Far too much has been said already by far too many about Labour in recent weeks, when all fire should have been aimed at the Tories. The future of the country and its citizens surely trumps internal politics. My previous post suggested a split and nothing has changed. I have not opined in this misery fest of name-calling and introspective back-biting, seeing little value in adding to it nor raising a voice on real issues in a room of the unhearing. Labour is going to hell in a handcart, leaving the ruthless but effective May to take her holiday secure in the knowledge that her boat will be unrocked in her absence. What a mess.
During the last few baking days I have been reading Jean Vautrin's novel of the French Commune, "The Voice of the People", with some enjoyment but not a little poignancy. The tale of inevitable heroic failure, more familiar through the lens of "Les Miserables", presents some parallels or at least a few passages which resonate in our self-destruction:
"...doomed to vanish down the trapdoor of history for having sought to reinvent a free and generous world through decrees and posters" may reflect how our supposed leaders are behaving today?
"[The revolution is faltering] because philosophers and artists confuse their dreams with the hopes and hands distorted by toil" perhaps sums up the Westminster bubble but "Must we wait for the poor to become so poor that they can only revolt?" and "People who smell of sweat are worth as much as people who smell of cologne" are lessons yet to be learned by those now in power.
The end of the Commune is that being played out not in England but in Syria for those who stood up to Assad. We here must not resort to arms but must respect the poorest more so that this is simply not conceivable.
