the brilliantly leaping gazelle

This morning brought us the news that another former Labour MP has somehow confused his anus with his mouth and was busy polluting the airways with the arrant nonsense that only our self-serving turncoat can muster. Explaining his decision to quit the Labour Party. Ian Austin MP was given to declaim that the Labour Party was now an extremist party and was controlled by the trade unions. Part of me thought as he no conception whatsoever of Labour party history?

The Labour Party was formed essentially by the trade unions as a bulwark against the worst onslaughts of the capitalist classes against the workers. Up until then workers had no rights in parliament. Now there was a party whose main aim was advocating on their behalf. The clue is in the name; the Labour Party!

Similarly, when he says the Labour Party is now extremist, part of me thinks on what sort of drugs must one be on to think the Labour Party extremist, and more importantly, where can I get some?

Under Tony Blair’s woeful leadership Labour ditched Clause Four – basically the part of its manifesto that promised to bring any privately owned utilities back into public ownership – in a bid to make it more of centrist party, more popular and less, well, socialist. Under Corbyn the Labour Party has rediscovered its proper socialist agenda, and the fact that it increased its the share of the vote at the last election was proof of its manifesto’s popularity in the country. Unfortunately it wasn’t popular enough to secure a government.

It was however the manifesto that Ian Austin was elected to parliament on and if he had any decency at all he’d resign his seat and trigger a by-election but as I’ve noted here before the very people who are calling for a second referendum believe in democracy only when it suits them.

No doubt there will be more quitting of parties, more soul searching and even more hypocrisy to follow from Labour MP’s who are only red when they’re embarrassed.

Yesterday reconfirmed something I, and those that know me, know only too well, Namely that I’m a misanthrope And a curmudgeon. Exactly what the difference is, or where one ends and the other begins, is something of a mystery to me. Be that as it may, I’m either one or the other; possibly both at the same time and have been so ever since I was a child. Because as you all know, childhood is where we find the clues for all adult behaviours.

I wasn’t born with a protracted loathing of most other people, in my case; it was born out of continued experience of and exposure to other people. I mention this because the worst form of transport for a misthanthropic curmudgeon is a side-by-side adult tricycle, a discovery I painfully found out yesterday. I brought a one some time ago and yesterday being a sunny day it was suggested that we take it for a spin and head down to the Southbank. It all seemed like a great idea. Getting to the Southbank was quite easy thanks to a combination of back roads and designated cycle lanes. That was the good bit of the journey.

The worst part of the journey was passers-by incessant habit of hurling pleasantries in our direction as we passed them. Cheerful exhortations that they seemed to think were somehow welcome to hear. My displeasure was written all over my face and spoken into the ear of my unfortunate companion, who had no chance of escape and possibly because of this circumstance, made only muted comments, aside from that is waving at these hooligans and encouraging them.

Arriving at the Southbank was even worse, it was half term so of course the Southbank was crowded with vermin, I mean children. I did point out to my companion that when I refer to children as vermin, I mean most of the children in the world that are not her daughter. Again, she didn’t pass comment on this.

Perhaps wisely, being as how parents are biologically hard-wired to imagine the fruit of their loins as not rotten and certainly not the seeds of humanity’s destruction.