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« 'Tiny the Turbine' | Main | Bremorse - Josh 377 »
Tuesday
Jun282016

Playing the Lead - Josh 378

Please note, no actual Labour Leaders were harmed during the making of this cartoon.

Cartoons by Josh

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Reader Comments (449)

Perhaps you could deport Jeremy to Australia? Given the mess we are in politically there may be a job for him.
Of course the current Labor leader is unasailable having done much better than expected by many, and he is a handy man with a knife as his 2 predecessors can testify. But the current PM - at least until the votes are settled - may be replaceable.
Having tried to drag his party leftwards, and tax the "rich", as well as resorting to retrospective legislation while being indecisive and waffling a lot, Jeremy would seem indistinguishable.

On second thoughts Jeremy isn't as staunch on global warming/climate change as the incumbent, and he thinks the party members should be listened to. And can he do the arrogance? Sorry, I don't think he should apply after all.

By the way, has anyone wondered why the Australian Government stuffed up re-election?

Jul 4, 2016 at 3:08 AM | Unregistered CommenterGraeme No.3

She is a Lawyer, and married to a Judge, so ought to have a good grasp of fairness, justice and equality.
Having had some rather tenuous dealings with the Law and its attendants in the past, I am not sure that that statement is necessarily correct, GC.

Jul 4, 2016 at 6:14 AM | Registered CommenterRadical Rodent

If you keep pulling you Blairist swine, I'm going to get splinters and they will really, really hurt.

Jul 4, 2016 at 7:09 AM | Unregistered CommenterAlan kendall

RR. Are you trying to say. "As a lawyer, with spousal judicial review, she should have a good grasp on how to achieve unfairness, injustice and inequality? Having at least an MSc in watching lawyerly pranks and deviousness on TV I'd go along with that.

Jul 4, 2016 at 7:21 AM | Unregistered CommenterAlan kendall

Radical Rodent and Alan Kendall,

The wondrous thing about Emily Thornberry is that she can appear on so many TV programmes explaining that fellow Labour Islington MP Jeremy Corbyn has the Democratic support of the members of the Labour Party, and everyone else in the studio keeps a straight face.

Sadly for Lady Nugee, she is obviously under the delusion that she is listened to by serious looking people, because they take her seriously.

Jul 4, 2016 at 12:29 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

golfCharlie. It's not just Emily T., but all of the Ali Corbyn and his forty th... supporters. They really believe they have a moral victory (which everyone should acknowledge) rather than holding Her Majesty's Opposition up for ransom. So perhaps they are forty th**ves after all.

Jul 4, 2016 at 3:31 PM | Unregistered CommenterAlan kendall

Alan Kendall, there is nothing like a bunch of extremists for pushing moderates in the opposite direction.

If it had not been for Kinnock taking on Militant with that speech in Bournemouth 1985, Labour would have disintegrated. It did not bring success for Kinnock, but it cleared the Party of its unelectables, for Blair and his election successes.

Corbyn is determined to prevent the electables blocking his plans for political oblivion, even if it is the last thing Labour ever achieve.

I have sailed a gaff-rigged boat. Nouveau Comrade Emily is a political-gaffe rigger, and is happy to assist the rigging of more political gaffes.

Jul 4, 2016 at 4:33 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

golfCharlie. To pursue your boat them, I would suggest the conflict between Labour factions has gone back to earliest times and Corbyn's lot are retreating into their dugouts. His opponents, however, haven't a paddle and are taking a punt.

Jul 4, 2016 at 6:03 PM | Unregistered CommenterAlan kendall

Alan Kendall, a good punt is appreciated by students at Oxford and Cambridge. Not much good for ruffled feathers in troubled waters for those trying a bit of gunning in a duck punt, as many a Norfolk Broadsman with a speech impediment has found out.

Jul 4, 2016 at 10:48 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

golfCharlie.
Perhaps the Great Leader (of the forty) should try practicing on his lame duck punt. He sure is in choppy water.
Please see unthreaded for my repost to your unprovoked slur upon the Norfolk accent.

