Drunk and unmanageable - the inaugural meeting of the (legendary!!) Jim D fan club ...

Last night was the first leftie bloggers piss up which took place in a grotty pub in Euston. The roll call of dishonour included JimD, Volty, Mike, Jon, Andrew, Marsha Jane, Tammy, George, Janine, John, Kit and Dave.

Guest of honour was Jim D with his minder Volty, who Dave now knows is not his girlfriend. Volty did a good job of keeping track of where Jim left his bag and finding it when lost, intervening when Jim banged the table to hard and ranted at poor old John and then escorting him back to Brum . Volty is indeed a hero, and not as also said by certain SWP comrades, Jim D's bitch.

Jim, well what can I say. He came very very close to both a slap and having drink poured over him , more of that later. Once he got over the upset of Louise not being there ('which one are you? Not Louise, ohh :-( ) he got into the swing of arguing with everyone . He insisted of buying me JDs and I had to eventually insist he let me buy him one. But then he veered on very dangerous territory and patted my head and called me doll. Yep, he came very close to a slap ! Do that again Jim and I will .
At various points in the evening the table would shake as Jim banged his fist down on it. I believe Volty may have captured this on his mobile for youtube consumption. Volty, if you have it send me a copy and I'll post it here.

Jim was also the focus of Mikes' attention. There is a photo on Kits mobile (one of five he had in his 'manbag') of Mike kissing the back of Jim's head. We were though spared Andrew and Jon snogging, which allegedly happened the last time they got drunk together, but more later on that topic.

By the end of the evening there was much hugging, I blame it on the alcohol. At one point this turned into a group hug (or a rugby scrum) and an impromptu rendition of the 'internationale'. We did at this point get close to being thrown out.

Jon arrived late but had started on the vino earlier and was soon in the spirit of things. Later on, on route to a Nepalese Restauant he was shouting 'I was born a trot and I shall die a Trot' in response to jibes that he was a reformist. Osler was shouting back 'bollocks'. But then bless, the excitment must have all be to much and Jon nodded off to sleep in the restaurant.
I will later this year be backing the Jon4MP campaign in Brighton:-)

Earlier in the day there was a discussion on Kits site about whether there were any 'fit' and well dressed men on the left and I offered to judge on this at the drinks. On arriving at the pub my heart sank and as more turned up it did not get any better. I think Stroppyblog could offer a sort of leftie 'Trinny and Susannah' service. Shall I name and shame? Well perhaps I will allude and leave people here to draw their own conclusions. I think there were a number of 'styles', I use that word loosely, ranging from 1970's Trade Union official through to 'what's washing powder/soap/an iron' and the colourful. But bless, they were all lovable in there own ways. Of course I have to say Dave was the best dressed , he should be the amount of time he spends in front of the mirror. Well I am biased.

There were a number of 'competitions' last night, such as fittest left bloke through to who is the biggest male tart. This last group had a short list of three. Comrades Osler, Berry and Rogers. I think Dave had the edge due to age but Andrew was catching up fast.

There probably was some serious conversation but I don't really recall it. In amongst who was a tart, who had snogged Jon Rogers , Kit and John wanted myself and Dave to adopt them. Hmmm. They did prove quite hard to get rid of. After the drinks Jon, Andrew, MarshaJane, Dave, Kit, John and myself went for a meal. Then our 'adopted sons' ended up back at Chez Osler for further drinks and to listen to the tales of Dave ('In my day'...) way past what should have been their bedtimes.

The following morning we took them out for brunch and they returned back to the flat. Couldn't get rid of them. It was bad enough when they all started talking about how comfy slippers were, but when the talk turned to sugar production in Cuba that was enough and I sent them home. Yep, I'm not just not the maternal type.

Dave has some pics on his mobile but has lost the cable to download it. No one could work out how to text on his phone either. So sorry no pics.

Looking forward to the next piss up. Over to Kit, the bloggers social secretary. But pick a pub that does not run out of JD next time ...

Update: The pic of Mike kissing the back of Jim D's head is to be found on John A's site. Not sure why I thought Kit had the pic...too much JD (thats Jack Daniels not Jim Denham !!).

Jim4Leader

OK I really must stop posting on Jim Denham, people will start to talk.
But but just one last post ...for a few days :-)

This came via Janine .

Political Betting have odds on one J Denham becoming leader. Is it Jim ?

Not sure if this is inspired by his campaign to keep Bournville dry but apparently you can bet on him becoming the next Leader of the labour Party!!

Can I be the first member of the Jim4Leader campaign. Tami, Volty, John, Will...care to come on board ?

Shall we organise a national tour of fine drinking establishments , set up Bloggers4Jim and plan a rally ?

Yep, the Jim4Leader starts here !

(Yes I do know its really John Denham, but in my imaginary world ...)

Update from Volty in the comments box :

STOP PRESS:

As of this evening, Mr Denham has declared that he has the support of 140 Labour MPs, making him the most serious challenger to Gordon Brown in a sparse field. He has invited John McDonnell to stand down as a leadership candidate and instead run for deputy with his support. Michael Meacher has claimed it's all a big conspiracy, just like 9/11.


Campaign picture courtesy of John. Jim with his minder Volty, emphasising his 'puritan' policy. See sidebar for the campaign 'button'!

Jim Denham...the puritan ??

In a move that would make Paddy the Puritan proud, Jim D has signed a local petition against alcohol being sold in a Tesco Express.

The petition stated :

"However, TESCO have also recently put in an application to the City Council for permission to sell alcohol once this site is reopened.
"This is something that your local councillors are opposed to. We believe that the selling of alcohol from such a site may lead to underage sales to young people and may lead to an increase in anti social behaviour in the area fuelled by alcohol from this site."

Now I think Jim changed the words and what it actually said was:

We believe that the selling of alcohol from such a site may lead to an increase in anti social behaviour by Jim Denham, fuelled by alcohol from this site.
We are particularly concerned it could lead to further incidents of accusing people of mass murder. walking up and down shouting Feck, Galloway, Ridley, patting women on the head, drunken phonecalls to Radio Galloway and losing his bag. And of course creating more work for his 'handler' Mr voltaires_priest.


