Posted: Apr 28, 2015 8:14 pm
chairman bill wrote:For Granddad, ‘socialism’ was just a ten-bob word for common decency.
Pretty much. Equality & fairness. Not words that much bother the Tories nor it seems the LibDems. Also not something that bothered New <hawk, spit> Labour much either, though it did much more to alleviate poverty than most, whether through cancelling African debt (Brown, not Bliar) or bringing so many kids out of poverty. But equality & fairness is all it's about really. Overcoming the Thatcherite individualism & lack of care for society, is still an on-going process though, and one I see Ed Miliband continuing apace.
My overwhelming feeling towards Brown isn't actually anger or ill-feeling, although they sometimes emerge when his apparent hatred of SNP pushes him into outright lies*. But mostly I just feel sad over Gordon Brown, someone who certainly did believe the same things as the people who came before him, but got lost somewhere in government. He DID do some good things, and he did things I believe for the right reasons, and I got the impression (wishful thinking perhaps) that he tempered Blair's policies as much as possible.
But I'm just disappointed in him.
As for Blair, well ...
*Brown lies - he told pensioners they would lose their pensions if we voted yes, which is a lie, and he claimed organ recipients in Scotland wouldn't get access to organs because SNP wanted to break all ties. The organ transplant service had to issue a statement pointing out this was bollocks as the different NHS services are independent, and the existing arrangements which include Republic of Ireland would absolutely continue unchanged. Brown makes me sad.