Jul 5, 2016 at 9:53 AM | Unregistered CommenterAlan kendall

Corbyns brother speaking recently.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WcWqFcuI2fk

Jul 5, 2016 at 12:11 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

Alan Kendall, duck punt gunning was an East Anglian speciality. The waters of The Wash and The Broads were ideal. Duck punts were not unique to East Anglia, as Wikipedia might reveal.

A successful duck punt gunner might feed a dozen families with a single blast of his massive blunderbuss, but facial injuries were common amongst those men that thought to develop their courtship skills after a pint or six of village brewed aphrodisiac, by inviting a young maiden to compare the compatibility of their gun and duck punt to her future needs.

The word 'blunderbus' comes from the Dutch, donderbus, meaning thunder pipe. Their use as wildfowling weapons may have come from the Dutch to East Anglia. Large ones were used mounted as swivel guns on the upper decks of ships in the 1700s to fire down on an enemy prior to boarding assaults. Provided you had gunpowder, anything from gravel to lead shot could be loaded, and pirates loved them.

Jul 5, 2016 at 3:04 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

golfCharlie. You are a regular mess of information. Presumably the large flat bottom of punts was developed not only to allow passage through the shallowest of waters but to provide maximum drag to withstand the blunderbus recoil. Jeremy would seem to need something similar to withstand the recoil of most of his MPs.

There are no typos in this post.

Jul 5, 2016 at 5:31 PM | Unregistered CommenterAlan kendall

The was a young woman called Gluck
Who had the most terrible luck.
She went out in a punt, fell over the front,
And was pecked on the nose by a duck.

Jul 5, 2016 at 7:42 PM | Unregistered CommenterMartin A

The recoil of a duck punt gun, was taken by the duck punt itself. That which could be absorbed with ropes, was, but the result would have been that the entire punt recoiled, otherwise the punt would have been shattered.

A duck punt was designed for manoeuvring with an oar or paddle, while sitting, or lying down. They would have flat bottoms, but may have a pointy end at front and rear.

Jul 5, 2016 at 10:12 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

The UK decides to engage in fiscal expansion.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qzTYNhWoLZ4&itct=CBoQpDAYASITCL2j94263c0CFRM0HAodKbUNFTIGcmVsbWZ1SNfhq4KCssubggE%3D

Jul 6, 2016 at 12:32 AM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

golfCharlie. Does a lame duck punt (like Angela Eagle's?) have a hole in it?

Jul 6, 2016 at 6:39 AM | Unregistered CommenterAlan kendall

Beware..
The capitalist left may wish to reconfigure itself along "nationalist"lines through the imposition of capital controls and finding a war (any war) to fight so as to impose a full employment war economy.

This Mmt blog follows nearly all the classic patterns imposed after a failed globalisation period.
(Think of 1914 as the end of the long 19th century)

The war chosen is that great morality play, man made climate change.

What is in reality happening is the bailing out of banks and their claims on us via national production / destruction drives.

Jul 6, 2016 at 12:40 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=33943

Jul 6, 2016 at 12:42 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

1. Exposition of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) – of course!
2. The use of regulation versus the price system to engender resource allocation changes – for example, Carbon Taxes (price system) against bans on polluting activities (closure of coal mining etc).
3. Employment guarantees versus income guarantees.
4. The entrepreurial state – the role of government in the innovation process. The concept of brainbelts replacing rust belts and the revitalisation of manufacturing (away from cheap towards smart).
5. Capital and import controls – trade protection.
6. Free trade myths and the gains from fair trade.
7. Financial market regulation and bank reform – reducing the scope for unproductive waste.
8. Dealing with climate change and other environmental problems – changing the growth paradigm into green growth.
9. Wage and productivity policies – redressing the growing gap between real wages growth and productivity growth and the increasing reliance on private credit growth for growth.
10. Reversing income and wealth inequality

Jul 6, 2016 at 12:50 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

Mmt has been employed for a long long time.
It is not very modern
It has been in operation since at least the Napolonic war era.

Its important that people become equipped to dispute the assertions and policies of the capitalist radicals in both the Labour and Tory parties.