Jim its a slippery slope...Respect membership beckons.

Godless drunken revelry

Well I was going to write a very serious political post, but sod it. Apparently, according to Denham, Stroppyblog is not a serious political blog apart from when Janine posts. Or words to that effect. Hmmm. I hold grudges almost as long as Will !!

So on with the gossip.

Last night was another leftie bloggers piss up. The roll of dishonour included Dave, Kit, Mike, Denham, Jon, George, Tami, Marsha Jane, Louise, Tony (Louise's other half), John A and Noel. Noel is a newbie at the piss ups , but I think he survived and was most welcome. I think I have missed someone !!

I was supposed to watch Denham's bag and make sure he had plenty of scotch. In the end it was me who lost my 'fucking bag' and Denham had to find it. Oh and he kept me well supplied with JDs, so he is slightly forgiven for his slur on the good name of Stroppyblog. But not quite.

I have to admit I didn't engage in much serious political discussion. In fact I think I helped lower the tone even further, if possible.

John A was there with a slightly shorter beard. John, it has to go. Or should I say the Reverend John Angliss. My prediction is he will make a nice leftie trendy vicar in a few years. This is based purely on his beard , he sort of has the look,and now with a mullet and hippie shirt. I offered to do a stroppy version of Trinny and Susannah. I also offered to shave the beard, but he was understandably a little wary as I had had a few by then.

There was a discussion as to whether Jim is more Father Jack, Cary Grant , George Saunders or Leslie Phillips. By this stage I was determined, in my drunken state, to get him to say 'Ding Dong' as I filmed him on my phone. For those young uns it was a catchphrase of the caddish Leslie Phillips. Denham refused until I blackmailed him, saying I would put on the blog what he said about being spanked by a certain dodgy person. Blackmail he cried and then gave in. Don't worry, it won't go on youtube ;-)There is a poll on the sidebar to guess who Denham wants to be spanked by. And in case people think this is more of my disturbed imagination Volty can corroborate that he has confessed this before.

Another highlight was pictures taken of Louise and Denham cosying up together. Think he might have been trying to recruit :-) Louise, its a slippery slope, you know Dolls4Jim is just a front organisation.

Anyway I believe there was much sensible talk in amongst the nonsense . Unlike me, I did not stay to the very end and go to the restaurant ,sort of wandered of, well OK stropped off and then mislaid Osler ! Wandered round Kings Cross on a Saturday night in my fishnets, not a good idea ,but eventually found a taxi and got home.

Anyway it was good to see everyone , old and new. Volty, you missed a good time!!

Oh and this morning I was on the bendy bus from Dalston to London Bridge and there was this whack job religious woman preaching loudly the whole journey . Arghhh.I'm looking at the photos on the phone from the night before and I hear her say that the trouble was that people were enjoying godless drunken revelry without the fear of God.

Yep,godless drunken revelry and she says that like its a bad thing, better than inflicting earache on people on buses ;-)

Stroppy is ...Brighton, Cats, Mood swings, JD and Scrabble... apparently !

Jim has given me five words that remind him of me. The point of this meme is to take them and “waffle” about what they mean to you.

Seems a bit like Just a Minute, except repetition and deviation is allowed !

So what words did my mate Jim come up with? Well, they are Brighton, Cats, Moods swings, JD and Scrabble! What, no fishnets or DMs ?

Hmm. That conjured up an image of a mad moody cat woman swigging on a bottle of Jack Daniels, with her signed Dolls4Jim pic on the wall, as she played scrabble on Facebook. Not far off;-)

OK, lets waffle...

Brighton

I spent most of my adult life in London, but have lived in Brighton now for over ten years.
What do I like about it? Well I like that its very LGBT friendly, especially my part of town. How often do you walk up to the train station at 7 in the morning and pass a gaggle of drag queens in full slap coming home from a night out , heels in hand?
Its the first place where I felt comfortable and at home.
I like living in a part of town that is populated with bars and sex shops , small independent cafes and generally an air of anything goes.
I like that there is lots of good live music and I can walk to see it in small venues .
I love being near the sea, preferably in winter when the waves are crashing .

What I don't like? Well woolly thinking muesli munching , crystal clutching , reiki types who name their kid Chakra . Yep too many new agey people who are extremely gullible and easily impressed. Who needs religion when you have a new generation of the superstitious.
Much as I love the eccentricity, the woolly headed healing Henri's who wear baggy tie dyed trousers and live off alfalfa I could do without. Mind, I don't think they would like my 'negative aura ' either. Luckily I live in a part of town that they don't tend to inhabit.
I also don't like it when its really crowded with drunken daytrippers or hen parties screeching at 4 in the morning on their way back to their B&B.
Oh and I don't like arrogant cyclists that ride on the pavement or the wrong way up a street and then swear at me for being in their way.

But generally I love Brighton, although I also spend half my time in Hackney, and really couldn't stand somewhere too normal.

Cats

People tend to be cat or dog people. I started out as the latter, as a child we had rescue dogs, including a greyhound. They are lovely dogs and like racehorses, unless they are winners they do not have a happy retirement .

I ended up with cats as my ex liked them and we rescued some feral kittens when we were students. Those cats followed us into a number of squats and later more salubrious surroundings . They lived until 15 and 17 .

I now have two rescue cats, Bob and Beryl, who have made a number of appearances here, including live cat blogging during the US Presidential elections.

I am well aware of the stereotype of child free women with cats (not childless, its a positive choice !), but as I say I got into them via a man and was a dog person. I don't treat them like babies or sit there spoon feeding them while talking to imaginary people and they are most certainly not a substitute. I think I'm better with animals sometimes than people, I don't seem to be able to offend them and they are trusting and affectionate . Its people who fuck up the world, not cats.

Mood swings

Pah, now why did Mr Jepps pick that ?? Well yeah I can be arsey and stroppy, hence my blog name. As an ex Mental Health social worker I am well aware of the diagnosis of bi - polar, but I'm more common or garden drama queen, but not all the time, honest.

