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I had been hoping for some kind of comment from comrades in the UK on the changing of the guard in Ed Milliband's Labour Shadow Cabinet. Ed Balls has finally got closer to the prize. I wonder though if his elevation to the Shadow Economics portfolio represents anything other than sheer opportunism rewarded. I have been reading the *Independent* and the *Guardian* and there was some mention of Balls' Keynesianism. I wonder if he represents anything like an alternative to what Osborne is doing... The question I am asking myself when reading about Johnson and Balls and Cooper and co is whether there is anything even remotely like a Left impulse in the British Labour Party. I grew up reading about the Bevanite Left and came of age with the Bennites. There were redeeming features about both sets of Leftists. But this shower seems truly repulsive. The other item that has captured the media's attention is the phone tapping scandal. Rupert Murdoch's *News of the World* seemingly was tapping the phones of most of Who's Who in Britain. The then editor Coulson has had to resign as Cameron's media advisor. Coulson is referred to as an 'Essex boy". I am not familiar with that expression. It looks like it means working class lad gone bad. Coulson it seems made a good (i.e. profitable) living out of self-othering himself as the working class thug from the nightmares of those who have been to Eton. I would like to think that the phone tapping scandal could damage Murdoch or the government or someone. But scandals do not seem to do that. They seem primarily to reinforce apolitical cynicism rather than spur on collective action to remedy the fundamental problem. The news from Ireland that reached here is that the Taoiseach Brian Cowen has resigned as leader of his party. There is something almost admirable about Cowen's stupidity. It is so dense as to be almost impenetrable. It even came close to waking up the Irish to the nature of the party he led and of bourgeois politics. Close but I fear me that the Irish will require another lesson before they finally work out that if they vote for anyone apart from the United Left Alliance they will only get more of the same. It would be remiss of me not to point out the toxic role of the Green Party in all this shambles. They now finally see that association with Fianna Fail will spell electoral doom, so they stabbed Cowen in the back. But have no fear,they will still be 'responsible ' and back the austerity package. comradely Gary ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
