Contra Dawkins
Most people in the past do not have descendants.
In a known case, less than 15% of French people alive in 1789 have living descendants.
If evolution is about the winners, then I am on the side of the losers.
Thursday, October 08, 2009
A Party of Royal Bastards' Descendants and Baronets
David Cameron is a descendant of King William IV (via a "natural" child"). He is a relative of the Queen.
Boris Johnson is a descendant of King George II (via a "natural" child"). He also is a relative of the Queen.
George Osborne is heir to the title 18th Baronet Osborne.
"Dave" Cameron had calls from the Palace to advance his career at Conservative Central office when he left Oxford.
Is electing this trash what modern Britain has come to?
In fact the Tories have not been this retrograde on a class basis since Macmillan.
Heath (lower middle class), Thatcher (lower middle class), Major (working class), Hague (Yorkshire middle class), Ian Duncan Smith (posh but Catholic), Michael Howard (from Jewish Romanian stock) - all of these were outside the networked top public-school elite.
Among these people Osborne is looked down on because he is "only" the heir to a baronetcy.
It's true, possibly, that these old Tories might show a noblesse oblige that the nouveau riche conservatives since Macmillan have not shown. [Macmillan built 300,000 decent (with some exceptions) council houses a year while PM].
The real problem here is the complete and utter fuck up by New Labour.
I will vote Labour, but my favoured outcome would be one in which no party got a majority, and Labour could form a small minority govt with SNP, Plaid Cymru, Irish SDLP, support, and Brown was ousted.
Alternatively, I hope for a Tory victory of around 10 MPs, which collapses quickly but gives time for real Labour to reform.
Boris Johnson is a descendant of King George II (via a "natural" child"). He also is a relative of the Queen.
George Osborne is heir to the title 18th Baronet Osborne.
"Dave" Cameron had calls from the Palace to advance his career at Conservative Central office when he left Oxford.
Is electing this trash what modern Britain has come to?
In fact the Tories have not been this retrograde on a class basis since Macmillan.
Heath (lower middle class), Thatcher (lower middle class), Major (working class), Hague (Yorkshire middle class), Ian Duncan Smith (posh but Catholic), Michael Howard (from Jewish Romanian stock) - all of these were outside the networked top public-school elite.
Among these people Osborne is looked down on because he is "only" the heir to a baronetcy.
It's true, possibly, that these old Tories might show a noblesse oblige that the nouveau riche conservatives since Macmillan have not shown. [Macmillan built 300,000 decent (with some exceptions) council houses a year while PM].
The real problem here is the complete and utter fuck up by New Labour.
I will vote Labour, but my favoured outcome would be one in which no party got a majority, and Labour could form a small minority govt with SNP, Plaid Cymru, Irish SDLP, support, and Brown was ousted.
Alternatively, I hope for a Tory victory of around 10 MPs, which collapses quickly but gives time for real Labour to reform.
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Boycotting Iain Dale's Conservative Gay Pride Event
Gay rights campaigner boycotts Tory fringe at the last minute | LabourList.org 2.0 | LabourList.org
I'm not sure that this was an especially useful action by Ben Summerskill.
Clearly many LGBT people are going to vote Tory, and it is in the interests of everyone that the Tories' mind remains changed on LGBT issues.
It's very hard to see what more legislative action *for* lesbians and gays could be take, apart from equalising access to marriage. But it is important to be able to stop certain usual Tory laws that would affect many gay people -for instance laws on prostitution, saunas and pornography could all be tightened.
I do, as a long time gay activist, regret the Quangoisation of LGBT politics, and would not particularly object to a gradual state withdrawal from this area. Peter Tatchell is a much better model of a gay activist as far as I am concerned.
For more info see Pink News
Ben Sumerskill, the head of gay rights group Stonewall has pulled out of speaking at the Tories' first ever Pride event - due to be held on Canal Street tonight - as a result of Michal Kaminsky's appearance at Conservative conference.
Summerskill told Channel 4 News:
"There is no doubt the progress that has been made in the last couple of years has genuinely been historic. It would churlish of anyone not to welcome the apology a couple of months ago over Section 28. But the event tonight has been overshadowed by the presence, not just at conference but on the same platform as some senior members of the party, of people of such extreme and offensive views. And certainly there are people I've spoken to at the conference today, not just gay people but Jewish delegates as well, who share that viewpoint."
I'm not sure that this was an especially useful action by Ben Summerskill.
Clearly many LGBT people are going to vote Tory, and it is in the interests of everyone that the Tories' mind remains changed on LGBT issues.
It's very hard to see what more legislative action *for* lesbians and gays could be take, apart from equalising access to marriage. But it is important to be able to stop certain usual Tory laws that would affect many gay people -for instance laws on prostitution, saunas and pornography could all be tightened.
I do, as a long time gay activist, regret the Quangoisation of LGBT politics, and would not particularly object to a gradual state withdrawal from this area. Peter Tatchell is a much better model of a gay activist as far as I am concerned.
For more info see Pink News
Monday, October 05, 2009
Tory Class Warfare
The welfare policy announced at the Tory conference this week is just open class warfare by the Tories.
The problem is that, after James Purnell adopted the same pogram against the poor from the same advisor (David Freud), Labour has little to say on this issue.
I am not really interested in what the usual Tory trolls say here.
Cameronism, the policies from David Cameron, a man with inherited wealth, and who owns £1000 dining room chairs, amounts to trying to take £25 a week from people trying to live on £89 per week. Why? To deal with a fiscal deficit created by bankers?
Toryism is not stupid (like the right in the US), but constitutes a pure and evil class-based attack on the poorest.
The deficit has been caused by the bankers' depression. The most this pogram is meant to get back is £1 billion, yet the annual government spend is £600 billion. So 1/6th of 1% will not help at all. But it will make the poor poorer and terrify even those like me, where the medical evdience is, shall we say, overwhelming.
Meanwhile Tory and Labour donors avoid tax to £12-15 billion in UK run tax havens like Bermuda or the Cayman islands.
It is just sick to blame and attack the poor for the failure of capitalism.
I wish Labour could motivate the vote of welfare recipients and public employees just to save themselves from the coming onslaught. But the fact is that traitors like Purnell have made that all but impossible.
I have never felt more depressed.
The problem is that, after James Purnell adopted the same pogram against the poor from the same advisor (David Freud), Labour has little to say on this issue.
I am not really interested in what the usual Tory trolls say here.
Cameronism, the policies from David Cameron, a man with inherited wealth, and who owns £1000 dining room chairs, amounts to trying to take £25 a week from people trying to live on £89 per week. Why? To deal with a fiscal deficit created by bankers?
Toryism is not stupid (like the right in the US), but constitutes a pure and evil class-based attack on the poorest.
The deficit has been caused by the bankers' depression. The most this pogram is meant to get back is £1 billion, yet the annual government spend is £600 billion. So 1/6th of 1% will not help at all. But it will make the poor poorer and terrify even those like me, where the medical evdience is, shall we say, overwhelming.
Meanwhile Tory and Labour donors avoid tax to £12-15 billion in UK run tax havens like Bermuda or the Cayman islands.
It is just sick to blame and attack the poor for the failure of capitalism.
I wish Labour could motivate the vote of welfare recipients and public employees just to save themselves from the coming onslaught. But the fact is that traitors like Purnell have made that all but impossible.
I have never felt more depressed.
The Pogram Against Gay Men in Iraq
How a Few New Yorkers Are Trying to Save the Hunted Gay Men of Iraq -- New York Magazine
More than disturbing.
From Baghdad—frightening reports of gay pogroms, where homosexual men are targeted, tortured, slayed.
More than disturbing.
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