[Boris]

40 yrs ago I was a radical member of the Young Socialists. Going on demos and throwing eggs at Enoch Powell and his racist pals was my honour. I am not radical any more but never changed my principles of fairness, truth and give back to those you can.

There was a particular Brown Noser who was President of the Young Liberals. A Gucci, White South African, Channel tainted revolutionary who, when he found that, if he was ever going to make it politically, being a Liberal was a bad move.

He " became " a socialist and partied with his Islington friends and Brown Nosed his way up the stairs of power, into the cabinet. Nearly making it to Deputy Leader.

Then he found that all the Brown he had been taking was now all around him and he was trapped.
TODAY - he drowned.

No tears , just cheers.
40yrs I waited, today is a GOOD DAY !

UK minister quits amid finance claims - CNN.com

[araucaria]

Agreed - but surely no worse than all the other arrivistes waving their socialists credentials while sending their kids off to public school - Blair, Harman and so forth.

[Boris]

I didn't know them growing up. We all knew this guy though.

[hullexile]

Originally Posted by Boris

40 yrs ago I was a radical member of the Young Socialists. Going on demos and throwing eggs at Enoch Powell and his racist pals was my honour. I am not radical any more but never changed my principles of fairness, truth and give back to those you can.

Well, well, well Boris perhaps we were on demos together though I think I was a few years after you. He was always a shit, even when he was claiming to be a radical everyone knew it was about a millimetre deep.

[Sleuth]

Wouldn't the alternative be a politician who makes it to/close to the top through a life-long, unwavering comittment to the same principles?
How many of those guys exist?

[Boris]

I could name quite a few Sleuth. RA ( Rab ) Butler being top of the list. Although the " other side of the fence " in my socialist days, he was a magnificent and concerned human being and politician.

His failure was being a " normal " guy in an elitist party. Hence Macmillan kicked him for the Human Skull ( Hume ) because he was an Earl ( Eaton and Oxford ) and Rab went to Marlborough and Cambridge. Tories DON'T DO CAMBRIDGE.

[kombuchakid]

Remember Phillip 'Finger' Wong?

Philip Wong's famous middle finger!

Well he was just fingered in the NPC election and lost his seat.
Not as earth shattering as the UK stuff and therefore not requiring a seperate thread, but provoking the same initial reaction among his many 'fans'.

[Sleuth]

Perhaps my view of politicians is a little too negative.
To me a politician's long-held belief is a belief from last week. But I'm from the US system so maybe it's different in the UK.

[KnowItAll]

Nah.... they're all the same.

Few statesmen left .. most are just political scumbags.

[Sleuth]

I think modern politics discourages statesmen/people in for reasons other than ego and/or power, leaving only the dregs of political society.