This week in 2009 I seem to remember that it was more or less about this autumn time back in the year of 1980 that I was awarded the 'British Government and Politics' study prize at Harton Comprehensive School (now called under New Labour redesignations 'Harton Technology College'), South Shields.
This award was given to me about a year after the Thatherite electoral victory in 1979.
At that time the Thatcherite ideology had won one election, but it was far from being politically 'triumphant'.
The then Conservative Party government seemed to be floundering and there seemed every chance that that party was going to lose subsequent general elections.
Three decades on, in 2009, the Thatcherite ideology does seem depressingly to my mind 'triumphant' - or at least, having won every election since 1979 (whether under Conservative Party or 'New Labour' guize) 'electorally dominant'.
The consequences of the 'Thatcherite triumph' are there to be seen in the daily reports of economic/financial/business 'crisis'/'crises'.
YET all three 'major' British parties - 'New' Conservative, 'New' Labour, Liberal Democrat - are now essentially 'Thatcherite' parties.
They all seem to have swallowed whole the 'Thatcherite' ideology - essentially 'privatize profit and nationalize debt'.
It seems as if all three major parties are still effectively parrotting the Thatetcheite myth 'there is no (ideological) alternative'.
For what it's worth, the prize I received for Harton Comprehesive School 'British Government and Politics' studies back in 1980 was a book called the 'Crossman Diaries'
It was an insider's account by a former Labour minister Richard Crossman of the Labour Governments of the 1960s.
That Labour government of the 1960s - whatever its (arguably 'many') 'failings' - could at least reasonably be described as the last Labour government that could honestly claim any sort of 'socialist' credentials.
Some might argue that there was very little 'socialist' about the 1960s Labour Government.
But, whatever the rights or wrongs of its 'ideological' description, it is a fact that the Labour government of the 1960s presereved elements of 'socialism in its economic programmes.
And, significantly, it declined to support the then war-mongering American government in military attacks on other sovereign nations, particularly North Vietnam.
The present so-called 'Labour' MP for South Shields, Mr David Miliband, actively supported the then right-wing Republican American president Mr George Bush in an illegal attack on the sovereign nation of Iraq in 2003.
That act by their sitting MP brought, to my mind, disgrace on the people of South Shields.
It is also a fact that the then so-called 'Labour' MP for Hartlepool, Mr 'Lord' Peter Mandelson supported that then same right-wing Republican American president George Bush in his illegal atack on the sovereign nation of Iraq.
Contrary to what many now pretend, it was possible at that time to be a leading policitian in the British and/or American 'establishment(s)' who, in good faith, opposed the illegal attack on the sovereign country of Iraq. (Opposition to the war wasn't just from a 'usual suspect' radical minority, in other words.)
The present President of the United States Mr Barrack Obama did just that.
All Liberal-Democrats in the British parliament did just that.
Several leading Tories, including the former chancellor Kenneth Clarke did just that.
The present British foreign secretary Mr Miliband, who is also MP for South Shields, failed to do that.
The present British (effective) 'deputy prime minister' Mr Mandelson, who was in 2003 MP for Hartlepool, failed to do that.
The present British Prime Minister Mr Gordon Brown failed to do that.
The present British Leader Of The Opposition and man considered most likely to be the next prime minister, Mr David Cameron, failed to do that.
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What follows are sketchy notes ...
And so it was that ...
This week, 29 years after I received that small town Harton Comprensive School 'British Government and Poltics' study award ... I was thinking about politics in a 'small town' sort of way ...
And I turned my mind to why it was that ...
Mr 'Lord' Peter Mandelson and his New Labour friend and ally, the MP for South Shields, David Miliband, both of whom supported a right-wing American president in an illegal attack on the sovereign country of Iraq are being 'feted' at my former home town school, Harton Comprehensive School, South Shields.
And ... consequently ... for this an other reasons ... I cannot help thinking that something has gone 'badly wrong' somewhere in my home town.