First let me say what has broken down.
Forced trade policies have collapsed
Not free trade.
To confuse the two means you have fallen into the banks well laid trap.

You will not learn any of this from the Adam Smith institute and other monetarist propaganda bodies

Middle England has finally woken up to the radical and anti conservative policies of the 80s and beyond.
Let's hope that it can continue.

Jul 6, 2016 at 1:03 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

Alan Kendall, I think a Punt has a flat bottom. A more rounded bottom is better for load carrying, and comfort at sea. It has never occurred to me to arsess female (or male) politicians , on the flatness or roundness of their bottoms, but Diane Abbott is still imlressed by what Corbyn has to say, whereas Eagle is not swayed by his opinions.

Jul 6, 2016 at 1:15 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

Chilcot report with a "Fatherland" twist

Germany failed in its efforts to impose a smooth occupation of France.
The Vichy regime chosen was weak.
Berlins planning both military and civilian was lightweight in both resources allocated and deep strategic understanding.
Germany is now in a grave military and economic position with both a strong US state to our west and continued insurgent operations on our eastern frontier.

Must do better next time.

Jul 6, 2016 at 1:21 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

golfCharlie. Your spellchecker is revolting, impeding what otherwise was probably a stream of enlightened consciousness. But I do not wish to contaminate my mind with considerations of vaious Labour politicians' bottoms. There are places I will.not go.

Jul 6, 2016 at 1:37 PM | Unregistered CommenterAlan kendall

A new international legal precedent has been set.

Previously a successful defence was the so called Speer gambit.
A focused technocrat who was generally unaware of the wider strategic and moral implications.
This partially successful defence however involved life in prison.

Now we can add the good intentions chess move.
A apparently unbeatable and untouchable defence.

One comes away with a wider appreciation of Goring and Co.
Sure he was a piss poor general who liked to wear womens clothes when not on company time but the man at least had a set of balls.

I can only imagine the derision and venom directed against Blair if they were both beside eachother in the dock.
Just to add I do not believe in international justice in any form but it's interesting to observe it's internal contradictions played out for all to see.

Jul 6, 2016 at 2:42 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

Blair sets another world record for emotional pauses within a political speech!!

Where did yee get this guy?
Eh
Better not answer that question.

Jul 6, 2016 at 5:30 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

More pregnant pauses this morning from Blair in his today programme morning interview.

The press coverage is of course wildly inaccurate.
It was not Blairs war.
He was the salesman.

To understand the neo conservative mind one must read The Shield of Achielles by P. Bobbit.

Frum who also spoke this morning on the today programme was much more enlightening.

He plainly said that they gave the Iraqis ballot box democracy and scarcity economy and they rejected it for (rational in this case) tribalism.

Iraq more then anything exposes the absurdity of the western democratic export.
It is a vote without ownership (meaningless)

Jul 7, 2016 at 2:45 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

I would highly recommend Today's interview of David Frum on Bbc radio 4.

The trouble with people's analysis of the Iraq war is that they took the neo conservative line as absurd propaganda.

In fact they did exactly what was said on the tin.

People for some reason cannot grasp the pseudo religious aspect of capitalist evangelicals.

One of the principal doctrines of capitalism is flux and displacement.

They cannot maintain monopolistic power without it.

The wars have little to nothing to do with natural resources.

The principle objective is to create a great tide of rudderless former peasants (now serfs) flooding into the cosmopolitan and urban centers.

When looked on from this correct perspective the wars have been wildly successful.

Iraq has finally clicked with middle England.

Their democracy is not as it seems, it never was.

Parliament is and always was a oligarchy.

Jul 7, 2016 at 3:25 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/08/sports/tennis/wimbledon-semifinals-williams-serena-venus-kerber.html

Dork the 2016 Ladies Wimbledon Tennis Final please may we have your thoughts on that as we seem to have your thoughts on everything else.

Jul 8, 2016 at 4:20 AM | Unregistered CommenterJamspid

So Dork three Dallas Police Officers ten injured shot dead by two snipers

Jul 8, 2016 at 5:10 AM | Unregistered CommenterBlame it Climate Change

Dork update

Now it's four dead Dallas police officers

Great for CO2 reduction No one will be flying over to America this year
First the pound has collapsed against the dollar after Brexit
Second Obama will have to recall his Troops from Poland and Latvia when the Police all over America all go out on strike.

