Golden Platitudes

Labour.

The reason I like this is cos I used to think I was the only one who thought like that. I like the manics and I respect them for the things they come out with, it's about youth too. Which is why claims of 'Dad rock' sound hollow to me. I'm in my late twenties, I have known nothing but Labour and I finally have an outlet for all my musings of the past 13 years. Basically the values of the Labour party are somehow catering for people's needs but not the future of the young, ready to fight, ready to journey.

Those are the feelings of mine. And I write them here today, more confused than ever about what it was Labour truly were. They only exist cos people fear the Tories.

I've looked even deeper into it now, I think it's something to do with Doris Lessing. Themes of marriage are mentioned.

"We know it. But do the great enlightened mass of the British people know it? No. It is our task, Ella, yours and mine, to tell them. Because the great men are too great to be bothered. They are already discovering how to colonise Venus and to irrigate the moon. That is what is important for our time. You and I are the boulder-pushers."

Hmm, interesting! Never heard of her.

Interesting about Doris Lessing, thanks for that! I think they did mention New Labour in an interview, but I have to say the lyric above is wrong - he quite clearly sings '...MY youth', in which case it's also an autobiographical song (as was often the case with Manics songs), and cannot be about New Labour in that sense.

Nicky is probably stoking a bit of controversy again by using the general, newly-maligned term 'liberal left' (I hope it's not seized upon by popularist neocons!), and I think it's really about some of his and especially Richey's youthful beliefs (some of which were quite extreme. The renunciation of the idea of love and marriage probably didn't help Richey, but of course worse was the encouragement by fans who wanted a figure for their 'cause').

In a more general sense, it's also about the youth (and not so youthful) of today, but it's quite despairing, I think. Like other insightful commentators, he's noticed how apathetic and apolitical people have become, and not only because they're disillusioned, but because they're now completely dependent on consumerism (the last sacred cow virtually no-one wants to criticize) and just want it to continue, at any cost. Their only belief seems to be vaguely in the most extreme capitalist propaganda, made appealingly democratic (You Deserve To Be A Winner/You'll Never Be A Loser(LOL), etc). Just look at how people are in denial about the economy, and the end of cheap credit, and are quite willing to turn on the unemployed (without distinction), apparently not considering that they may become one of them.

I still hope there will be something to unite people for the greater good (perhaps when consumerism wanes). I just hope it's not too late.

Btw, I'm pretty sure he's singing 'Oh what a SHOWER we are', which I know seems quite an unlikely, but funny (and especially Welsh) phrase!

newsoftheworld.co.uk/entertainment/961602/News-of-the-World-Rated-Music-interview-with-Manic-Street-Preachers-Nicky-Wire.html

'I spent hours and hours and hours over the lyrics for this. It really felt like an important... I was obsessed with the chords from Back For Good by Take That! at the time and just dealt on to the pre-election address really, just the disillusion I felt with the way the Labour Party cheated its own class, just the idea that free WiFi and a Costa coffee can lift the working classes out of poverty.'

• Nicky Wire

This is about Blair's Labour Party (New Labour if you will). So, under Tony Blair Labour moved center-right, most notably in the removal of Clause IV of the Labour Party constitution.

Clause IV, which read, "To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service," was seen by many as at the very least hard left socialism, but borderline communist. In 1995, with Tony Blair as leader, the Labour Party altered Clause IV to make no mention of "common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange." Effectively removing the communist leaning of the Labour Party.

This song is about how Labour abandoned the blue-collar workers of the UK. Thus the line, "Born to be a communist//But then the marriage failed//As did the partnership..." He was born into a Labour Party with communist leaning, then Blair abandoned those ideals, and left the blue-collar Labour voters at the altar so to speak.

The line "The liberal left destroyed//Every bit of our youth//Left with the barest of bones//Leaving us all with holes..." I understand this not be liberal left in the American understanding of progressive, but rather the economic sense, which is a common understanding of the word in Europe. The Labour Party abandoned more communist/socialist policies for more economically liberal and market based policies. That is Labour became a liberal left party rather than a socialist/communist left party. This shift took everything from the working class. It left them with almost nothing while those who owned the capital became wealthier.

I think of it as about being born out of time - in an era where capitalism is seen and portrayed as the only way, and there is currently no other viable option for anyone thinking along different lines - even the now liberal left (so far removed from it's purpose of years ago).

Great tune - love the demo/acoustic version too.

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