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 Who is your political hero? |
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 Apr 3 2021, 09:43 PM
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Shakin Stevens
 
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Well simple who do you look up to most today and from the past?
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Apr 3 2021, 09:52 PM
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Queen of Soon
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Margrethe Vestager.
The one person who’s name could strike fear in every boardroom in Silicon Valley. |
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Apr 4 2021, 07:29 AM
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BuzzJack Legend
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BORIS JOHNSON for getting Brexit done as he promised and Margaret Thatcher for standing up to the unions and building a good economy.
From abroad, Donald Trump. Hope he's re-elected in 2024. Sounds like he's going for it again. This post has been edited by common sense: Apr 4 2021, 08:23 AM |
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Apr 4 2021, 10:35 AM
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Buffy/Charmed
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LOL
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Apr 4 2021, 10:44 AM
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
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Wouldn't say a politician who served, my first thought would be someone like Noam Chomsky who has spent a life advocating for greater political education and articulating out the structural and framing problems with our system that god-willing will someday be changed.
Fighters against the system even at great cost to their personal safety perhaps also, MLK, Gandhi, Mandela, and not just their peaceful rhetoric but their socioeconomic ideas also. |
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Apr 4 2021, 10:44 AM
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Shakin Stevens
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QUOTE(common sense @ Apr 4 2021, 08:29 AM)  BORIS JOHNSON for getting Brexit done as he promised and Margaret Thatcher for standing up to the unions and building a good economy. From abroad, Donald Trump. Hope he's re-elected in 2024. Sounds like he's going for it again. Let’s unpick this though. We still have to see how ‘getting Brexit done’ will work out. Over the weekend in NI there were young people under 30 rioting and blocking roads due to the poor communication from their political leaders advising them their UK rights are under threat because some random items from the uk take more checks to come here while the same politicians say in their suburbs comfortable in their big houses. So far it’s clear brexit has put pressure on the fine balance that was peace in NI so well done Boris for that. And Thatcher well she has created a more unequal economic system which means people have less rights and are poorer than before and instead of working in real career jobs in old industries work in call centres and corporate supermarkets getting terrible wages. Plus since 2008 the economy has been rumbling along with minimal growth. |
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Apr 4 2021, 10:46 AM
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Shakin Stevens
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QUOTE(Iz 💀 @ Apr 4 2021, 11:44 AM) Wouldn't say a politician who served, my first thought would be someone like Noam Chomsky who has spent a life advocating for greater political education and articulating out the structural and framing problems with our system that god-willing will someday be changed. Fighters against the system even at great cost to their personal safety perhaps also, MLK, Gandhi, Mandela, and not just their peaceful rhetoric but their socioeconomic ideas also. The first point is excellent we need more people with political education. Since neoliberalism people are less understanding or involved in politics because politicians are more technocratic and all mainstream ones believe in the same general centrist economic views where nothing changes hence the lethargy with the public and less people voting. Since brexit this has changed and polarisation has occurred again, there’s something to fight for. |
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Apr 4 2021, 10:48 AM
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
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I mean, it's absolutely bait by Chris because in 10 years time he'd probably pick the next authoritarian with a boisterous voice and funny look who's talking about deporting those who won't go into workhouses.
yeah and of course Thatcher indeed stood up to the unions so hard that it's now more unusual to have unions affecting anything at all and as a result more people have horrible workers rights working meaningless jobs all for the good of the um... Protestant work ethic or something. What use is a society where so many people can't enjoy it because they're held hostage by a private dictatorship that controls the majority of their waking hours? |
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Apr 4 2021, 11:11 AM
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BuzzJack Legend
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QUOTE(Dill Doe @ Apr 4 2021, 11:35 AM) LOL  At least I answered the question posed rather than laughing at another person's choices.It's not bait either. Those are my choices at the present time. Tony Blair was an excellent PM too. |
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Apr 4 2021, 11:33 AM
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The owls are not what they seem
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Just saying now that this is a great topic and I'd like to see other's responses, so if we can try and not derail this...
