Set the video up last night to watch Mark Latham being interviewed on Andrew Denton’s “Enough Rope”. But, it had been stopped from airing at 8.30 by an injunction apparently obtained by News Ltd. Then later on the injunction must have been lifted, as I turned over about 10.30 and there it was.
Interesting to hear Latham dumping his bucket of shit all over the Labor Party. Taking out all the obvious hatred and resentment, he probably has some valid points to make. I think the Labor Party has become basically irrelevant and needs massive changes from within to get back in touch with the voters. I think a large part of its problem is that too few of its MPs and officials have ever had to go and work in the real world. Too often its student politician —-> union official —–> party official —–> parliamentarian – a sort of sheltered workshop for them. Yes, I know the Libs have a large dose of the same sort of thing, but at least a reasonable number of them have had to actually do a proper job at some time. Labor stands for nothing except the pursuit of power at the moment – they are totally wishy washy, too scared to stand for anything for fear of offending someone or other.
I think Labor needs a damn good kick up the arse. I don’t think they’ll take any real notice of Latham’s views – they’ll be too busy shooting him down and protecting their own arses. They will never win with Beasley as their leader, and no-one of the current leadership group leaps out as a decent successor. Some real thinking outside the square is going to be needed if they are going to come anywhere near winning office in the next 5 years or more.
