Pondering, and while slightly more optimistic than we once were, still really quite unhappy Lefty thread

[Hassled]

Where had we got to? We'd agreed that we all love Cameron, right?

I have a couple of people at work who I talk to about politics...we have a secret plan for any illadvised state funerals that might occur and we watched all the statements. But otherwise surrounded by the unintersted/misinformed.

I joined Labour when I was 17 (I'm now 38). I'm Old Labour but realistic. My dad is a stalwart, my grandfather used to stand on Blackpool beach during the war and spout Marxism .

My work is like living inside the Daily Mail. No chance of a reasonable debate there.

Actually the "other thread" has been an eye opener for me.

I must live in a liberal bubble because it was the first time I've heard heard the conservative point of view in any depth other than from politicians.

Can't say they sway me any

The references to the gulag and their personal trickle down theory to their workmen were comedy gold.

although there aren't many good reds on the dulux chart. They're all a bit purple. What does that say about society?

at the Dulux comparisons

I'm probably more left than most too. Not been a member of the labour party since a student but have just rejoined (yesterday!) and always voted labour except 2005 when I registered a green protest vote over the war.

By the way, I grew up in a commune of Maoists, hardline separatist femmos and Black Power sympathisers so the labour party was a right wing rebellion for me

what's "the other thread"? The Brown Megalomania one? I felt my sinuses start to bleed when I read the OP so I scurried away.

My work is meedja so it's almost entirely extreme posh, extreme lefty people.

Champagne socialists of the best kind - all cut glass accents and radical politics. If it were 1920 they'd all be off fighting the Spanish Civil War.

I definitely live in a lefty bubble - I haven't met a single RL person who admitted to voting Tory, that includes friends, family and work colleagues.

I am tribal Labour. I remember going to college and being shocked that some of my "friends" were Tory's and liked nay adored Thatcher. I think I thought Tory's should have two heads or drag about with hairy hands or something.

I was a labour party member and 'activist' as a student and beyond - left in 1997 figuring I wanted a period of independence and they didn't need so much help anymore! I have only not voted labour in euro elections - it goes against the grain.
HAving said that, most of the people I know are rather more leftie than me - I was more tolerant of Blair/new labour/iraq than most.
i suppose I would call myself a slightly liberal-ish labour person, I like to think independently and not always accept received wisdom.

Len, Xmas dinner 1977 was a soya turkey and a debate about the American Civil War; 1983 we put up a number of flying picket miners; pocket money was frequently sidelined for donations to Nicaraguan freedom fighters and my own mother ran a workshop (with me in it) in which teenaged girls were encouraged to get to know their cervix.

I still can't work out whether it was brilliant or to ring Social Services. Heady times...

It's the political reform or economy one youngvisitor.

I'm jealous TYV - I would love to meet a real life lefty friend. I do have some lovely friends but I have failed in my adult life to meet anyone really like me who I can talk to about politics.

It's not a massive issue but I certainly feel it around elections, feeling like I just have to grin and stay silent when talking to people because I don't want to cause a fight.

at DHam

I have spoken to my dad on the 'phone more in the last 3 days than I have in the previous year!

Both dh and myself are pretty tribal too - both of us have parents who have been Labour councillors so grew up on leafletting etc.
Sometimes I think that makes me too blinkered about accepting that Tories might be human too...
Actually this evening I am feeling quite a lot of confidence in NIck Clegg. I mean the guy was schooled in the EU so if anyone can negotiate and work out a coalition, its him. And a rather sickening realisation of the depths of Labour decline.

David - wot no Gammon?

Oh and I live in the Labour heartlands of hte North East. Which is nice in that no one would ever admit to voting Tory. But a bit weird in that I really feel we are a in different country from the moneyed, comfortable and oh-so Tory home counties.