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The culture of control How do we trust a guy who says he knows about London, when he’s just taken three of his kids out of state school and put them into private schools?
– Arabella Weir, on Boris, in The Guardian’s desperate chrestomathy of leftyluvviedom for Ken.
I would say it indicates very clearly that he does know something about London’s state schools. More penetrating political insight from woman of the people Ms Weir here. Foreign readers may be aghast at the political culture of central control the latter clip reveals. It is not for the faint-hearted libertarian – or for that matter anyone, conservative or liberal, with a sincere belief in separation of powers and limited government.
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What a stale interview! Arabella clearly has no intention of challenging Gordon Brown so instead of scrutinising anything he has to say, she just chimes in with mindless anodyne remarks like “yes I would agree with that” and “yes, definitely”.
This interview even fails as propaganda. Well aware that Arabella is a stooge and a patsy, Gordon’s performance reflects the stale circumstances of the interview. Zero adrenalin, zero passion, zero energy. Even Gordon Brown seems to find Gordon Brown boring.
Interesting times for London ahead. Good luck, Boris.
Somewhat heartening that
a) Those who abhorred Livingstone and preferred a more restrained hand on the tiller turned out in considerable numbers to vote.
b) The ridiculous notion of class-warfare that remains a big part of the political mindset of the left is evidently in partial retreat again after an Old Etonian is voted into office in a ‘constituency’ with a truly breathtaking amount of income disparity.
After this smashing I can’t help wonder if the Labour party is going to enter a period of turmoil not seen since the days of Foot, there’s no Blair on the horizon or even a Kinnock to haul the party out of a tailspin if they turn on ‘New Labour’ and bank hard to the left.
Blair’s last conference speech to his party was clear on what Labour needed to do if it was going to win the next General Election, keep the tories off the centre.
The latter part of the message “keep me in power” was apparently ignored by the party to its ultimate peril. Blair was Labour’s best electoral asset, a man who held things together and tried to drive home the reforms which would win any party the next election (reform public services).
Ignore of course the obscene level of nannying his government saw fit to perpetrate upon its subjects because apparently a lot of people don’t care if the state tells them what to do every day.
If Cameron stays on path and his policies take their natural evolutionary course, he’ll basically end up with the core of a Blairite New Labour manifesto, one hopes with a great deal less fiddling, policy wonkery and interference.
Unfortunately that’s what the public wants at the moment, the best we can take from it is that we might have a bit less nagging from Nanny’s quangos. Whether he’ll do the smart thing and cut taxes whilst cutting spending on quangos is another matter.
I think there certainly is a vote-winner in lowering the tax burden, the question is whether he feels able to convince the public that he can pull it off without ‘harming’ the godawful services the state currently renders so generously unto its citizens.
Jeez,
What a load of abusively vitriolic hatemongering.
And, in the video, a sycophant to boot.
The number of times I have heard lefties claim that they are nicer people than anyone else.
Arabella,is another of the privileged “pull up the gangplank,I’m alright”, brigade They have a visceral belief in their own entitlement. Like the Bourbons,”The have learned nothing and forgotten nothing”.
Blair was Labour’s best electoral asset,
Sorry, but you are wrong. At Westminster Blair was Labours only electoral asset.
The party spent two years loving Blair for getting them into power, and eight years hating him because he made them follow policies which kept them in power. You are right, the left will rip the party apart, and make it unelectable for a generation.
I’ve always thought that putting his kids in private school was a sign of being perfectly aware of the state of public (US definition) schools.
Hell, that’s about the only think that Billy Jeff did back in the 1990’s that didn’t bother me.
BTW, from here, it looks like this was the electoral version of getting your bike stuck on the railroad tracks, jumping clear just in time, and watching a perfectly good 650cc BSA become the hood ornament of the 5:27 City of New Orleans. I guess congratulations are in order?
Only really want Boris to do 2 things:
1) Abolish/reduce the congestion charge. He recently stated that if they had left buckets at the entry points into the congestion charge zone and asked people to throw 20p into the bucket every time they came into London, then they would have made far more than they have with Capita in charge.
2) Have an urgent meeting with Sarkozy and ask him if he wants to take over the Olympics from London.
For the record, I’d like to inform Arabella that yes, her bum does look big in that. In fact it looks absolutely huge, in sad contrast to her brain.
Sadly Julian, Sarkozy’s far too sensible to want the Olympics and poor Boris is going to get stuck with the blame for all the cost overruns. Still, they should only amount to a few billion. Just up the tax on all those rich city fat-cats. (What do you mean, they’ve all moved out?)
Also, as Laban Tall conjectured, no doubt the shredders have been working overtime at City Hall since Wednesday.
