marnanel @marnanel@anarchism.space

@marnanel In 1997 a combination of factors collided to result in the Blair nuLabour victory.

Then as now, the Tories were doing incredibly badly. The John Major government was weak, and lurched from scandal to scandal. Their election campaign was lacklustre and the Tony Blair "demon eyes" posters with the motto "new labour new danger" which they deployed were ridiculed (although years later turned out to be prophetic).

Blair did obtain the blessing of Murdoch. That was a significant factor, but not the only one.

At least as important as getting the tabloids "on-message" was that during the beginning of his leadership Blair had moved the Labour party significantly rightwards. He re-branded as "New Labour", and pledged that if elected that for the first two years of office his economic policy would be identical to that proposed in the Conservative manifesto. "Old Labour" (meaning socialists) were out and this was the newer, cooler, britpopier, version.

@bob @marnanel Another significant factor in the 1997 election - now largely forgotten by history - was that in the final few days Blair had a "save the NHS" campaign. The idea - which was probably not entirely fictitious - was that if the Tories won then they would privatise the NHS just like they had recently privatised rail and other public services. The countdown-style slogan was "N days to save the NHS", and this was somewhat successful in generating a sense of urgency.

"The face of the boy who practices Masturbation will soon have a peculiarly old look, and the skin will assume a dull, greenish, and wrinkled appearance." (1896)

"A masturbating girl can not sing well." (1882)

[This book is actually aimed at young men.]

"Touching... causes an irritation which leads to a few moments of agreeable physical excitement, but ends with a nervous attack which is very dangerous... The girl involuntarily shows strange tastes and habits which are always a clear indication of her base yearnings." (1905)

🙄 Land of Hope and Glory:
- 🎶 hurrah for amazing England
- 🎶 so let's take over more of the world

👍🏻 Jerusalem:
- 🎶 England is a bit of a dump really
- 🎶 but I guess we could make it a bit better if we work hard

"What are these girls called? In the medical profession these victims to this desire for unlawful pleasures are called 'female masturbators'.

The girl thinks she is enjoying herself by this habit, and it becomes almost a second nature." (1890)

"…a large income is derived from the sale of a rubber machine, made for the purpose mentioned. They are said to be manufactured in some of the prominent factories in the country, and sold by means of unscrupulous female agents." (1887)

"It is a practice which every person would blush to indulge in publicly, or if she thought she were suspected being guilty of." (1846)

David Cameron introduced "the age of austerity" to the UK in April 2009. There are now teenagers who don't remember anything else.

Soon it will always have been this way.

What are we going to do about that?

/end

I was thinking about how a coup that lasts a couple of decades becomes the accepted norm. People forget there was ever a time before it.

Of course this was true of Thatcherism. It's becoming true of political austerity. I had a couple of other examples.

Someone was saying that anti-monarchists should not accept knighthoods. Now, maybe in practice they shouldn't, but I was interested by connection of ideas.

ABOUT THE ANGST

This is the diary I kept as a teenager. It was written in pencil in a cheap spiral-bound notebook, using a cipher I’d made up specially so that if my siblings or parents found it I’d have a chance to retrieve it before they worked out the code and started reading it. I am editing it lightly to alter names and so on.