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Monday, February 05, 2007

Labour Dynasties


Tony Benn in Australia
Tony Benn said at the weekend: "If it turns out that the Labour Party have a coronation, I mean we might as well have a hereditary leader of the Labour Party."

I'd like to draw attention to the hyprocisy of such a statement coming from someone whose paternal grandfather, maternal grandfather, father and son have all shared the occupation of Member of Parliament.

However, it would be a bit embarrassing for me to make cynical comments about heredity in politics, given my well-known fondness for the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the many blog postings I've devoted to them.

For those less familiar with Australian dynastic politics, this article by Henry Thornton explains just how incestuous politics has been in Australia.

Take this paragraph, for instance: "Henry’s more elderly readers would be struck by the amount of familiar names in the Labor Party. Kim Beazley, Simon Crean, Robert McClelland and the Ferguson brothers are all part of what has been referred to as the ALP's 'Political Dynasties'. The ever-quotable former ALP Senator John Button said on the 7:30 Report in 2002 that "there are so many 'and Sons' on the Labor front bench that it's more like a street full of English high class tailors than a Parliamentary party". The prominence of these dynasties implies a distinct lack of competition for the top positions within the ALP."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Talking about dynasties does Julian Pipe wear boxer shorts? I think we should be told. Does he do that Zoolander Magnum stare with the old ball bag adhered to the clammy Pipe thigh.

We need to know if they are they silk, does his tie match his silk boxer shorts? Is their anyone in his cabinet qualified to find out.

We are told that a member of the present Hackney cabinet has the fave party chat-up line of, "do your grindlies match your necktie big boy?"

She also is known to be pretty good at the old game of stoop and pick up the wine box with your teeth and has been seen doing this in wine bars in the north of the borough.

Who is she?

answers on a postcard please.

Luke Akehurst said...

Testing my new comments facility

Anonymous said...

Anonymous asks:

"Does his tie match his silk boxer shorts? Is their anyone in his cabinet qualified to find out."

They say power is an aphrodisiac and Julian Pipe has LOADS of power. Hence, there isn't anyone on his Cabinet who DOESN'T know the status of Julian's underwear. They are all his bitches! 'Til I got knocked up, I was too.

Anonymous said...

My dearest Luke,

More bad news ... I hear that the Diary Section of the Manchester Grauniad plans on publishing something along the following lines in Tuesday's issue. I suspect some hippy from Stokey who keeps making snide comments about Blue Labour is guilty of penning this. Can we burn his house down too?

"Horrifying news from Hackney, where a rightly concerned parent tells us the local education authority (or, to give it its rather splendid official title, The Learning Trust), is even now dishing out a useful leaflet called Helping Your Child With Writing that defines good level 5 prose as "varied, interesting" and, in short, "like the Daily Mail". Words, to be frank, fail us."

Pip pip!

iLikeAkehurstFanClub

Luke Akehurst said...

What's wrong with writing like the Daily Mail? I do.