Mine would probably be Nelson Mandela, I read his autobiography after going to South Africa and that lifelong strive for equality and seeing good in people is still extremely inspiring, no matter how rash some may perceive his actions to be. From UK politicians, maybe Atlee? I'm a bit uneducated on most UK prime ministers aside from fairly recently so I may have missed some skeletons in his closet x |
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Apr 4 2021, 12:55 PM
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Howdy, disco citizens
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I find it really hard to find political figures to idolise, especially those still living. Having said that, it recent times I've been drawn to the writings of Dorothy Day, who combined her Catholic faith with her radical social activism as part of the Catholic Workers movement. Her autobiography "The Long Loneliness" makes for fascinating reading of the labour movement in the United States in the early-mid 20th Century, and her role within it. Well worth reading, even if you're not interesting in the Catholic-y bits, I imagine a lot of you will find the parts about the labour movement really eye-opening.
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Apr 4 2021, 01:16 PM
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Buffy/Charmed
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Mine, beyond a doubt, are Attlee, Emily Pankhurst, Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders Senator from Vermont, Robert Owen for his proto-movements fot socialist workers' rights, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and FDR for his proposed socialist second bill of rights. Common Sense's blustering charlatans for the rich pale in comparison.
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Apr 4 2021, 03:31 PM
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Shakin Stevens
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QUOTE(Brett-Butler @ Apr 4 2021, 01:55 PM) I find it really hard to find political figures to idolise, especially those still living. Having said that, it recent times I've been drawn to the writings of Dorothy Day, who combined her Catholic faith with her radical social activism as part of the Catholic Workers movement. Her autobiography "The Long Loneliness" makes for fascinating reading of the labour movement in the United States in the early-mid 20th Century, and her role within it. Well worth reading, even if you're not interesting in the Catholic-y bits, I imagine a lot of you will find the parts about the labour movement really eye-opening. Yeh I kind of thought some may be uncomfortable with idolising but just meant who do you look up to in terms of your ideology. |
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Apr 4 2021, 03:57 PM
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BuzzJack Legend
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From politicians before my time, I would definitely say Clement Attlee. Many people have said that his role in WWII was effectively that of Prime Minister while Churchill was busy being President. When he got the real job, he managed - despite inheriting a huge deficit - to give us the NHS and build on pre-war Liberal achievements to lay the foundations of the modern welfare state. Critics of Keir Starmer should remember that Attlee was also considered to be really boring.
Within my lifetime, I would first nominate Roy Jenkins. He was a truly reforming Home Secretary in the 1960s, overseeing the decriminalisation of male homosexuality, the Abortion Act and the end of most censorship in the theatre. They weren't all done through government-sponsored legislation but his co-operation was required to get those measures through. His passionate Europeanism eventually led to him breaking away from Labour to form the SDP, a huge risk for someone who could have found a much easier route back into UK politics after his spell at the European Commission. I would also have to include Paddy Ashdown. He took over the leadership of the Lib Dems when they were struggling to register in the opinion polls at all and led them to what was then their best election performance for decades in 1997. Even when I disagreed with him, his clear thinking was refreshing. For someone lesser-known, there is (Lord) Tony Greaves who died last month. While he wasn't well-known outside politics, he was a familiar figure to many in the Liberal Party and then the Lib Dems, particularly anyone who attended conference. It6 was the work of Tony Greaves, among others, that was to establish the Liberal strategy of "pavement politics" which saw the party going from near obscurity (again) to a party that was winning council seats across the country and, eventually, parliamentary seats. Of the comments below the announcement of his death on Lib Dem website, I think he would have chuckled at the description of him as "a cantankerous old git, even when he was young". Nelson Mandela is the obvious choice for an overseas politician. |
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Apr 4 2021, 04:25 PM
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Shakin Stevens
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There’s a few here who have mentioned Clement Atlee - as I have mentioned before on another thread I can’t recommend enough John Bews Biography ‘Citizen Clem’ enough, so easy to read.
The most famous story about Roy Jenkins which I’m sure everyone has heard that when he first became Home Secretary in 1964 the Home Office had a list of people set to be hanged for murder and he asked his secretary to remove it and replace it with a drinks cabinet. With Tony Greaves do you mean belong from obscurity post 2015 or back in the 60s? This post has been edited by steve201: Apr 4 2021, 06:45 PM |
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Apr 4 2021, 04:55 PM
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BuzzJack Legend
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As far as I can see no-one's yet mentioned John Smith. Labour leader from 1992 to 1994. Had he lived he would surely have become PM in 1997 with a majority maybe a bit less than Blair's though. Maybe Blair would never have been PM. Instead fate dealt a cruel blow in May 1994 when Smith, a popular Labour leader riding high in the polls, had a massive fatal heart attack in his bathroom.
