Further to this little matter:
How the mighty have fallen.
No, not Lindsay German’s resigning; Lenny having to pen a piece on his blog about a little local difficulty concerning the SWP so soon after it happening. (48 hours? Lenny would usually sooner wait about 48 months before coughing up a response on his blog.)
Funny times. That leading SWPer all those years ago who bemoaned the internet and its nefarious effect on the organisation really was onto something.
Lenny having to comment reminded me of this old joke concerning the SWP and the internet. It's sectarian and it's silly but it still makes me laugh two years after the fact.
Addendum
Madam Miaow provides the video response to German resigning, whilst someone in a darkened room somewhere works on the Downfall video to mark this momentous occasion concerning the British Vanguard.
11 comments:
You're having a dig, the SP are having a dig via AVPS... Socialist Unity indeed! Oh, my aching sides.
Let's be honest, It's a bit of a non-story and it's all rather meaningless, but of course many of us are going to enjoy it because we've all been on the receiving end of the SWP in some shape or form down the years.
For me, what's funniest is that the SWP have to publically acknowledge all this in front of all other lefty groups. They must fucking hate that Al Gore bloke for inventing the t'internet. ;-)
Wasn't the gag on the Simpsons actually;
Mum; Seymour. Are you looking at naked ladies on the internet?
Seymour; No Mother.
Mum; Why not?
Not quite sure how this pans out on the John Rees/Lenin relationship, but I'm sure you might find an angle.
Isn't this story a little like the Little Nell saga in Dickens? I think it was George Orwell, although it might have been Hilaire Belloc, who said of her death scene; It would take a heart of stone not to laugh out loud.
Incidentally, does the use of the word "Um" or "Erm" at the start of an internet comment act as shorthand for "I am a member of the SWP"? Just an observation. Someone on Sociaist Unity suggested that people stop commenting as ordinary people stopping by might get the wrong idea about the left [!]. As one of those ordinary people (I hope) I can only say that that I hope this is ignored. This has been the most entertaining week on Leftist blogs for some time.
With regards to the Simpsons gag, I'll have to defer to your greater knowledge.
When it comes to the great cartoon war of the late nineties/early noughties, I always aligned myself with King of the Hill.
Are you sure you're ticking the box for ordinary person? As a rep for OPs on left blogs, does that mean that when Quail's history of Solidarity eventually comes out it will be a best seller? Should we expecting a tv adaptation, film and video game tie-in? (If that gag is laboured, I claim extreme tiredness as my defence.)
I may be wrong, but I think that if a comment beginning with an "um" or an "erm" is in reply to another comment, it's usually a short hand way of saying, 'You're righting complete bollocks'.
TBH, I thought the Respect/Renewal fallout was funnier but, as this fallout gets increasingly grubbier and petty, it does rather raise a smile to observe the sheen and mystery stripped away from vanguardist politics and all its practitioners.
As one of the contributors to the Rees/German dispute etc etc pt 94 said (or should have said) "Um, actually when I called myself an ordinary person couldn't you read my sarcasm"? (I did see something like that somewhere.Although mine wasn't, unlike the original, written in a North London quasi-bourgeois accent.)
If the film of John Quail's book on Solidarity is as good as The Book and the Sword dvds, the book and the film will be best sellers. But I doubt that Helmsman Pallis's gongfu was as excellent as Helmsman Chen's. (Actually there is a rather spooky parallel betwen Gerry Healy and Emperor Qian Lung, but I might write about that in due course. And at length. Being an ordinary person and all that.)
Back to being ordinary.
BTW; You are totally right about King of the Hill.
Um,
"'You're righting complete bollocks'."
Of course, I meant to write, 'You're talking complete bollocks'.
Once again, I claim extreme tiredness as my defence.
I'm off to wiki Emperor Qian Lung.
Manchu emperor. Spelt slightly different in the book - Qian Long. Was a real historic figure. The nub of the book is that he and the leader of the Red Flower rebels are secretly brothers. The book is a superb read - but its origin as novel that was published daily in a newspaper shows - there is a tendency to repitition, although when you get into it, the style grows on you. I'm watching the dvd in chapters and will be interested to see if the Uighurs are heroic allies of the rebels, as in the book or if, as I suspect, they conveniently get forgotten. The english version of the novel was published by Oxford University press, no less.
Mike, it was Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde who delivered the death of Little Nell line, along with so many others that might apply to the trauchles of the SWP, such as when someone in his club was going on about the conspiracy of silence against him and asked what should he do. 'Join it' said Wilde.
I tip my hat to you Brigadier, and now you mention it suddenly seems that it couldn't have been anyone other than Mr Wilde. But no, please no conspiracy of silence about the travails of the would be lords and masters of the universe. There's precious little else to laugh at these days. (Apart from your cracking bus stories - more please.)
You have to sort of quite admire the way they haven't as yet commented on the Swerps fall out at Shiraz Socialist. But I keep clicking there in the hope of one of those mega trot schlock fests only they can do so well, with the guns of Jim D and johng blazing away. A bit like the Chinese martial arts films I'm getting into. But without the sky walking. Hi ho. Back to being ordinary.
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