Tonight was the SWP district aggregate to summerise and assess the recent conference. Or for the cynical, a meeting whose only point was to allow a member of the Central Committee to give us another bloody peptalk.
I got to the community centre early, so bought a secondhand book from their endlessly replenished supply of bric-a-brac and read it waiting for the 20+ comrades to arrive.
The Beaver Book of Horror Stories. A 1981 collection of psychological chillers about lurking unseen 'things' at the bottom of the well, and strange men who live in the upstairs room. Great Stuff.
I also picked up a cassette album of 'Living in a Box' - self titled and should be full of 80s synthpop goodness. A nice haul for 40 pence total - more than the plastic cup of vended hot chocolate I drank reading the book.
The meeting itself fell into two parts. First, after the obligatory blather about how recuitment is up (it isn't) and a wave of strikes is imminent (almost cirtainly not), the speaker (Candy Udwin) tried to dismiss the criticisms of the party John M had made at the recent conference.
She called his points 'right wing' and 'pessimistic', saying he was arguing about nothing for its own sake. To the credit of the audiance, they didn't let her get away with it. Since when is a calm appraisal of a dire situation right wing or pointless?
The second half was more unified, centering on what Respect can, should, and might do about George Galloway, and the fallout from his appearance on Big Brother. While he's roundly derided on the left at the moment, it seems he is getting some of his message across to the political centre ground, and to the ordinarily apolitical.
He's still a damn fool though, and has done a lot of damage to Respect's credibility - even without the slew of vaccuous tabloid stories against him. In the pub afterwards, news came through that he'd been evicted.
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My thinking is that Galloway, possibly with the best intentions, has made an utter fool of himself.
ReplyDeleteIn the public perception he will never manage to lose the vivid image of the Rula Lenska Cat debacle and funny though this was, it can't be good for a supposedly 'serious' Politician.
He might manage to struggle through if he doesn't mind the riddicule and keeps a wry sense of humour, but I doubt it.
Bad news for Respect.