#Attlee

[mags2theythem]

[bugganeofsttrinians]

The cynical notion is actually closer to the truth, for the Labour Party had always been a instrument against the Prolerteriat. Let my past support for them be a marker of my past errors, for this goes not just against the current regime of Starmer but also of all past, including Corbyn, including Attlee. They were cancer before neoliberalism, from their part in colonial racism through border policies and foreign affair activities to their introduction to UK on having the horrors of nuclear weoposn to their general embrace of keep workers quiet.

LibCom have excellent articles on the matter, including the 2009 piece "Labouring in vain: a critical history of the Labour Party." I also this 2019 December reflection piece on Labour's defeat in the election that year by the Angry Workers of the World.

Of course, Labour now are of particular dreadfulness, particular for disabled people who will face their rights, but we must not pretend the more SocDem aspect would be counter, has demonstrated by the abelist xenophobia of a Aaron Bastani when it came to myth he contribute to; who needs Neoliberals when you got proclaimed Socialists like this? No hope from those who embrace nation state, whether they embraced neoliberalism or proclaim to another aspect of Capitalism or its opposition like the autocratic evils of Leninism.

We, the working class and other oppressed elements, must organise through like of unions, dual power and upheval against the British state. Only we can save ourselves, not some party.

I often despair at the state of politics in my country but one thing I Just Don't Get - why are Labour like this? Maybe this is just my ignorance showing but wasn't the whole point of them being different from the Tories? What's the point if they're just gonna do the same shit? What the hell is going on? How did this happen?

An aggressively cynical view would be that the Labour Party previously existed to manage the working class as a voting bloc. I don’t think it’s 100% the case, but I can see why folk would think it.

People will point Tony Blair being elected as the paradigm shift. It was the point when Labour went full on neoliberal where instead of opposing the conservative economic worldview, they accepted that thats how the world works.

So their whole argument shifted to ‘We can just manage the economy better than the conservatives (but in accordance to how they think things should work)’

I don’t think it was purely Tony Blair that started the shift though, I think it started when Labour started to appoint members to the House of Lords.

[ceevee5]

[racefortheironthrone]

Who was the greatest British prime minister: Pitt the Elder or Lord Palmerston? And did Wade Boggs deserve to get punched for saying Pitt the Elder?

It's Clement Attlee with a steel chair!

But between the two in contention at Moe's, yeah it's clearly Pitt the Elder.

[natequarter]

congrats to the uk for getting some of the most useless, cruel and despicable women and people of colour out there into a post previously held only by useless, cruel, and despicable white men and margaret thatcher

[vox-anglosphere]

Churchill-at-war

Sir Winston Churchill’s interactions with political figures like Clement Attlee and Neville Chamberlain were often complex and tense, yet they played a significant role in shaping his career.

Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement ultimately opened the door for Churchill to rise as a wartime leader.

Katherine Carter, Curator at Chartwell, stated at the 2024 ICS Conference, “While Churchill’s visionary style often clashed with Chamberlain’s pragmatism, their contrasting approaches allowed Churchill’s leadership to emerge at Britain’s critical hour.”

Despite their differences, Churchill was later known to reconcile with his political adversaries, particularly Chamberlain, demonstrating his ability to forgive and recognise strengths even in those he once opposed.

This capacity for reconciliation underscores the broader lesson that true leadership often involves working across divides for the greater good.

First photo Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain

Second photo Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee

[for-valour]

‘Attlee was to become very close to George VI. He enjoyed the king’s informality. He noted how Queen Victoria had made her ministers stand in her presence whereas George VI preferred a cigarette and a gossip.’

Citizen Clem: A Biography of Attlee. John Bew, 2016.

[philibetexcerpts]

On 7 February 1952, the Queen and Prince Philip arrived at London Airport after a nineteen-hour flight from Kenya, following the death of King George VI.

“When it landed at London Airport at 4 P.M. local time, a few moments passed before she emerged alone. Philip had decided to remain inside the aircraft until she had descended the steps to be greeted by Clement Attlee, Anthony Eden and Prime Minister Churchill, who was unable to control his tears. Philip now appeared at the top of the gangplank, his tall, craggy figure somehow dwarfing his wife as he stood behind her.”

Royal Sisters by Anne Edwards

[dadsinsuits]

Clement Attlee

[probablyasocialecologist]

When Labour took office, far from regarding MI5 as any sort of threat, they saw the agency as ‘an important instrument of government’ and ‘fully appreciated MI5’s value’. The ‘Zinoviev Letter’ was very much in the past as far as Attlee and his colleagues were concerned. Indeed, the extent to which Attlee was personally comfortable with MI5 and its activities is perhaps best shown by the fact that he was the first Prime Minister to visit MI5 headquarters and actually wrote a ‘Preface’ to the memoirs, Cloak without Dagger, of MI5’s Director-General, Percy Sillitoe. Once in office, Attlee relied on MI5 to spy on those Labour MPs suspected of being ‘crypto-Communists’ as well as on CP activities in the trade unions. In November 1947, he was particularly worried about supposedly Communist-instigated strikes disrupting the Royal wedding and was considerably reassured when told that MI5 ‘had quite a number of agents in the Communist Party who were well placed’. By 1949, Attlee had been convinced by MI5 that the Communists were behind the increasing industrial unrest that the Labour government’s ‘Austerity’ regime was provoking and that they were trying ‘to overturn social democracy’. In July of that year, a general lockout on the London docks where dockers were refusing to unload two Canadian ships crewed by scabs saw the government send in over 12,000 troops to try and break this tremendous display of international solidarity which was predictably condemned as Communist-inspired. Bevan, of all people, condemned the dockers’ action as ‘a betrayal of the labour movement’ and the Transport and General Workers Union subsequently expelled or suspended the dockers’ unofficial leaders from the union.

John Newsinger, Hope Lies in the Proles: George Orwell and the Left

[gawsby]

In memoriam

CLEMENT RICHARD ATTLEE

3rd January 1883 - 8th October 1967

Greatest PM the UK has ever had.

[cosm1cmicr0wave]

I’m Ed

[mossadegh]

• Mossadegh media: newspaper & magazine articles, editorials

[justwatchmyeyes]

Ein Mann ohne Urteilskraft mag bis zur Spitze aufsteigen, aber er wird sich dort nicht sehr lange halten.

Clement Attlee

[dipnotski]

James Attlee – İstasyonlar Arasında (2023)

‘İstasyonlar Arasında’ isimli kitabında James Attlee, 19. yüzyılda Londra ile Bristol arasında döşenen ve ülkeyi bıçak gibi ortadan ikiye bölerek iki büyük şehri birbirine bağlayan Great Western Hattı’nı takip ediyor. Çığır açan tasarımları ve dâhice yapılarıyla Sanayi Devrimi’nin önemli isimlerinden Isambard Kingdom Brunel’in inşa ettiği demiryolu hattında tarihsel ve kültürel bir keşfe…

[hitchell-mope]

Good film. Less strenuous than I thought it would be. But still. Good film.