Hi Aidan,

Thanks for all that. As an old person, and an old socialist, I certainly support free health services for everybody, but don't forget they don't drop out of the sky at the whim of a fairy godmother, they have to be paid for by the taxpayer. Health costs are one of the biggest financial costs in any ageing society, as in most of the West. Ultimately, there are no freebies.

As for bureaucrats, I recommend that you watch 'Utopia', 9 p.m. on Wednesdays, on our ABC. Watching that HR person in the last episode, I was wondering what on earth she did, what on earth quals she had: the aim seemed to be to magnify simple tasks unnecessarily. She'll do well. I suppose every class system has to find positions for the middle-classes, so why not the public bureaucracy ? And surely, in private business, most of those junior staff would be out the door ? Brilliant ! So cruel ! So spot-on !

Here's a new game: try to find the most useless, expensive and pointless projects for that Utopia team: a tunnel between Melbourne and Brisbane for a high-speed freight rail system ? A full-scale model of Sydney Harbour at Alice Springs ? Just imagine the numbers of bureaucrats those projects would need, to organise the tea-bags and biscuits, and schedule the Spanish dancing girls.

Just don't mention Adelaide's new hospital, the third most expensive in the world. For Adelaide, the 543rd largest city in the world. Maybe the Utopia team could re-locate there for a few episodes. Or an entire series.

Keep laughing, Aidan !

Joe

Candidate Corbyn's public pronouncements are a breath of fresh air not seen in Britain since the end of the world war, and the lying war criminal Tony Blair's panicked response is a ringing endorsement. British friends – some not so long ago Tory voters - have told me Corbyn's public meetings around the country are attracting standing ovations.

Corbyn has declared war on the impoverishment imposed on the many for the enrichment of the few, an impoverishment described in a breathtaking defilement of language as "austerity". On his proposal to reverse the years of privatisation he has stated that under a Corbyn Labour government this shameful era of plunder of public assets will be brought to an abrupt end:

“Let’s make it absolutely clear to any speculators in the City looking to make a fast buck at the taxpayers’ expense that if any assets are sold [to them] by [Tory Treasurer] Osborne under their value a future Corbyn-led Labour government will reserve the right to bring them back into public ownership with either no compensation or with any undervaluation deducted from any compensation.”

To expunge the stain of Bliar’s treason, Jeremy Corbyn will, if he becomes party leader next month, issue a public apology on behalf of Labour to the British people and the Iraqi people for the illegal aggression against Iraq in 2003. This has Bliar’s crew of bare faced liars spitting.

Meanwhile Tories are stacking the Labour Party in droves to try to prevent Corbyn becoming leader.

‘Meanwhile Tories are stacking the Labour Party in droves to try to prevent Corbyn becoming leader.’

What’s more, they are calling in all sorts of favours from the media, including and especially the traditional ‘left’ media, i.e The Guardian, to discredit Corbyn at every turn.

While there is every reason to hope, history presents a very pessimistic outcome. The powers that be have ensured that left-wing democratically elected leaders rarely ever do too well - some lose their freedom (Mossadeh, Iran), others their right to govern (Whitlam, Australia), others their ability to implement anti-poverty reforms (Chavez, Venezuela) and others their lives (Allende, Chile).

Everything is being stacked against Corbyn winning the Labour leadership – including vote rigging and pro-Corbyn voter purges – but if this does not succeed, the Blairite and conservative establishment will ensure that he will not be able to effect his role as Labour leader. Everything he does and everything he stands for will be ruthlessly demonised as Trotsykite naivety or outdated sixties idealism. If that does not succeed, I’m sure that a very manufactured juicy scandal or two will do the trick.

I’d love to be proved wrong. And I desperately hope that I am proved wrong. This is a different world from what existed in the overthrow of previous democratically elected left-wing leaders.The effects of unchecked right-wing ideology are all around us. We have an out-of-control global financial catastrophe, runaway climate change, intolerable levels of inequality and social despair, rampant greed by the 1% that even the dutiful media are unable to find excuses for, and back-to-back, expensive wars that the public neither understand nor endorse.

If Corby goes the way of Allende, Chavez, Whitlam or Mossedeh, others will fill the vacuum. This rampant global oligarchy is under threat and it will do everything in its power to remain in control. But as history has shown, if it is unwilling to compromise with the forces opposing it, then violent revolution is the only option.

Ah, the sweet sound of tumbrils in the morning.

Hi Killarney,

Isn't hyperbole fun ? -

"We have an out-of-control global financial catastrophe, runaway climate change, intolerable levels of inequality and social despair, rampant greed by the 1% that even the dutiful media are unable to find excuses for, and back-to-back, expensive wars that the public neither understand nor endorse."

But hyperbole is not evidence: just because you can ramp up the horror stories, doesn't mean that they become truer.

Or am I mistaking wishful thinking for hyperbole ? That your picture of the world, as one of devastation, chaos and misery (you could have used those words; maybe next time) is as a prelude to world-wide revolution and the Coming of World Peace and Justice, under wise and kind leaders like Corbyn.

The world certainly presents a picture of some chaos, of problems which seem to be impossible to resolve. But even with the cutting of the multitude of Gordian knots, as you hint at, what makes you think it will suddenly and magically all be sweetness and light ? All problems over ?

I remember a cartoon of a maths professor posing a massively complex problem for a student (Step 1). At Step 2, 'a miracle happens'. At Step 3, 'x = 3'. The professor says, 'Hmm, I think you may need to explain Step 2.'

My imperfect understanding of history is that massively complex problems do not have sweetly simple solutions. They never have, and never will. Even you may have to get used to that :)

Cheers,

Joe

Loudmouth

You've said nothing of value in your comment. All you want to do is score cheap points by resorting to ridicule. You're not even ridiculing what I DID say, just your own fanciful distortion of it.

No, Killarney, I'm trying to get through to you that the path to The Bright Future is not through either the Destruction of the Temple OR Skipping through the Meadows Arm in Arm - but sheer hard and long work, trying to do the best we can to ameliorate and improve society for as many as possible with as little misery as possible. And even then, we may not get there.

Basically, Killarney, I'm trying to save you all the useless decades of striving for something which is not only ludicrously unlikely but actually quite reactionary, necessarily involving the destruction and death of many. All Utopian ideologies have moved in that direction and yours is not likely to be any better. I hope that you understand what I'm trying to say.

Best of luck,

Joe