I am told that the first thing that should go is the “London Development Agency” (or whatever it is called). A black hole for taxpayers money – and a corrupt black hole at that.
Still Arabella:
“Arabella” does not sound very working class to me – I doubt that there are many people by that name on the council estate where I live.
As for the “non government schools are evil, do not trust anyone who has anything to do with them” line of attack – there seems to be an organized effort by the left to use this tactic.
For example, I happened to watch a B.B.C. television show today and there was a correspondent from the French newspaper “Le Monde” (I apologize if any spelling mistake) – and the first thing he said when Boris Johnson’s name came up was that he was unfit for office because “his parents paid for his education” (he said the same thing about Mr Cameron – even though no one had mentioned this person in the discussion of the London elections).
Clearly the word has gone out – “hit them over private schools”.
Oddly enough the French gentleman later expressed his support for Senator Obama. Perhaps he does not know that this candidate for President of the United States went to private school.
Oh well I suppose he would just declare the above point racist (he declared that Boris Johnson voters were racists – because, well because they had voted for Boris Johnson).
On private schools:
I wish I had gone to one (rather than to a government school that used to exist near here) – then I might be able to spell and so on.
But, to follow leftist logic, if I could spell I would be “unfit for office” and would, therefore, have to resign from the local council.
Well, she also said:
Well, according to Ascot’s website, the next race day is the 10th. Only a 6 day hunger strike. Good luck, Arabella!
Hell, I better dust off my topper then because I’d pay good money to see that, Kev!
Boris was a King’s scholar at Eton (and before that IIRC was at a State school) so his parents did not pay for his education, or onnly paid for a portion of it.
That said, attitude to independent versus State schooling remains one of the clearest idological delineators of the Left. To the Left, a superior education is an unfair headstart in life. They combine an odd “lump of education” fallacy, similar to the lump of labour fallacy, such that improving one child’s education must somehow negatively impact on another’s, while inconsistently maintaining that the overall level of education in the country can be improved by -guess what? – more government control and more government spending. They hate the fact that parents are able, through education, to pass any of their own success on tot heir children, and will atttempt to end this even if it means reducing the overall level of education in the country.
One of the great marketing failures of the post-WWII conservatives was to allow themselves to be portrayed as anti-education luddites by socialists who were doing their best to destroy or stigmatise actual quality education.
Hell, I better dust off my topper then because I’d pay good money to see that, Kev!
Hell, I can’t make it to the UK to watch, but why not publicise her plans and offer her a wide audience? Find out if her word is worth anything.
Already bought the tickets. Now to find a bookmaker who’ll give me decent odds on any self-respecting thoroughbred wanting to stamp on Camden’s finest champagne-socialist.
“Well, according to Ascot’s website, the next race day is the 10th. Only a 6 day hunger strike. Good luck, Arabella!”
Yes but, it gives the poor horse less of a chance. Is emergency liposuction an option,for the horse’s sake?
It’s the blinding incoherence of some of the left’s arguments that I love.
I saw one saying that only people in inner London should be allowed to vote as they’re the ones that are impacted by the mayor’s policies. This obviously assumes that 1) all inner London people are poor, 2) all poor people are Socialists 3) all people in the ‘burbs are rich Tories and 4) rich people are carried to work by their servants and therefore don’t use buses, trains or cars.
Well done Boris. Please now cast off the spin doctors and get back to saying what you really think.
Act number one would be cancelling subsidised oil from Venezuela and allowing them to sell it on the open market at over 100 bucks a barrel.
“…poor Boris is going to get stuck with the blame for all the cost overruns.”
Boris mentioned in his victory speech that he’d like to find some way of making use of Kens’ skills. I bet he’s got the Olympics in mind.
“I will go on hunger strike and throw myself in front of the next horse at Ascot if he wins.”
I hope she doesn’t throw herself in front of the horses. One of the horses might get hurt.
So, if one were to plan a trip to London to celebrate this blessed event, woulld we get to see prominent lefties flagellating themselves on street corners?
Or would it be more like the Blitz, with a constant rain of despondent Trotskyites plunging from the rooftops creating havoc on the streets below?
I mean, I just need to know how to dress. Hearing a bzzt-bzzt-bzzt faintly reminiscent of a V1 pulsejet cease, looking up and seeing Harold Pinter screaming toward the ground at 300 miles per hour would be a once-in-a-lifetime event.
manuel II paleologos – agreed they (the left) also forget that if those of us in the ‘burbs are governed and pay for mayoral policies/incompetence/corruption we have a have and deserve our vote too. Obviously they’d prefer taxation without representation.