Johnnie 'Marbles' May-Bowles

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The man who attempted, but entirely failed, to defeat a tag-team comprised of an octogenarian media mogul and his 6stone Chinese wife has been named as Johnnie May-Bowles.

Nice shirt 

May-Bowles, dressed in the uniform of the 'oh so working class' movement UKuncut (mid 30's comb-over and a 1990s lumberjack shirt) attempted to attack Rupert Murdoch during his appearance at the Culture, Media and Sport select committee. May-Bowles brands himself as 'Johnnie Marbles' in a pathetic attempt at ridding himself of the upper-middle class yoke of his privileged upbringing and University education at Royal Holloway. A typical member of the champagne-socialist group 'UK Uncut', May-Bowles has successfully managed to accomplish several things:


1.) Dilute the pressure on the very person he wished to attack
2.) Completely expose the contradiction within himself and within the organisation of which he is a part  
3.) Make a family name of Wendi Murdoch


Johnnie May-Bowles is a wannabe stand-up comedian. It may be that this has been a profile raising publicity stunt for his own means. However, it is difficult to imagine that any newspaper in the happy NewsCorp family is likely to print anything complimentary about him. In fact,  this has been yet another of UK Uncut's failed publicity events, almost on a par with fellow self-loathing middle-classer Charlie Gilmour's defamation of the Cenotaph. Therefore, I suggest that rather than accept UK Uncut as part of the fabric of modern society, we should treat them with the same kind of contempt in which they have held parliament and our nation's war dead.


UK Uncut have no cause or indeed even a basic grasp of economics or the rule of law. They are comprised of a group of pseudo-intellectual champagne socialist 'wannabes'. Time to hang up the humus guys.

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Boutique Leftism

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Porter: Questioned over antisemitism

In this article, we discuss the theory of Boutique Leftism in order to at least partly explain why it is that modern lefties are so irritatingly off the mark. From Ed Miliband to Aaron Porter, a seemingly disparate group of 'left wing intellectuals' seem to be stringing together incoherent lists of causes into some kind of unholy daisy chain of utterly unrelated and often entirely contradictory polices. The net result is that the right find it increasingly difficult to engage in any kind of meaningful policy debate with the leftists for two principal reasons. Firstly, that the daisy chain of issues do not in anyway form a coherent body of policy around which a counter argument can be formed. Secondly, that the left have seized the 'moral high ground' on all issues and defend this high ground behind false barricades of political correctness.


What is Boutique Leftism?


Just like shopping in a Boutique, this kind of leftism makes it is possible to buy into issues made and designed independently of one another, with no real correlation to each other. In this way it has been possible to position the left as the focus of attention in a positive way, surrounded as they are by niceties and not engaged in depth with anything necessary or industrious. Often, the stock of the boutique is fringe or 'alternative' in nature, with different issues holding similar but individual appeal. This ensures that the left can attract broad support for any of the given items by appealing to the broadest possible range of tastes, without having to form any kind of cohesion between these individual issues. By cherry picking the issues that suit this need, the left can almost guarantee to have at least one item on their shelf that appeals to most lefties, and also to avoid those items which are disdainful or distasteful, and so the cycle of support and create is self-perpetuating. By way of example, here are just a few of the items in their basket at present:


Support for the Palestinians/hate for Israel
No to public spending cuts
Support for freedom of speech and democracy
No to tuition fees
Down with NewsInt/Rupert Murdoch
Support for the Unions


On the face of it, these items/issues are such familiar themes from the left that they might even begin to form the backbone of policy. But they don't. The problem for the left is the complete lack of any kind of cohesion between these items and that further, this kind of flaky cherry picking is in fact counter-productive and highly contradictory. Allow me to expand:


No to public spending cuts/no to tuition fees: 

Utterly impossible demands

If there is no money left (there really isn't, let's not argue about this) in the pot and as a society we desire to educate as many University students as are able, regardless of their socio-economic background, and at the same time we wish to maintain high levels of public spending on the compulsory elements of our education system as well as the NHS and policing, then these two points are entirely contradictory. We EITHER need higher tuition fees to pay for expanding university education, OR we need to cut public spending elsewhere in  order to find the money for Universities. This is basic economics, and economics and politics are one and the same.

Lovers once, Murdoch & Labour

Down with NewsInt/Rupert Murdoch/Support for the Trade Unions: 
The unions and News International are identical in every way. Both have a body of membership who pay a relatively small subscription in order to be part of a large machine which lobbies and pressures in their interests. Both News International and the unions have very highly paid leadership with almost no public accountability, and both seek to influence polity for their own interests and the interests of their paid membership. The only difference here is that New International can switch political allegiance from time to time, the unions never do.  


Support for freedom of speech and democracy/Support for the Palestinians:

Democratic accountability; Hamas style

Israel remains the only county in the Middle-East to be classified as a 'democracy' by the UN and Freedom House. Further, you simply can't be on the left of the spectrum, thus opposed to the fascist extreme right AND support Hamas. Their record on human rights, equality for women and religious minorities are deplorably undemocratic and decidedly fascistic in nature.


Therefore, Boutique Leftism has two features. First, it is largely expressive. It expresses great sympathy with the poor and the marginalised, but fails to engage in any serious and complex analysis of what might make their condition better. Indeed, whilst it waxes lyrical about standing up for the 'disadvantaged' at home and abroad, it does so from the position of a kind of middle-class self-interest rather than in any meaningful or understanding way. Second, boutique leftists understand the old adage that the surest way to ward off criticism is by making it yourself and placing it at the feet of others. This second point explains why those on the left seem to lurch from one issue to the next without any meaningful direction of travel, almost hopping from one piece of moral high-ground to the next whilst never venturing into the valleys of reality. This lack of cohesion ensures that solid policy thinking is impossible because of the often contradictory nature of the items selected, and gives the distinct impression of band-wagonism. 


If Mr Miliband(wagon) is to make any serious inroads as leader of the opposition, he must understand this article and begin to jettison contradictory issues in favour of cohesive policies which have real depth and credibility. He will only be able to do this if he stops listening to those who shout loudest, but very often know the least. My advice is to ignore anyone with a placard. 


For now at least, the Conservative Party remains in government and, with it's coalition partner, firmly in command. Miliband is lurching about in the PMQ shop, interested in different items as dictated to him by the placard wavers and the left wing headline makers. Mr Cameron at least is able to stand firm behind the counter/dispatch box and continue with his course of fiscal responsibility with a degree of integrity and continuity, even in these difficult times. It is with hope that I commend this article to the blog; hope that enemies of the Left recognise the contradictory nature of their boutiquism, and use it to eject them from the UK political shop altogether.


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