How on Earth is it that a person such as Mr Mandelson, at Mr Miliband's request, is delivering the so-called 'South Shields lecture' at 'Harton Technology College'?
I do not believe that the people of South Shields have anything much to learn from a 'lecture' by this man Mr Mandelson - except, perhaps, as a bad example (of how NOT to do good faith politics).
Personally, I find myself 'troubled' by the terrible state of modern British Government and Politics -typified by what I consider to be essential 'bad faith' people like Mr Mandelson and Mr Miliband.
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My politics tutor at Harton Comprehensive School almost three decades ago was a man who later became headmaster of the school.
It was a fact that he was a Conservative Party member who had stood for that party in at least one general election campaign.
He never made any secret of his Conservative Party sympathies.
It did not seriously bias his teaching of politics as an academic subject.
My then politics tutor was also well aware that (like many pupils in a traditional 'Labour' area) I regarded myself as 'socialist' - and was at the time (but not now in 2009 or any time in the foreseeable future) a 'Labour Party supporter'.
Knowlege of my political outlook did not seem prejudice him against my work in academic politics studies.
Nor did my understanding of his political outlook prejudice me against his work as my academic politics tutor.
In good faith political discourse, you can acknowledge and respect reasonable differences of opinion, and discuss them sensibly (you don't corrupt the discourse with deliberately reality distorting 'spin' - as Mr Mandelson and Mr Miliband have done throughout their professional political careers).
I had more respect then former politics tutor, a Tory (and so a 'political opponent' of my ideological tendencies) than I have now for the present professional 'New Labour' politicians Mr Miliband or Mr Mandelson.
Although I disagreed with him on fundamental matters of political belief, my former politics tutor at Harton Comprehensive School was recognizably an 'honest' and 'decent' and 'honourable' man.
I do not think the same words can be applied to Mr Miliband nor Mr Mandelson.
Both these men represent to me the modern breed of essentially 'morally bankrupt' hack professional politicians.
Back in 1980, when a student of politics and others subjects at Harton Comprehensive School, I could never have imagined that local Labour traditions could have become as travestied to such an extant that a man like Mr Mandelson would be invited along by Mr Miliband to the school to deliver a 'lecture' to the local people.
How can these two men - neither of whom have any real North-East England roots, nor feeeling for the North-East England people, and both of whom have quite obviously disgraced 'Labour' traditions - be 'feted' at Harton Comprehensive School, South Shields in 2009? (and also with costly police protection - and just why do Labour Politicians need 'police protection' in what is supposed to be a 'Labour heart-land area' anyway?!)
Mr Mandelson, as has been recorded elsewhere, was in fact twice removed from senior ministerial office jobs in Britain because of personal financial irregularities.
This should have made him 'unfit' for any further public office.
For some reason, beyond my understanding, it did not.
For some reason, even having been twice dismissed from British ministerial office because of personal financial irregularities, he was nevertheless elevated to a senior position in the European Union Commission - apparently on the basis of recommendations from the still in power New Labour Government.
Of late Mr 'Lord' Mandelson has somewhat unbelievably actually returned - for the third time - to a senior position in the British Government.
He is even generally regarded to be the effective 'deputy prime minister'.
Meanwhile, Mr David Miliband the so called 'right honourable' (sic) MP for South Shields, was/is the British foreign secretary who allowed British citizens to be TORTURED (in fact) and who then claimed 'security reasons' for not allowing the details of the TORTURE to be released to the wider British public.
British judges in British courts of law have in fact dismissed such claims as Mr Miliband's as claims unfounded.
That such a man as Mr Miliband (who voted for an illegal attack on Iraq, who has attempted to cover-up the torture of British citizens using bad faith spinning gimmicks, and who has otherwise attempted to distort reality in diverse bad faith ways) should be the Member Of Parliament for South Shields is in my view an ongoing DISGRACE to the people of this town.
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