tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169740113013066976.post6604379629827826168..comments2024-02-10T12:12:06.028+00:00Comments on The Real Blog: The rise of nationalism is Labour's faultDavid Boylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11410159311875228620noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169740113013066976.post-14118924874326483962015-04-21T10:33:35.857+01:002015-04-21T10:33:35.857+01:00Thanks so much, Edward. You're quite right th...Thanks so much, Edward. You're quite right that it is Labourism that has caused the trouble. A kind of dark side of the Spirit of 45 which, in some ways, we all require liberation from.David Boylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11410159311875228620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169740113013066976.post-80863040469343549032015-04-21T10:08:57.797+01:002015-04-21T10:08:57.797+01:00David you're spot on in asserting that it'...David you're spot on in asserting that it's the failings of Labour that have brought Scotland to the pass it is now in. My own caveat on your piece would be to use the term 'Labourism' rather than 'Labour. Many progressive activists in Labour gave up and exited after understanding the reality of the self-serving and self-connecting networks in Labourism in Scotland. I'm well experienced in the Glasgow housing scenario you well describe. I was for several years the director (CEO) of a community controlled housing association in Glasgow. The community based housing association sector was one of the shinning success of the Glasgow scene post 1970s. IME a prime driver in that success was the disdain among grassroots activists for the social brutalism and managerial and governance ineptitude that the Glasgow Council’s municipal housing empire had become. <br /><br />Back in the 1960s when Glasgow was on it’s knees, the social disaster of the Council’s giant peripheral housing schemes were the source of much of the social and economic breakdown. Enormous estates the size of large towns were built with mono-type dreary housing forms and very little in the way of shops, secondary schools – and certainly virtually no jobs. The Thatcher era then of course greatly deepened the scourges of unemployment, exclusion and poor health in these already severally disadvantaged estates (constructed by Labour). No-one was more callous or vitriolic about the ‘wrong-doings’ of the hapless inhabitants of these estates than old time Labour politicians.<br /><br />That housing scenario could be replayed over again in several scenarios in Scotland.<br /><br />Meanwhile the self-aggrandisement of Labourism continued. Our long standing Labour MP retired at the last election as a wealthy millionaire. There are so many ‘enobled’ Labour remunerated retirees that during the Independence Referendum they used on Twitter #LabourLords (oh the many levels of irony in that hashtag).<br /><br />The appointment of Jim Murphy as leader of the (legally non-existent?) Scottish Labour Party showed that the Labour, as directed by Westminster Labour, remains a deeply unlearning entity (John McTernan getting the staff job in Scottish Labour can only further confirm that view).<br />Edward Harkinshttp://www.linkedin.com/pub/edward-harkins/15/40/635noreply@blogger.com