Not so sure about mood swings as such, but changeable and can veer from upbeat to down . I suppose I care , about this world generally and people I love. That can make me happy, sad and angry at times. It also means I perhaps can't be as cold and theoretical as some on the left. Yeah, I may not be as up on Marx as others, but my politics came from a childhood where we were often poor, being homeless and seeing my family fucked over by the system.

JD

Ah, which one ? As regular readers know I was part of the campaign to get Jim Denham elected leader of the Labour Party and a founder member of Dolls4Jim. Jim has a special place on this blog and many disappointed people google mud wrestling and thongs, only to find a post about him.

Jack Daniels, the other JD,well its probably my favourite tipple and one that I came to quite late, having worked my way through many spirits. I think I like the association with Keith Richards , but I started drinking it when in New York. I was there with an ex and got drinking it in bars.He went home and I stayed on a few days more and got trapped there 9/11. I spent much of that day in various bars drinking it watching the news and talking to people.

Scrabble

Well, its really facebook wordscraper. I haven't actually played scrabble proper for many years. I must admit its quite addictive . I have three regular people I play with, that's Jim J, George Binette and Charlie Pottins,  I do also play people I find from the 'join table' board, though some have other types of games in mind !

Well that's my waffle . If anyone else wants to do this add your name in the comment box and I'll come up with five words, though it makes sense if I know you a little, even virtually .

The AWL, dodgy fantasies and lefties you wouldn't kick out of bed..part 2 of the sex survey results

The second part had a number of questions looking at attitudes around sex.

Would a committed relationship for you be:


Marriage, kids and a Labrador (and no, nothing odd with the dog!) (13.6%) 9
Monogamous. (56.1%) 37
Sleep with other people but not tell. ( 9.1% )6
Open relationship, the odd shag with others. ( 24.2% )16
More than one partner. (10.6% )7
Not into commitment . (1.5% )1


Interestingly the majority (56.1) favoured monogamy , though about 34% did see commitment as taking less onventional forms and a few took the well worn path of not telling.

Those who added comments to ‘other’ included :

Different strokes for different folks, but honesty is mandatory.

Emotional commitment, think monogamy is negotiable but irrelevant

I have all the commitment I need for the revolution.

but i find it hard to do (in relation to marriage, kids , Labrador).

I suppose I tend to think its about real choice, not following what society, religion or families expect. Its shouldn’t be about conforming , but I do think the key is honesty and treating people, whether a one nighter or a partner, with respect.

The next two I think highlight that for many lefties sharing at least some politics is important for a partner but not when its just sex.


Would you knowingly sleep with a Tory ?

Yes (33.8%) 23
No (30.9%) 21
Depends how drunk I was (35.3%) 24


Is it important to share similar political views with a partner?
Yes 73.4% 47
No 26.6% 17

Comments :

Helpful, not essential. Share some views, not others

Depends how emotionally committed relationship is! If so yes, if just sex, no

Depends how divergent their view are

It is important that they are not shared.

I don’t think its possible to agree on everything (and that would be dull!), so I suspect for many there will be issues that are more important to share than others.

The next few focus on the leftie variation of work/life balance, yep shagging or selling papers .

How many sexual partners have you had ? And no, let’s not nitpick on the definition like Clinton!
(Though knowing the left, I gave a nit pick option )

1 7.6% 5
2-5 27.3% 18
5-10 4.5 % 3
10-15 19.7% 13
15-25 10.6% 7
25-30 6.1% 4
30-40 1.5% 1
40-50 1.5% 1
50-60 1.5% 1
60-80 1.5% 1
80-100 4.5% 3
100+ 6.1% 4
Can’t remember ! 3.0% 2
Well you see it does all depend what you mean by sex 9.1% 6

Of course this isn’t cross referenced with age, gender or sexuality, so is is just a snapshot. A few ticked more than one, including the “well you see it does all depend” answer as well.

One person added ‘none’.

So far we have lefties busy shagging every day and only a few too busy overthrowing capitalism, so what do they do on Saturday morning ?

Saturday morning , what’s your priority ?

Sex 38.1% 16
Getting down to reading some serious theory 16.7% 7
Writing a blog post 21.4% 9
Leafleting/paper sale/canvas 23.8% 10



Although the highest number said sex, there were quite a few (25) who added their own priorities :

Rowing
First three in order.
Sleeping (8)
I do not get up before noon
Housework
Dealing with the kids/ kids/childcare/Children waking me up when I'd rather stay in bed. (4)
cup of tea
coffee
Walk the dog, buy the Guardian, make breakfast for my lover
Breakfast!
Leafleting outside the local Conservative Club, where their posh yet not that old women's section is having a coffee morning, so I can get invited in
Getting up for work
Writing or producing a magazine/newspaper, or helping out at a food co-op


Now regular readers will remember this blog has been described as all about ‘Fisting, fucking and fishnets .'
I think those less well acquainted with the blog were a tad confused by the question and skipped it. To be honest no idea what the question meant; word association , words beginning with F, stream of leftie consciousness…


This is Stroppyblog, soooo

Fisting 16.0% 8
Fucking 68.0% 34
Fishnets 40.0% 20


Those that people added were :
Sucking the stilletto
Cunnilingus. Giving.
Nah
Eh?
Light S&M
What?
SouthpawPunch
Felines
Fellatio
all 3
Fantasy


Now how sectarian are we in the bedroom (or wherever)?
This wasn’t tick box, people added what they wanted.

Here are some highlights !
1)What groups/parties/sects have you shagged members of?

You name it, I've shagged it
"Apolitical, mostly... "
"SWP, AWL, CPGB "
"Tory, Labour, Lib.Dem. Trotskyite, Marxist, CND, Maoist, Quaker, Catholic, CofE, many others"
"labour, green, tory, lib dem, swp, awl, sparts, various more or less organised anarchist groups
ISG, Workers Power, IS, SWP, Workers Fight, Militant, WRP, the other WRP, Labour Party NEC "
"SWP, Socialist Labour (crap), SA, Green Party (REALLY don't go there!), Labour (but only as an act of class warfare), CBGP "
"Fond memories of RCP chicks in the early 1980s; hit on 'em and their knickers were as good as off. "
"SWP, Respect, Left List "

2)Which was the best ?

