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 Shirley Williams
Topic Originator: Jbob  
Date:   Wed 14 Apr 11:21

RIP

Bobs of the world unite
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 Re: Shirley Williams
Topic Originator: sammer  
Date:   Wed 14 Apr 12:21

Her death has been overshadowed by Prince Philip`s which in a way is testament to the limited achievements of her political career.
Despite William`s efforts, the UK at the time of her death has just as an entrenched system of land ownership and inherited wealth as the day she first set foot in the House of Commons. Not that class politics was ever Williams game- she left the Labour Party for that reason- but if she thought a move towards the Liberal Party was going to bring about a fairer society then she must have been sadly disabused.

sammer
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 Re: Shirley Williams
Topic Originator: Wotsit  
Date:   Thu 15 Apr 09:58

All politics is class politics and working people are definitely losing the war.


"Who you are and what you feel comes not just from inside you, but from where you are in the power structure"
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 Re: Shirley Williams
Topic Originator: OzPar  
Date:   Thu 15 Apr 12:27

Williams, Jenkins and Owen, the SDP defectors. The three could certainly talk the talk (it was difficult to get them to stop talking), but they couldn`t walk the walk. All they managed to achieve was to divide the opposition to Thatcher.

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 Re: Shirley Williams
Topic Originator: londonparsfan  
Date:   Thu 15 Apr 18:42

Quote:

Wotsit, Thu 15 Apr 09:58

All politics is class politics and working people are definitely losing the war.


Quite often not helping themselves though. In England they've made a decision to prioritise leaving the EU and have constantly voted Conservative with their austerity policies. At some point folk have to acknowledge their own role in where we are as a country.

I've lost count of the number of times I've heard working class people repeat phrases like "hard left" off the back of reading tabloid articles and not having a clue that there are barely any hard left politicians in the UK anymore.
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 Re: Shirley Williams
Topic Originator: Wotsit  
Date:   Fri 16 Apr 18:56

Absolutely agree lpf.

Folk have been tricked into looking down the pecking order for the ones to blame for problems.

They have been tricked into believing that a single mother is the one stealing from them because she has enough money for fags.


"Who you are and what you feel comes not just from inside you, but from where you are in the power structure"
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 Re: Shirley Williams
Topic Originator: londonparsfan  
Date:   Fri 16 Apr 19:59

Yeah it's a sad state of affairs.

In the meantime wealth inequality may be worse than official figures:

https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2021/jan/03/richest-1-have-almost-a-quarter-of-uk-wealth-study-claims

Folk are still more likely to believe that something they saw on the most recent episode of whatever poverty porn they were watching is what they need to be worried about rather than the comparatively more abstract issues involved in closing the wealth gap such as off shoring and tax evasion.
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 Re: Shirley Williams
Topic Originator: McCaig`s Tower  
Date:   Sat 24 Apr 19:19

I never met Shirley Williams, but I heard her speak, impressively, a couple of times.

She was very intelligent, very knowledgeable and very experienced, qualities sadly lacking amongst the current crop of politicians.

She had seen a bit of the world and served in cabinet – one of the younger “post-war” group of politicians who had something of a blank canvas to work with, albeit in terms of an economy and society that had been devastated. She would probably achieved more had circumstances been different, but she chose to leave the Labour Party, and remained faithful to her new party when other “defectors” went back during the Blair years.

She also had the common touch, being very popular on doorsteps and in public campaigning (but also with politicians of all stripes).

A sad loss.

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 Re: Shirley Williams
Topic Originator: McCaig`s Tower  
Date:   Sat 24 Apr 19:24

Just a couple of points on other matters mentioned, which might be worth threads of their own.

If austerity means cuts to public spending, then all parties were in favour. They just differed over the amount and the period over which cuts were to be made.

Secondly, is it not inevitable that during global crises, such as the Financial crisis, or the Covid pandemic, that wealth inequality increases?

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