It is all about managerial stuff nowadays, rather dull. Except for the Scottish referendum; but I'm even finding that tedious as it all seems to be about pulling the wool over the eyes of the more gormless parts of Scotland's electorate.

Fortunately Scotland has plenty of wool.  I take heart this looks to be far less of a nail biter than the Quebec thing was in 1995.  That one had me sweating.

One warning - when the referendum campaign started in 1995, it looked to be a snoozer as well.  The "no" side went into it projecting at 67% at the polls.

As you know, things got more interesting as the campaign drew to a close.

[grumbler]

One warning - when the referendum campaign started in 1995, it looked to be a snoozer as well.  The "no" side went into it projecting at 67% at the polls.

As you know, things got more interesting as the campaign drew to a close.

You mean that a fourth person started to care?

[Agelastus]

I'm reminded once again that for all his faults Tony Benn was one of our few genuinely memorable politicians of the last few decades; I was rewatching an episode of "Yes Minister" today and one of the Civil Service's arguments against a scheme was that it was a "Bennite Solution".

As far as I can recall the only other real-life politicians mentioned in the show were all ex-prime-ministers.