Libertarian leftie women
SWP
Anarchist Federation and (tragically) the RCP
The best was undoubtedly the Maoist.
Greens
definitely the anarchists, both on average and individually (and collectively :-) )
Militant, as it was soooo forbidden by the church of Grant and Woods
I haven't kept notes... but, there were these two Lib Dems...
AWL
Most quite crap, though I do have fond memories of a Millie

3)Is there a group, that no matter how much you fancied someone, their membership of it would mean you wouldn’t shag them?

None
BNP (any fascist basically) ( a few on this theme, though I was really meaning leftie groups)
Tories and rightwards, pro-Stalinists
Respect Renewal
NO!
SWP And, historically speaking and more so, WRP. And Furedisti
Shag, yes. Have a relationship, no.
Sparts
Nauseating yuppie liberals
I would only have highly abusive anonymous sex with a neoconservative or libertarian.
AWL
Hackney Constituency Labour Party
English bit of Lutte Ouvriere,
SWP CC
SWP/RCP/WRP
WRP - I don't fuck apologists for rape
Respect
Can't imagine shagging anyone in Socialist Action.
CPGB-ML (wouldn't shag under any circumstance)

What came across from the survey was that the AWL are sort of leftie marmite, people either seem to love em or hate em. They figured highly in who someone wouldn’t shag , but as you will see later they figure quite highly in lefties you wouldn’t kick out of bed or as part of role play fantasy…and Jim is their most popular member !

Which three lefties wouldn’t you kick out of bed ?

I have just listed all the names people put in the survey. Quite a mixed bunch. Some are not that 'left' and one person said they don't 'do' lefties!

Most got one vote, those that got more were :

(some just said one person three times, counts as one)

3 votes

Marsha-Jane

2 votes

Jim Denham
Jim Jepps
Catriona Grant
Stroppy (no I did not vote for myself !)

1 vote

Mary Partington
Sofie Buckland
Gregor Gysi
Hind Hassan
Hannah Sell
Salma Yaqoob
Sian Berry
David Miliband
Segolene Royal
Beauvoir
Luxembourg
Daniel Randall
David Broder
Jeremy Browne
Nick Clegg
Jackie Grunsall,
Lucy Adler,

Bob Browne (Australian)

“Margaret Thatcher, Mussolini's granddaughter, Segoline Royal, Sargosy's bird (I don't do "bed with lefties").”

Carolyn Leckie
Houzan Mahmoud
Barak Obama
Katja Kipping
Owen James
Jeremy Dear
Caroline Lucas
Gail Sheridan
Jon Rogers
Will
Mark Fischer
China Mieville
Angela Eagle
Matt Wrack,
Dave Osler
George Binette

comments...

Er...my girlfriend and all the girls I've slept with?,
ALL OF THEM.
Three persons known to me.
Errrr.
Can't name third
None.
Um, I'm shit with names.
Really not sure, those dead Russians had some sexy beards though
Not telling you!!!
there aren't that many lefties i would kick out of bed.
“If there were three lefties in the same bed they'd be so busy arguing they wouldn't have time for the sex!”
my partner
Oh god. NEXT!
I daren't comment about anyone associated with this blog...
Too embarrassing to say - even anonymously
Silent ones

Lefties and fantasy…

Can I just say all these role play.fantasies were new to me. I mean i'm as vanilla as they come and any fantasy would be very right on and equal and probably involve gambolling through meadows being very respectful. These were all Jim Jepp's idea .
Hmmm, not convincing am I ;-)


Anyway, gave me some new ideas …


Have you ever fantasised (or role played )about :

Melanie Phillips, spank me baby! 7.0% 3
Nuns, with or without guns 34.9% 15
Women in burquas 23.3% 10
Margaret Thatcher 7.0% 3
Jim Denham 9.3% 4
Yvonne Ridley 4.7% 2
John Mcdonnell 11.6% 5
John Rees and young enthusiastic cadre 2.3% 1
Policemen or women 34.9% 15
Tory business women in French underwear 32.6% 14
Nazi orgies with hookers 14.0% 6
Ruth Kelly in bondage gear 11.6% 5
Harriet Harman, in full riot, telling you what a very naughty boy/girl you had been … 7.0% 3
Lefties in uniform – firefighters, nurses, rail workers… 60.5% 26
Or anything else you want to share ? 16.3% 7


And quite a few did indeed share ...

are you trying to put me off sex for life?
I don't go for authority figures. I like the unconstrained play of equals.
Sex in riots.
dom/mes, /bondage
SPP here again, I forgot to mention fantasising about armed workers in struggle, e.g. the IRA, RIRA, Provo IRA, Batasuna, the Welsh Firebombing Nationalists, the UCK/KLA, FSLN, SDLP, Gadaffi's women bodyguard troupe, South American guerrila movements, and the French Tories Womens Institute (Armed Section). Hang on, not the SDLP.
that famous picture of uniformed Maoist girls,
East German fashion chic
Waterfalls au natural
S&M
I am the only true revolutionary, I am SouthPawPunch, spell it properly,!
My girlfriend can't get enough of John McDonnell, if that counts
Pirates
soldiers, obviously.


And a few that said No!!
And
Good grief, none of the above.

Next up...theory as foreplay, lefties talk dirty and threesomes with TU general secretaries...

Blogging, hot weather and jazz...

Apologies for light blogging of late. That's partly because 1) I'm very busy, 2) bloggers block and 3) its too damn hot ! I even don't like drinking alcohol when the its sunny, I prefer drinking in dark seedy places as opposed to on the beach, which makes me feel sick even with just one glass of JD let alone a half bottle:-)

Hopefully inspiration, and thunderstorms , will strike . In the meantime a musical interlude. A few weeks back I went to see Ornette Coleman at the Meltdown festival. This caused some debate over at Dave's blog and Mr Denham posted on the subject, twice .Now I like to listen to all sorts of music and am always up for discovering artists new to me. I have listened to bits of jazz over the years ( Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane amongst others). Being with Dave has meant hearing lots more ! In talking to him and Jim I have discovered there is basically two types of Jazz, Osler Jazz and Jimmy (Denham ) Jazz. Jim apparently is good time!

