Is it any wonder Labour is up the creek?

[Rum]

We are in the middle of our political party conference season here. Labour’s turn. Her majesty’s Opposition.

With Brexit everywhere, climate change an inescapable issue, the economy in the process of being skinned by a right super wing right wing government. You name it.

First up? Menopausal women should have the right for flexible working hours.

FFS!

[Brian Peacock]

So you think menopausal women shouldn't have a right to flexible working hours?

[Rum]

So you think menopausal women shouldn't have a right to flexible working hours?

[Brian Peacock]

[Rum]

The exchange above encapsulates the paranoia and ‘fearspeak’ (Just made that word up!) that typifies some of the far and no so far left. A foot wrong and suddenly you are the enemy!

[Brian Peacock]

You're not the enemy Rum, and don't let anyone tell you you are. Nobody puts Rum in a corner!

There's 160+ so-called 'green motions' before the Labour party conference this week reflecting a real grass-roots drive to address the systemic and environmental issues that seem to become more pressing by the day - but somehow the flexible employment for 'ladies of a certain age' has floated into view and exasperated you. It seems like a reasonable policy on it's own grounds - at least something worth discussing - and as noble and worthy as it is as a policy proposal it's hardly the most important issue to face the nation or that the delegates are going to be discussing.

I guess what I'm asking, in a round-about sort of way, is: were you trolled into being exasperated with the Labour party, and if so by whom and how?

[Rum]

I’ve no objection to policy about flexible working for menopausal women - it may well be a good idea. If I was trolled it was by the BBC who had it on the front page of the news site much of the day.

Perhaps we should blame the BBC for bias in making a fuss over something they know reactionaries would fume at when of course as we all know the party is fully engaged in its role as Her Majesty’s Opposition.

[Brian Peacock]

It's not either one thing or the other though is it? I mean there no dichotomy there.

I also noticed the story leading on the Radio4 news summaries during the day, and I must admit I wasn't that surprised by the tone or the inferences. At the last charter renewal the government made the Board of Trustees directly accountable for editorial decisions while changing the structure of the board to be fully appointed by ministers. Since then the BBC's output has become rather (small-c) conservative, more broadly risk averse, with perhaps the exception of the flagship Today, PM, and Newsnight programmes. A lot of the analysis has gone from the news website (the 'Editors Blogs' was a great loss I think) and news articles seem shorter and a little less filling (if you know what I mean) than they used to be.

So the lead stories today definitely gave the impression that the Labour party are preoccupied by political irrelevances, like 'ladies of a certain age' and attempts to sack or sideline the divisive deputy leader Tom Watson, and to be doing so at a time of great nation concern about the state of politics and the future in general. But while I don't think the BBC are biased per se, I do think much of their news output has been diluted to the point of blandness.

Granted, the story about the executive committee trying to sideline or oust Watson is an important one -- though the reports I heard didn't mention why so many party members are annoyed with him -- and leading on women's employment rights actually reflects a positive, and I would imagine quite popular, policy proposal. Still, the BBC's news output today also felt a bit superficial, and I personally found it very frustrating that the massive grass-roots drive towards greening UK progressive politics seems to have been pushed off the bottom of the news agenda today by an editorial team that decided these other things were the most important, relevant, or "news worthy" items to lead on today - particularly frustrating the day after the biggest global environmental protest of all time

I don't know. Perhaps the BBC are actually doing Labour a favour by not talking about those kind of things?

[laklak]

What about male menopause, huh? What they gonna do for me? And I want free sanitary products! Toilet paper and Peni-Pads (for those annoying post-piss dribbles).

Tell the old bint to bring a fan and a jumper to work. Slackers.

[rainbow]

What about male menopause, huh? What they gonna do for me? And I want free sanitary products! Toilet paper and Peni-Pads (for those annoying post-piss dribbles).

Not to mention your 'not-so-dry' farts. I would support you getting days off, plus how productive are men over the age of 55 anyway?

[Rum]

What about male menopause, huh? What they gonna do for me? And I want free sanitary products! Toilet paper and Peni-Pads (for those annoying post-piss dribbles).

Not to mention your 'not-so-dry' farts. I would support you getting days off, plus how productive are men over the age of 55 anyway?

Not very, when they end up looking like you.

[Brian Peacock]

Ha! Call the burns unit!

[Hermit]

The exchange above encapsulates the paranoia and ‘fearspeak’ (Just made that word up!) that typifies some of the far and no so far left. A foot wrong and suddenly you are the enemy!

And now Johnathan Pie chimes in on the topic, and man, he holds no punches.



Not being particularly familiar with the Labour Party in the UK, I put my tuppence worth in for discussion: I think Pie is wrong. People don't get sidelined or dismissed for momentary slip-ups. They get removed because the faction they belong to has the power to get rid of them and replace them with one of their own people, or simply because they are a thorn in their side. The slip-ups are not the cause of their political demise. They merely serve as the pretext to axe them.

[Brian Peacock]

I think that's pretty spot on Hermit. I also think the right has made much play from strawpersoning progressive political perspectives as merely the deranged ravings of pink-haired, progressive, SJW woke-scolds, to the point where this view of so-called Leftist politics has almost entirely replaced the reality. There's a lot of serious debate, development, and initiative on the UK left at the moment but the common view seems to dismiss it all as a bad-faith Twitter campaign by self-entitled idiots with terrible attitudes. Pie makes a strong point there, one that challenges whether the Labour Party under Starmer can lay a claim to being 'Left' (or has the inclination to even face in that direction), and whether those with a more progressive outlook than the leadership really have themselves to blame for being sidelined.