Once again what can we convientiantly blame it on ?

Jul 8, 2016 at 5:35 AM | Unregistered CommenterBlame it Climate Change

Blame it Climate Change.
Answer to your provoking question- the Dorks of this world.
Do they do tennis in Cork? Regardless, I'm sure you'll get an answer implicating the sport in funny money economics, Brexit or almost anything.
When did you realize it was Dork feeding time? Some here will feel you are about a decade or so premature.

Jul 8, 2016 at 6:43 AM | Unregistered CommenterAlan kendall

Back in the 90s when I considered myself a trendy Ian Banks like socialist those deaths would have been a non event.
Give me a series of murders to get my teeth into, perhaps along lines of "Complicity"

As for Wimbledon.... in the 80s everybody played tennis for 2 weeks and drank barley water.
Jaysus, we were so innocent.

It's been a progression of understanding.
The Iraq war did many people a favour.
Both the Westphalia capitalist nation states of the past and the market states of today are deeply artifical structures.
We have lived inside a 500 year bubble, created by these very very nasty gods.

Jul 8, 2016 at 9:25 AM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

Mercator by Nick Crane
Chapter 1 :A little town called Gangelt

“In Gangelt they were locked into the fate of the peasant, who was currently enduring rural Europe transition from an ancient feudal system to a money economy ,where the freedom to work for a wage came at the cost of dispossession from the land , as owners consolidated their estates for commercial production”
The rising prices of farm produce benefited the large farmers and estate owners,but crippled the peasants who were forced to work more ,for lower wages for crops that were not theirs.
As larger farms became more viable ,the ancient privileges which gave peasants the wherewithal to live off the land was eroded.
A new term emerged ,”roboten” , meaning drudge ,toil ,fag , sweat.

The peasant became a wage slave ,a Robot.
To the daily drudgery was added punitive taxes and periodic demands for men and horses to fight the emperors campaigns”

Crane expresses the transition to gross avarice wonderfully.

Even previously settled and relatively established academics /artists are expressing the truth now.

Anthony Cronin speaking to Irish state TV last week expressed the opinion that the banks own everything and now what?
He was quietly moved on to other subjects.
You see the poor man is senile and all......

Jul 8, 2016 at 11:07 AM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

There are sites that encourage you to purchase and read new books. They stimulate interest, often by using short quotations.
Dork has created a brand new format - something that puts you off reading the books he quotes from.

Jul 8, 2016 at 11:53 AM | Unregistered CommenterAlan kendall

Clear waters rising is another book I recommend.

I will drive poor aul Nick Crane to bankruptcy
..ha ha ha.

Anyhow if Anthony Cronin is expressing skeptism of the state you know things are about to go tits up.
(He was the champion of the artists dole)

His 1989 collection of poems has been re issued
"The end of the modern world"
We now live in a time where new inventions are no longer welcomed.
They hold no promise.
I am not strictly a luddite myself but given the structure of power all further innovation is cataclysmic for humanity.

Jul 8, 2016 at 12:24 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

https://breffnicummiskey.com/2016/05/31/anthony-cronin-on-the-miracle-of-poetry-and-making-art-the-breath-of-common-being-2/

Jul 8, 2016 at 12:27 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

So Dork when Trump accuses Obama of inflaming BLM and then Obama appears at those police funerals in Dallas and the Cops turn their backs and boo him ,Obama will convientiy blame Guns and Climate Change and Dork you can conveniently blame Capitalism.

Jul 8, 2016 at 1:12 PM | Unregistered CommenterJamspid

Trump is the face of capitalism returning to a Westphalia structure.
Nothing really very complex about it.

Jul 8, 2016 at 2:25 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

Trump talk is boring anyhow.

How a lighter note....

If Rula Lenska asks you to become a cat, what man could refuse?
She was such a sex bomb in her day.

Jul 8, 2016 at 2:32 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

State capitalism for idiots.