So to cut to the chase, here are some you tubes of jazz that Jim won't like . Next week , lucky girl that I am, have the opportunity to watch him in action, playing the drums. I'll report back !

First off John Coltrane with Alabama . This was written in reaction to the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church,by the Klu Klux clan, that resulted in the death of four girls.




Now for some Miles Davis with a track from Kind of Blue, although to really torment Jim I should have uploaded something from Bitches Brew .



After tormenting Mr D, here are some female jazz vocalists which I believe cross the Jim/Osler categories .

I have picked Billie Holiday singing Strange Fruit. Its one of the most powerful songs about racism, where she sings about the lynching of black people .Its one of those songs Im not sure saying I enjoy it is quite how I feel . The lyrics evoke feelings of anger at the suffering and racism.



OK, bit of a theme, here is Nina Simone singing Mississippi Goddam.Nina was part of the Civil Rights and this, like John Coltrane, was partly a response to the Church bombings.

Finally , round off with some Dinah Washington:

The second Jim Denham fan club piss up...

Thought I would do a light innocuous post . Mind you thought that about the Thatcher one and there is an almighty bust up between Sham and Paddy in the comments box.

Anyway, try again.

A few months back there was the first leftie bloggers piss up , which was a good night out. OK, that says something about my idea of fun, night in a pub full of drunken weird leftie men and of course some stroppy women . No night is complete without adopting two leftie men and being called Doll by the delectable Jim D.

So a date for the diary...Saturday 14th April. Kit is organising it again , so pop over to his blog.


Given the 'lively ' debate between Paddy and Sham perhaps they will pop along. Not that I'm one to stir mind :-)
Add Jim D to the mix, banging the table as he argues with those two and I could sell tickets ...

Facebook ...arghhhhhhh

I have finally given in and joined Facebook!

First MarshaJane has been nagging me .Then last night I went to Tami's birthday and meal and she made an offer I couldn't refuse, if I joined she would set up the Dolls4Jim group. So I'm there, my name is stroppy bird. I have been 'poking' people. I'm not sure what that means yet but it sounds fun. Of course I am sure there are better uses of my time ,as with the blogs I get the feeling this could be addictive.

Oh and thanks Tami for a nice night. Hope you enjoyed your birthday . I gave Tami a birthday card with a picture of Jim Denham on it. Oh and a large glossy picture which Tami put on a seat set aside for him,it was as if he was there with us, in spirit(s). Tami has told me it is going on her wall. We managed to baffle her Birkbeck mates who could not understand who this Jim was and what Dolls4Jim was about. One thought Jim had really stood against Gordon Brown. I think Dave and George despaired of us.

Oh well, better see if anyone has 'poked' me over at Facebook. I only have three friends , its the school playground all over again :-(

Wheeeee ...1000th post !!!!!!

Yep, the top Trot Wag blog(Dave being 'ironic'), has reached its 1000th post .

Oh and a new twag 'signing', welcome Tami.
So here's to the next 1000 posts covering all those 'lifestyle' issues that Punchie disapproves of.

Coming up ...

Fashion

Is Carla Bruni-Sarkozy the new Jackie O and where does she get her clothes from.

A "How to look good naked" special starring your favourite bloggers.

What the best dressed Trot will be wearing for the autumn/winter demos.

Real life stories

Will tells of the moment he saw the face of Jesus in a crumpled up crisp packet and how this lead him to become a Priest. He talks movingly about his past life as a swearing ranty Geordie and how the love of god has helped him make amends to all those he was rude to.

Coleen Rooney talks exclusively to Stroppyblog about her time in the International Bolshevik Tendency and her frustrated attempts to form a pro Manolo's tendency.

Food and wine

Jim Denham's guide to dinner party etiquette and is it ever acceptable to call your hostess a Nazi.

Interiors

Paddy the Puritan invites us for a tour of his stunning loft apartment on Stoke Newington Church Street .
He talks exclusively about why he shops at Fresh and Wild and gives us a sneak preview of his design collection for the more modest woman, inspired by his muse Yvonne Ridley .

New age

Our resident astrologer and tarot reader, Hakmao, will tell your fortune.

Girlies

Stroppy's new column 'bottle blond binge drinkers:' a guide to growing old disgracefully.

Fucking, Fisting and Fishnets

Ms Stroppy answers all your problems.

Personals for sad leftie men who want to get laid

Includes the cream of the left ...

Jim D " Spank me baby!I have been a very very bad boy and am looking for someone to tell me off in German.Uniform optional. Melanie Phillips look a like my ideal"

Jon R " Is your idea of a romantic night in one spent reading Trade Union rule books to each other? If so do get in touch. I have an extensive collection going back many years, many unions and they are only slightly sticky"

Punchie " Up against the wall baby. Wanted: right wing Paris Hilton look alike to polish my AK47 . Asda knicker wearing lefties a no no."


Update: Sadly its now goodbye to Tami who doesn't want to blog here at the moment.

Carnival of Socialism

Jim J has asked me if I can help out at short notice and do the Carnival this Sunday. Well I usually spend ages ploughing through the blogs, but this time it will be more of a quickie. But dear readers, you can help. Send me links to anything that I might find interesting . Pop them in the comments to this post.


I did think I would focus on coverage of Iran in the blogs, but all issues of interest will be covered; sex, religion, Jim Denham and anything else you deem suitable for Stroppyblog!

"Dolls4Jim" or also known as "I really must get a life post and stop blogging about Jim Denham..."

...but Tami is worse than me !!

She has created some more campaign buttons , see my favourite pictured .

