Left-wingers... are they all mad?

[max_tranmere]

"I think loony is an apt word for any extreme political views - either left or right."

I guess so, but "loony left" has a certain ring to it, as it has two l's, more of a ring to it than "loony right" does. I wonder who coined the term, I remember it was the Tory Minister John Bittan who coined the term "lager lout" years ago, but I don't know who started "loony left".

[max_tranmere]

I have copied and pasted this from Wikipedia. I think some of these stories were made up, they are from the 1980's, and I am surprised that the person who wrote them was a columnist for The Guardian:

STARTS
Peter Jenkins, a columnist for The Guardian and The Independent, recorded policies which were dubbed "loony left" by the media. For instance, Haringey council allowed only Nicaraguan coffee to be sold and introduced courses on homosexuality into its nursery and primary schools.

Hackney London Borough Council ended its twinning arrangements with France, West Germany and Israel and made new twinnings with the Soviet Union, East Germany and Nicaragua. A spokesperson for the council explained: "This will enable us to concentrate on our new friends". When Sinn F?in representatives were invited to speak to Hackney council, a revolver was fired by a Liberal and there was a fight in the council chamber.

Lambeth London Borough Council banned the word "family" from council literature because this was 'discriminatory' and police were banned from using council facilities. Lambeth council's leader, Linda Bellos, claimed: "I think the police are bent on war".

Ealing council removed all books it considered to be "racist" and "sexist" from its local libraries. An ILEA teaching pack titled Auschwitz: Yesterday's Racism drew comparisons between the trade union legislation of Hitler and Margaret Thatcher. Another ILEA school in Kennington discouraged competitive games and making pupils write protest letters was made part of the school time-table.
ENDS

They are funny to read though!

------

This is from the Daily Star in 1986, and it was proven to have been totally made up. But again, it is funny to read!

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Baa Baa White Sheep

Staff at a nursery school in Hackney, London, claim that the traditional nursery rhyme is offensive to blacks. At first they wanted the 30 children aged between one and three ? only two of whom are black ? to sing Baa Baa White Sheep instead. But now it has been banned altogether at Beevers Nursery in De Beauvoir Road. Leaders of left-wing Hackney council welcomed the ban last night. A spokesman said: 'We consider playgroups and nurseries should be discouraged from singing the rhyme. It reinforces a derogatory and subservient use of the word "black" among our youngsters in their formative years. This is particularly important because the majority of children in our nurseries come from black and ethnic minority communities.'

?Bill Akass (1986-02-15). "Now it's Baa Baa Blank Sheep". Daily Star.

And snowball it did. The story was carried by the Sun in its 1986-02-20 edition, under the headline "Lefties baa black sheep", with the ban attributed directly to "Loony left-wing councillors". The Sun's version of events was subsequently carried by the 1986-02-23 Sunday World. It was taken to the letters columns of the 1986-02-28 and 1986-03-04 Hackney Gazette and the 1986-03-06 Ilford Recorder, and even reached the pages of the 1986-04-04 Knitting International. Despite neither the journalists nor the letter-writers presenting any evidence for their assertions, only one paper, The Voice rejected the story in print, calling the story a deliberate attempt to discredit the council.
ENDS

I remember this 'Baa Baa White Sheep' story in the 1980's. I also recall one about black bin liners being banned. It was all very funny at the time!

[Dave Wells]

The best left winger we ever had was probably Peter Barnes and although he did then go on to play for Man U as well (completely madness), I wouldn't have said he was clinically mad. I, of course have been completely fucking mad for years (Pink Floyd quote) !!! HA !

[jimslip]

max_tranmere wrote:

> I remember how the Tories bonked for England. This was
> especially the case in the 1990's. Many polticians have
> affairs, usually with their secretaries and it's said that
> happens because they see their wives about 4 hours a week and
> see their secretary every day. So it is kind of inevitable I
> guess.

I think this kind of decadence is a healthy thing, keeps a politicians feet on the ground. The problem with the crazed acolytes of New Labour, was that their carnal lusts were replaced with political fundamentalist fervour, which is far, far more dangerous.

Sexual excess and depravity mixed with the prolific consumption of fine Champagne has never resulted in the death and torture of millions. Fundamentalist fervour has! A drunken depraved politician will invite you to a party, a fundamentalist political activist will want to beat you to death with his big red book of "facts and figures."

[David Johnson]

"I think this kind of decadence is a healthy thing, keeps a politicians feet on the ground. The problem with the crazed acolytes of New Labour, was that their carnal lusts were replaced with political fundamentalist fervour, which is far, far more dangerous."

Yeah, I used to email John Prescott telling him that he was letting the side down by seemingly shagging everything with a pulse rather than concentrating on the "crazed acolytes" bit.

!wink!