A monopoly central bank, tax raising power develops within a defined political border / jurisdiction.
In its favour civil wars are no longer really possible as only one group can raise money for a army.

However the waste dynamics of capitalism remains.
Huge surpluses build up between jurisdictions which must be destroyed so as to maintain wealth concentration.
Westphalia ended with the first and second world wars.
However the replacement market state is also a gigantic failure.
The problem resides within the root philosophy of capitalism me thinks.

Jul 8, 2016 at 3:12 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p3tUqRBiMVo

Harry and Paul Bbc question time sketch, both a amazingly accurate and funny piece.
We can now safely assume George Galloway is a official establishment figure with the obligatory ha ha ha joke at the end of Question time and his endorsement of Chilcot.
Ballot box democracy is a absurdity.

Jul 8, 2016 at 3:40 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

Mr. Obama performed one of his special dog whistle speeches whilst in Poland and less than 24 hours later 5 police officers are gunned down and14 wounded by people who would be proud to call Mr. Obama "dad".
Dork, I am sure that if I was in a pub and as drunk as you apparently are, you would make sense.
However, as I am sober, you are indistinguishable from blithering gibberish.

Jul 8, 2016 at 5:32 PM | Unregistered Commenterhunter

Sadly all I said was true and can be verified.
The English civil war was when again?

Nation states were dismantled by the international elite post WW II.
It's all there baby.

Jul 8, 2016 at 5:59 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

Ask any eurozone functionary.
Junker and the lads, anyone of them.

The eurozone was designed to rip up the Westphalia world system

You really need to read Phillip Bobbits little red book.

Jul 8, 2016 at 6:03 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

There must be some logic explaining shifts in topics between, and sometimes within, Dork posts, but if there is he is using an enigma machine with all the settings made at random. What we need is a bombe. But why bother? Eventually his Grace may bestir and wipe this most recent plague away. This outbreak is particularly onerous, 21 posts and counting, but probably few have been read.

Jul 8, 2016 at 6:41 PM | Unregistered CommenterAlan kendall

To scientific eyes and ears , Episcopal silence seems rivaled in grace only by white on white cartoons by Josh.

Jul 8, 2016 at 8:14 PM | Unregistered CommenterRussell

Corbyn was a big and very public supporter of Chavismo in Venezuela. In 2014, he joined Maduro by telephone in a live television broadcast on state TV in Venezuela.
By then, the vast majority of socialists of the European armchair variety had recognised that the Maduro regime was characterised by corruption and ineptitude. With a trillion dollars of windfall oil profits, Chavismo managed to dismantle all democratic protections in Venezuela and to destroy most of its domestic production capacity; it managed in a 10-year period to convert one of the richest countries in Latin America into a lawless, debt-ridden basket case with a subjugated judiciary and a bad-and-deteriorating record on human rights - one which is now facing a massive humanitarian crisis because of shortage of food and medicine.

Mr Corbyn's supporters should be a tad concerned about his street cred.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/22/radical-leftwing-tourists-pimps-dictatorship-hugo-chavez-venezuela-sex-tourism

Jul 10, 2016 at 10:58 AM | Unregistered CommenterPaul_K

Paul K. Shame on you, relying on that crooked news-rag The Guardian. That is totally verboten here, almost as bad as relying upon the wicked BBC.

I believe the correct quote involves judging a person by the company he keeps. Your piece demonstrates the proof of that old adage. The sooner JC disappears into the back benches again, the sooner parliament might regain an effective opposition.

Jul 10, 2016 at 11:48 AM | Unregistered CommenterAlan kendall

@Alan
If you truly believe in Parliament then how can restored Blairites provide opposition to New Blair Tories.
Both parties are neo Marxist /neo conservative.

The real split in the Tory party we see now perhaps goes back to the Corn laws.
That is a free trade ( in reality forced trade) vs agrarian owners of local production.
The great masse of both Labour and Tory members of Parliament are of course with the banks as they are the only guys with control over the company token system.

Jul 10, 2016 at 12:23 PM | Unregistered CommenterThe Dork of Cork

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