Can someone make that into a badge :-)

Tami is also getting together the first campaign sub group . Yep, its Dolls4Jim .
We will be writing a manifesto, for Jim to launch at the bloggers piss up.

I must get out more ...

Bloggies unmasked ...

Sorry for the delay in writing about drinks and bloggies after the McDonnell meeting. The last week has been a whirl of socialising with all those weird lefties who pop over to Stroppyblog. This will now be my 'Heat' style post on who I met this week.

Starting with the McDonnell meeting. I thought there might be some bloggies at the meeting , so I peered about to see if I could guess who they were . We really should have little name tags saying who were are and our blog. John Angliss came up to us as he recognised Osler from his media tarting on TV. John looks very different from his blog pic as he has a big bushy beard. As well as hating ponytails on men I also hate beards and was planning to add them to the people we would shoot come the revolution. I think though we will spare John as he is quite a sweetie.

I had a chat with David Broder. As people may remember I have linked to some of his posts here as he talks sense about women,LGBT issues and the left. I learnt from David that Volty, and the 'delectable' Jim D , had met their heroine Yvonne Ridley. Wonder why they kept that quiet. I explained to David that Volty has a shrine to her, complete with life size cardboard cut out.

Good to say hello to Janine, sorry I didn't get a chance to talk more. Happy belated 40th birthday for Saturday. Its not that bad being over 40 :-)
I did feel old though when I gave a 'history' lesson to John on the Bermondsey by-election and realised he hadn't yet been born .

The 'highlight' of the night was getting drunk with the puritanical one, Paddy. He seemed to be under the impression that Stroppy was a made up personality. Dave put him straight there, that I am the same in real life. Paddy asked me not to be horrible. I did my best and only called him a fuckwit once.
If I had known Paddy was there I would have been more immodest and worn my ripped fishnets and DMs...
Louise and I have an open invitation to go for a walk in a cemetery with him. Hmmm, think I'll pass on that, unless Lenny comes along.

Thursday night and more bloggies in pubs. Dave, Louise and I met up with Paul 'catsuits' Anderson and some of his mates (Padraig from New Humanist, Declan , Kevin and Lady M.)
What I worked out from that night, surrounded by journos, was that men go into that line of work in order to gossip. As lady M put it

I learned more about who works where, who knows whom and who's shagged whom than I ever expected - or indeed wanted - to know.

I know we have a reputation for lowering the tone, but this time we were trumped by Osler, but best not go there. Suffice to say many left the pub that night a little traumatised .

Not all were not such anoraks when it came to blogs and did wonder why we would want to post and comment at all times of the day and night. It is addictive. It can also ruin reputations. Paul had some explaining to do when one of his students came across the post and comments on his blog where he offered to be our houseboy and clean our showers if we dressed up in catsuits. As Padraig put it, you do realise the blogs are a public forum. So apologies to Paul . He is a serious political journalist and was lead astray by the stroppybloggers.

Saturday the plan was for Louise and I to go to a bit of the Feminist Fightback conference and then pop over to the Women against Fundamentalism meeting. Best laid plans and all that. We met Volty for coffee first. He was a very bad influence. We ended up there for three hours . Every now and then we said perhaps we should go. But it was nice in the sun, then it rained so we had to stay and then we were hungry. Eventually we got to the WAF meeting. Louise is going to report on that.

This left us with time to catch the end of FF but instead Volty made us go to a pub. We did make the last 20 mins of FF, walking in like naughty schoolkids who had been bunking off. But it did give me the opportunity to say hi to Mike (described to me as a sort of lefty Stephen Fry type) and Kit. Didn't get a chance to talk much and sorry for forgetting to bring along the fishnets for you to wear.

The biggest disappointment was not seeing Jim D. For a while myself and Louise became 'unmanageable'. Volty did his best to cheer us with tales of Denham, including his infamous phone call to Radio Galloway. If anyone has gorgeous George's mobile please let us know. It will be safe in the hands of Jim:-)
I have this image of Jim as a sort of Father Jack character, sitting there with his drink shouting Galloway...Ridley...SWP... and swearing and throwing things at the computer.
But the sweet thing is the names JimD has given his poodles. The two he breeds from are called Yvonne Ridley and George Galloway. At least thats what Volty told me :-)

Look forward to the drinks in January ...

My idea of fun ...

Its a beautiful sunny Saturday in Brighton. What do I do? Potter down to the beach with a good book? Sit in a pub garden or beach side cafe watching the world go by?
Nope. Traipse up to London to sit in a grotty pub in Kings Cross with sad leftie men!!
Sad, sad, sad.

It was a small select group. Tami couldn't make it as she was in the US, John A in Guernsey, others busy or not well . Or perhaps they had a life.
I potter in from the bright sunshine, push my shades back on my head and peer round looking for some sad lefties. Sitting there with their pints are Volty, Kit and Mike. Where is Denham ??
Apparently he was doing something political in Brum and was going to try to make it later. Sadly I think he was waylaid by some whiskies in a bar and never made it. As the night wore on we became quite drunk and unmanageable without our leader. More of that later.
Dave rung to ask where we were and asked if Denham was there. I had to assure him he would be there later to get him to come along.

Whilst normal people were enjoying the sun, we hit the spirits (do not give Volty rum ).
I sat there wondering why my idea of fun was sitting with these strange leftie men getting very pissed.

Mixed in with the politics was the gossip. Hmm, you think women spend their time talking about who they would or not shag and people's clothes, well let me tell you so do leftie men. Without naming names here, let me give a flavour of the drink fuelled conversations round the table.One included a vote as to , and I quote, 'who round this table would bugger ****'. We discussed how some men on the left needed to get out more , have a shower , dress better and would be less gripey if they got laid. Of course the last one was dependent on showers and getting out more. There was discussion of who set the bar for the ugliest man on the left.

There was some talk of Trotporn and Volty kissed and told about how he dressed up in blue spandex most nights. I don't think blue is his colour.

I do think the left has more than its share of weird men .

