4 Replies to “Blazers”

  1. Luke I agree you raise a critical core issue for the frutue survival of Labour as a Governing party. I surmise it as ‘you can win the South or win the rest, but you cannot win it all’.After living in London for several years in the 70s and then back to Scotland I was acutely aware of how unelectable in South East England Labour had been made out. Note that I say ‘made out’, and not that it was actually unelectable… and for that thank-you Murdoch et al. Back in Scotland I found that even politically savvy people had no comprehension of just how much the tectonic plates in electoral perceptions had changed down South. Thatcher came as a brutal shock.I don’t think that ‘Old’ Labour in Scotland ever really recovered – instead they covered themselves in a comfort blanket of ‘it will all come right one day if we just meantime keep Scotland Labour’.It did sort of ‘come right’, we hoped, when the Blair Government came in. However, since then I have seen how the steadfast core of Labour in Scotland and much of North of England and Wales been hollowed out. This was because of a disproportionate subservience to the need to ‘win the South’ at all costs’. There was no compromise – if something didn’t win votes in the South it was dumpred, whatever it was.In a perverse reverse, I now find when I visit down South, that many supposed Labour people have no comprehension about how detached the once-traditional-Labour-supporter has become in Scotland (and I suspect the English ‘regions’). There is a, literally, widespread revulsion in Scotland of what much of Labour under Blair became. For example, the spoutings of Housing Minister Flint on her surprise at levels of unemployment among social housing tenants and her reactionary ‘tied cottage’ proposals, received broad coverage here.But what makes it a perfect storm this time around, is that meantime in its Scottish once-stronghold Labour’s performance has been abysmal – and this is way beyond anything to do with the failings of individuals like Douglas Alexander (now escaped back to Westminster), or Wendy or indeed disgraced come-back kid Henry McLeish (just what in heaven’s name does Scottish Labour comprehend about what the electorate thinks of the return of the likes of that individual? – propbably almost about as much as retaining convicted arsonist Watson on in the Lords). The inability of the Brown regime to continue to ‘manage’ Scotland is evidenced by the likes of the ineptness of Douglas-no-blame- Alexander over the Scottish election and the inane nonsense of supposedly ‘Scottish’ Labour Ministers like David Cairns (he’s just labeled us the ‘McChattering classes’ to widespread disdain and irritation).As I surmise, it seems it’s the South or the rest, but not all of it… well done Mr Blair, you did achieve your objective of dismantling the national left-of-centre coalition and moving UK politics significantly rightwards.

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  3. Hi chapsJust got a new pair of waders and faicned trying them out by going after some Grayling. I’ve fished the river for about 25 years , on and off and have not had a single Grayling. (I’ve not had many trout for that matter, but that’s entirely down to my own inept casting! )I’m not looking for anybody to give away any secrets or anything, but can you give me some pointers as to locations/flies to try.I generally fish upstream of the Bow Butts for trout-is it worth trying that area-there are a few deep runs- or am I better further down stream.Cheers in advance for any hintsStuart

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