 I can remember well the newsflashes around 9am that morning as the country was in shock and the glowing tribute from PM John Major in the Commons before it was suspended out of respect. Harriet Harman became acting leader until Blair was elected the new Labour leader.Smith was a popular politician and from what I've read, a lovely man, a gentleman. This post has been edited by common sense: Apr 4 2021, 05:04 PM |
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Apr 4 2021, 04:57 PM
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BuzzJack Legend
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QUOTE(steve201 @ Apr 4 2021, 05:25 PM) There’s a few here who have mentioned Clement Atlee - as I have mentioned before on another thread I can’t recommend John Bews Biography ‘Citizen Clem’ enough, so easy to read. The most famous story about Roy Jenkins which I’m sure everyone has heard that when he first became Home Secretary in 1964 the Home Office had a list of people set to be hanged for murder and he asked his secretary to remove it and replace it with a drinks cabinet. With Tony Greaves do you mean belong from obscurity post 2015 or back in the 60s? The 60s and 70s. |
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Apr 4 2021, 05:20 PM
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#18
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BuzzJack Legend
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QUOTE(common sense @ Apr 4 2021, 05:55 PM) As far as I can see no-one's yet mentioned John Smith. Labour leader from 1992 to 1994. Had he lived he would surely have become PM in 1997 with a majority maybe a bit less than Blair's though. Maybe Blair would never have been PM. Instead fate dealt a cruel blow in May 1994 when Smith, a popular Labour leader riding high in the polls, had a massive fatal heart attack in his bathroom. I can remember well the newsflashes around 9am that morning as the country was in shock and the glowing tribute from PM John Major in the Commons before it was suspended out of respect. Harriet Harman became acting leader until Blair was elected the new Labour leader.Smith was a popular politician and from what I've read, a lovely man, a gentleman. I remember that day very well I was due to meet a friend who had got tickets for PMQs that afternoon. I came out of a meeting that had overrun and was told by someone while I was getting ready to leave to meet my friend. As I was in a rush, it only partly sank in and didn't hit me properly until I was on the way to our meeting point. We still went to the Commons so saw John Major's lovely tribute as well as many others. It was a really eerie experience.There can be little doubt that he would have been PM although, as he didn't have Blair's charisma, it would have been with a smaller majority. He is still admired by many but I suppose doesn't necessarily get hero status as that heart attack prevented him having a major achievement to his name. |
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Apr 4 2021, 05:48 PM
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Queen of Soon
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The hardest thing about this thread for me is that I tend to look more favourably upon moments rather than entire careers. Like I have a lot of admiration for Merkel's decision on Syrian refugees but I can't look up to her as a whole for many reasons such as the Greek Debt Crisis and the fact that while she said she would allow a CDU conscious vote on equal marriage which lead to the very rapid introduction of the bill and actual equal marriage in Germany, she herself voted against. (Literally less than 35 days between Merkel saying shed allow a free vote for the CDU and the Federal President signing equal marriage into law).
Tho her gov have seriously advanced LGBT rights, including a complete ban on Conversion Therapy that was lead by Spahn the health minister who while doing some good is a total tool at the moment for over promising and under delivering. We do finally have mass free citizen testing, just later than he promised and his attempts to digitise the health service is not even at the starting blocks. Corona cases are still reported to the RKI by f***ing fax. I hope one day to be able to include Sturgeon here for leading Scotland to freedom |
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Apr 4 2021, 08:48 PM
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Buffy/Charmed
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QUOTE(Suedehead2 @ Apr 4 2021, 06:20 PM) I remember that day very well I was due to meet a friend who had got tickets for PMQs that afternoon. I came out of a meeting that had overrun and was told by someone while I was getting ready to leave to meet my friend. As I was in a rush, it only partly sank in and didn't hit me properly until I was on the way to our meeting point. We still went to the Commons so saw John Major's lovely tribute as well as many others. It was a really eerie experience.There can be little doubt that he would have been PM although, as he didn't have Blair's charisma, it would have been with a smaller majority. He is still admired by many but I suppose doesn't necessarily get hero status as that heart attack prevented him having a major achievement to his name. He was more left wing too, right? |
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