As the night wore on last trains came and went . Volty and Mike pondered the options, go and find some late bars or go back to Osler's . Much indecision, but we went for a meal to soak up the alcohol while this was further pondered. On route to the restaurant there was almost a diversion to lap dancing club. Food won out.

After the meal we all piled into a black cab back to Stokie. Now when I get in a cab at midnight I usually avoid political discussions with cabbies. I don't want to risk being chucked out or argued with all the way home . Ah but we were in a boisterous mood. We sat back in our seats, and then we heard Galloway on Talk Radio. Turn it up we shouted. That was it. The cabbie asked if we liked him. No , and we all explained why. The cabbie wanted to shoot most politicians , was anti the war but did support our 'boys'.
They are all as bad as each other said the cabbie, what can you do he asked ? At which point we explained we were in the Labour Party , fighting New labour and went on to tell the cabbie about John McDonnell. 'Drunkensadleftieweirdmen4John' was formed, we explained his polices and encouraged said cabbie to join a union. He had actually heard of John!

Back at Osler's people were still in what can only be called a boisterous mood. Tomatoes were eaten and bedsheets worn over the head. At this point the idea of the night train back to Brighton seemed appealing . Dave said it was more peaceful when his two young daughters rampaged around. As a precaution he moved his beloved guitars out of harms way.
Eventually we all passed out and peace descended on chez Osler.

Next morning everyone crawled from their pits. Volty said he should not be allowed to drink rum. He described his temples as feeling like there were two squirrels drilling into them and he was looking out through mist. Tea was drunk, shoes retrieved and off they went on their travels.

Amongst all the gossip there was a serious political development that explained the absence of Denham.It seems that he is standing down .Why you ask? It doesn't make sense with all his support. Owen himself said at the McDonnell rally that John was going to step aside for Jim. Groups were sprouting up all over the place ...Dolls4Jim. saddrunkenoldtrots4Jim, Discoqueens4Jim and beardiestudents4Jim.Alas the dream ticket of Denham and Volty is no more.

The rumour is he had to stand down as the mother of scandals was about to erupt in the media. Some say it was dirty tricks in the McDonnell camp, but lets just say think of the alleged stories about Oaten, Sheridan and then add poodles. I'll say no more...

The Christina Aguilera pic is for Volty !

Jim Denham on Facebook...hmm

Regular readers will know , this blog started  the Jim4Leader campaign and set up Dolls4Jim on Facebook. In fact some might consider we, OK me, have a sort of weird fascination with Mr Denham !

Yes, it is true that I have whiled away a good few hours drinking JD with JD.

Anyway, it seems the man himself is on Facebook .

However, he seems to have ignored my friend request .

Pah...unless of course its an impostor ??

Has he really succumbed to the joys of status updates on cake and hours playing scrabble ? Will he start twittering next ?

Sheridan, SSP, bloggers piss ups and drink related injuries...

Back from my travels .

I liked Edinburgh . We did lots of drinking, live music, more drinking and pootling about doing touristy stuff.

Oh and our own Scottish Bloggers piss ups.

Now I have cast doubt on whether Will is 'real' or a figment of the imagination .
I did though have it on good authority that Will was real . He was described to me as not only very disturbed and arsey but looking like a cross between Clooney and Mourinho.Who could resist such a combination.

Well I have to report he is actually a middle aged middle class lady (see pic of Wilma on the right, with her friends)with a blue rinse who runs a traditional Scottish tea room. Makes lovely jam as well, even gave us a jar to take back. Will is really Miss Wilma McDonald and when not in her tea room she is the backbone of the local WI.She also breed poodles, a hobby she shares with Denham. Thing is she is a bit lonely and so has a fantasy world on the blogs and has created this character called Will. Hakmao is her good friend, a staunch church goer , renowned for her flower arranging.

At times though Wilma slipped into Geordie and insults.I think her words were, 'yer doing ma heed in woman' as I polished off the bottle of JD. Hak called me a shameless hussy and minx. I was also told off for tormenting Jim Denham. I tried to explain we all need a hobby.

Still must be nice to Wilma, she has been in the wars a bit .Don't think she usually has more than a dry sherry of an evening. She now has a bit of a dodgy knee and badly bruised foot. Best say no more about how that happened .

We also met with some SSP comrades, Cat and Eddie. It was good to meet them and see their determination to rebuild after all the (ongoing) crap from the Sheridan fiasco.Its depressing how one man and his ego can destroy years of work to build the left in Scotland. I have stated my views on Sheridan and after meeting them I realise quite how much damage he has done.


Anyway, must catch up on all the soul searching, dissecting and told you so posts re McDonnell and the LP left.

Must get out more

Not been posting for a while. Lazy .

I thought blogging was sad enough until I found myself chatting with Kit, on facebook ,on a Sunday evening. Not that Kit is sad, weird but not sad. Nope, it was the fact the subject matter involved Denham ,Zionist fishnets,small dogs and stroppy women .

Date for the diary , there is a piss up for leftie bloggers who want to venture off the web and into the semi real world of a pub full of social misfits.
Saturday 6th October, 'The Euston Flyer', Euston . Starts 4pm.
All welcome.
There will of course be a delegation from Dolls4Jim.

Oh and if you turn up I'll tell you the story that involves chihuahuas, disturbed schoolboys and Jim Denham...

Guest post - Socialism and the Labour Party

John Angliss has written a guest post for Stroppyblog on why he is joining the Labour Party.
The purpose of guest posts is to create debate and discussion . They are the opinion and views of the poster and I may or may not agree with them.

So comments please and no table thumping Mr Denham ! Be nice.
For more of his posts pop over to 'You see it is simply a very young boy's record' (aka The Dave Osler appreciation society).

Over to John ...


Socialism and the Labour Party

Let me start off by saying what an honour it is to be posting on one of the foremost Jim Denham themed blogs in the country. Long may it continue!

