Dada, what a fantastic post!!! I feel suitably humbled.
I don't agree entirely with the following statement.
Dadaist wrote:
Porty judges Galloway and Sheridan with a completely different wig than the one he dons for his establishment chums, which is a shame. It's almost making me start to understand what it must be like to be a young black male in London.
I am sceptical of all politicians, regardless of their hue or persuasion and for me the higher the profile the deeper my sceptiscim gets. This is probably due to the fact in order to get anywhere in Politics these days one has to lie and spin. (In Bliar's case; lying and spin to keep him up there.)
My issue with the SSP has got more to do with the core of their beliefs. Socialism is not an efficient economic system, it doesn't work. There is no evidence that it works,in fact quite the contrary.
I find Tommy S a charismatic person and I think i could quite happily go for a pint with him or maybe to Starbucks where we could argue over the best seat for observing eye candy. My problems with him begins when I see or read his spraff about economics, what he says, more often than not, is nonsense. It sounds good to the economically ignorant but in practice its unrealstic and unworkable.
An inverted exanple of this is the fact that he (and the others) donate half their salaries back to the SSP. Whilst this appears to be a grand gesture, and it is, it is also an economic neccessity. The SSP are a £100,000 business (Pure guess for illustrative purpose) with staff costs of £200,000+ they cannot afford the infrastructure to support 6 MSP's. It is long-term unrealistic that Tommy et al could take all of their salaries and keep them. Having siad that then if you are going to "donate" half of your salary you may as well make the most political capital you can. In reality its just another spin.
He continually plays and panders to the "populist" ignorance of his disciples, a master of sound bites, hence the "rebel" statement. For many, including the journo's it was a masterstroke, turning negative comments on his wife to a positive one on the baby. (I dont like the fact that he is using the baby tho)
I remain deeply sceptical of the guy as you are of Blair. I even wonder that when he is arrested during protests, he only just turned up 5 minutes beforehand for the photoshoot/TV. Am I too cynical?
You go on to say;
"I will always address politics, but the personal only when it directly impinges on a political debate. I've never once started to talk about any aspects of Blair's personal life - "
Blair keeps his private life private, so you don't really have the opportunity. (Not that I'm suggesting you would)
at this Porty, regardless of her parent's, she is just an innocent wee baby.
