| Re: Teaching children to behave (was Re: [I] Smoking areas) [message #250449] |
Mi, 05 April 2006 00:15 |
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in article MPG.1e9bc05a3b2d4165989bb7 [at] news.individual.net, Alec Cawley at
alec [at] spamspam.co.uk wrote on 03/04/2006 4:30 PM:
> In article <C056FAB6.4514E%brightly_coloured_blob [at] yahoo.co.uk>,
> brightly_coloured_blob [at] yahoo.co.uk says...
<snip>
>> There don't seem to be any properly left-wing parties still existing in any
>> country that I know about, except possibly Venezuela. This is sad.
>
> I don't think that Chavez in Venezuela is left-wing. He is simply
> populist - wine and circuses for all, paid for by the countries oil
> windfall. There is not attempt at a socialist redistributive economy,
> just spend the oil money in ways that look good to the have-nots and
> stick two finges up to the haves. But if the oil price fell again, the
> whole lot would collapse. There are precious few real jobs or real
> infrastructure being created, just channels for oil money.
Not even there, then, which is even sadder.
>
> Arthur Scargill's party ?Socialist Workers Party? is a real left-wing
> party in the UK. But it doesn't get any votes, a handicap in a
> democracy.
I suppose there must still be some real Labour people left, as opposed to
New Labour. We watched a thing last night about Tommy Douglas, whose name
won't mean anything to non-Canadians, but who was definitely a Good Thing.
http://www.saskndp.com/history/douglas.html
He founded a left-wing party called the CCF and introduced, first to
Saskatchewan and then to the rest of Canada, most of the features of a
civilised country that we now take for granted. The CCF, which was immensely
popular in Saskatchewan, became the NDP as a provincial and a national
party. The NDP has never formed a federal government, but if it did so now
under its present leaders, no-one would notice the difference between it and
the other two right-wing parties who alternate holding power. I think it's
time to start the CCF again, but no-one else seems to want to.
>
> How about North Korea? State ownership of everything - including your
> body.
I don't think totalitarian counts as left-wing. If it did, there would be
plenty of candidates.
--
Lesley Weston.
Brightly_coloured_blob is real, but I don't often check even the few bits
that get through Yahoo's filters. To reach me, use leswes att shaw dott ca,
changing spelling and spacing as required.
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