The Labour Party - why join? It isn't in a good state. "New" Labour is about restricting liberties, war, sensationalism and privatisation. Old Labour collapsed under the weight of economic crisis and Thatcherite spin. New Labour took over due to economic crisis, scandal and Blairite spin. It has been widely predicted that it will shortly be lost to waves of scandal and Cameronite spin. Since the parties have become tweedlered and tweedlegreen, what reason is there to take sides?
First, the Labour Party may well be salvageable, but the discourse about its future must begin now. There must be a new set of ideas ready to take over when the electorate rejects these ones. They must be informed by current events - a rejection both of the latter-day Old Labour which purveyed unthinking statism and New Labour which uses that flaw as a base for war and repression (more on this later).

Second, the British system of first-past-the-post means that realistically no fourth party is going to get a look in: if you want to make a difference, you have to join one of the big three. The AWL, SWP, SSP etc. are more campaigning institutions rather than genuine threats to power in Britain. Where they stand against left-wing Labour MPs in some constituencies, they can actually bugger both parties chances of getting in. These parties have moreover always had to be broad churches, with room for some large differences of opinion. Whether one would say that about some of these fringe parties is questionable.

Third, the option of apathy is no way out. Being holier-than-thou outside the system is fun, but doesn't achieve much. Theorists often spend their lives criticising people who are actually doing things. The difference is that however despondent the latter become in the face of criticism, the critics are the ones who cannot hope to achieve anything progressive. End of.

Fourth, the Labour Party has a long tradition of being the left party. We must not forget that the entryists are Blair's cronies rather than our own. Here are a few reminders that once, leftists were in charge:

"The Peace which Labour demands is a Peace of International Co-operation."- 1918 manifesto (http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/ )

"The Labour Party stands for the destruction of all war-time measures in restraint of civil or industrial liberty, the repeal of the Defence of the Realm Act, the complete abolition of Conscription, and the release of all political prisoners. It stands for free citizenship, a Free Parliament, for Free Speech, and against the domination of the Press by sinister political influences."- 1918 manifesto.

"The Labour Party is the Women's Party".- 1918 manifesto.

"[We are for] an International Conference (including Germany on terms of equality) to deal with the Revision of the Versailles Treaty, especially Reparations and Debts; and the resumption of free economic and diplomatic relations with Russia. This will pave the way for Disarmament, the only security for the nations."- 1923 manifesto.

"It urges them to refuse to make this General Election squabbleed partisan squablle about mean and huckstering policies."- 1923 manifesto .

Unfortunately, we can't kid ourselves that in the event that a left-winger like McDonnell takes charge, they will have any more support from the electorate. Old Labourism is dead. Long live socialism! We must trump the Tories in their populist stand for sovereignty from Europe by pursuing sovereignty from both Europe and America, in order to allow Britain to be closer to the whole world.We must cultivate senses of identity both for those who are descended from Celts and for those who have just arrived: but they shouldn't be nationalistic, racist and bland, and they needn't be identical throughout Britain.We must fuse a return to social liberalism with healthy respect for religion and culture. And we must found a health and education policy upon these objectives - reversing the trend of money flowing out into the private sector, regulating professionals only where regulation is necessary, smashing the binding bureaucratic structures and returning to a situation where there is no discrimination between rich and poor.

The Labour Party is malleable - it's only composed of humans. There was a coup, but the counter-coup is just beginning. If you're in the party, you can help change Britain's direction. That's an opportunity an individual voter rarely gets. If you really want things to change in Britain, the best way is not to join a party which talks a lot and does little - it's to join a left party in power and make it better. So comrades, come rally?

A victory for Mr Denham !!

Jim D and the good folk of Bournville, Brum, have won their battle to stop alcohol being sold.

Jim signed the petition !!

One of the protesters stated :

"Our primary objection is we believe the proposed licence for Tesco would exacerbate an existing problem of antisocial behaviour."

Ah well, they do have Jim in their midst . It might be an understandable concern.

Back from Paris

Back to reality, or at least my version, after 8 nights in Paris . I'm just acclimatising myself to being home.

Paris was fun. We stayed in a studio apartment in the Bastille district and pootled around imagining we really lived there.
Generally drank far too much. In fact over the whole holiday there was not one day that I was legally able, if I so wished, to be in charge of a car. Probably not really in charge of myself, but hey whats new;-)
Still , we were restrained and did not start on the red wine till midday. Managed to mix my drinks , something I try to avoid. Developed quite a taste for cognac, calvados and brandy, plus I found a stronger proof jack daniels that was rather good.
But there was some culture as well , did some walks and galleries .

Of course when I set off on my hols I went with Dave and returned with the 93rd most influential leftie .He returned from the Internet cafe informing me of this and declaring 'hey baby how'd you like to ...of the 93rd most influential leftie in Britain.'
I won't repeat what he suggested I do to show my appreciation of being in the presence of 'number 93,' I know my readers are prim sensitive types and I am ladylike and demure ;-)

On the Friday we pootled down to the Eiffel Tower as we heard there was a show there with unsigned bands and Siouxsie playing solo and promoting her new album. When we got there we were told at the ticket desk it was invite only. Luckily one of the organisers was passing and asked us where we were from. Dave managed to blag his way in with his old punk routine . The gig was on the first level of the Eiffel Tower in a smallish room with about 200 people, Oh and a free bar. So after a day drinking red wine and too much cognac I headed over to start on the free champers, then voddie when that ran out. I finally ended up with a bottle that looked interesting but turned out to be coke, still not bad for a freebie night out in Paris.

Only saw one of the new bands who were not bad but I didn't catch who they were. Siouxsie was pretty stroppy and showed there is no need to age gracefully at 50 !
I managed to film a clip and add it to you tube. Its not great but it is the first time I have done it.

Oh and the highlight, going to the Fourth International Bookshop !! Yep, Osler knows how to show a girl a good time :-)Trouble is my French is rusty and not up to reading books. I pottered about trying to work out the titles and looked at the books and papers in English,and what did I find but an article by Jim Denham in a 1999 copy of Workers Liberty . And no I did not buy it.

The next couple of days are alcohol free. I may act like an irresponsible teenager, having drinking competitions with Dave in Paris, but I think I need a rest before the bloggers piss up on Saturday.

I'll finish catching up and perhaps do some posts in the next few days .