BEER, FOOTBALL AND FISH AND CHIPS

Peter Mandelson, Prince of Darkness (left) and former Prime Minister and War Criminal Tony Blair (right).

How Blair and Mandelson Hijacked the Labour Party.

byHARRY BLACKWOOD

I'm a man with a very good constitution, so there's not very much that makes me feel nauseous. But if I cast my mind back to the victory celebrations following Labour's 1997 election success, I'm guaranteed to come over all bilious.

The sight of Podgy Prescott dancing with his tarty wife was nauseating enough and the sight of Mandy, Prince of Darkness singing along to "Things Can Only Get Better" had me reaching for the sick bucket. But what really did it for me was all of those 'genuine, ordinary hardworking' Labour supporters worshipping at the feet of Blair like he was some sort of Messiah. Oh yeah Messiah, at criminal, murderer and money grabbing con man.

It still boils my piss to this day thinking back how smarmy Blair arrived in the former mining village of Trimdon (just a few miles from my front door) and started glad handing local party members as he laid on his best acting to ingratiate his way into getting one of the safest Labour seats in the country.

It was truly sickening to hear local party chairman John Burton regaling people with the story about how Blair had turned up at his house one night and there was European football on the television "Tony sat and watched the match with a can of beer and we didn't talk politics" or some such bollocks was what Burton used to tell people ad nauseum. What Burton failed to realise was that Blair would have drunk horse piss filtered through a shitty sock and watched reruns of Crossroads if it meant he'd secure the nomination.

As history shows only too well, the stupid buggers fell for it hook line and sinker.

I remember a journalist pal, Phil Hickey (RIP), who was working freelance in the area getting some work from Blair when he first moved into the Sedgefield constituency. Blair had just bought his house Mirabella, and Phil went round for his introduction and briefing as to the PR work Blair was looking for.

Naturally, I was interested in Phil's views on Blair, so when he called at my house later that week I asked him. As usual with Phil I got a no-nonsense appraisal. I can remember it word for word. "He's a very clever bloke but he's a total fucking con man".

His condemnation of Cherie was even worse. "Poisonous bitch who looks like she's caught her face on a nail".

For the pair of them he reserved this truly prophetic analysis. "They're both totally obsessed with money". Many years later when the Carol Caplin dodgy flats deal was going on, I thought of that. He couldn't have got it more right. More so now.

And while Blair was brown nosing his way into the hearts and minds of Labour party members in the Sedgefield constituency, his chum Peter Mandelson was doing the same just a few miles down the road in my home town of Hartlepool.

I was deputy editor of the local newspaper and got a call one morning from a local businessman called Leo Gillen. The Gillens were one of the wealthiest families in the area with a chain of newsagents, general dealers, pubs, a fish and chip shop and even had their own church hall (I kid you not). The Gillens had been intrinsically linked with the local Labour Party for many years and were seen as fixers.

I'd known Leo for donkey's years. I'd worked as a paper boy in his dad's first shop and as his old man and mine had worked together at the local steelworks we'd kept in touch. Leo was excited on the end of the phone. "Do you know Peter is in town?" he was almost squealing like a teenage girl at a Boyzone concert. At first I wondered who the hell he was talking about and then it clicked: Leo had fallen under the spell of the Prince of Darkness.

It didn't take long for me to work out what was going on. The editor of the Hartlepool Mail at that time was a larger than life character called Chris Cox. A cracking journalist but he made no secret of his politics. He was a Tory through and through. He'd even spent a short time working for the Conservative party.

Mandelson had quickly established Coxy's political leanings and realised he was on a loser there. If he couldn't get to the top, he'd try the next bloke down.

So it was that I arrived at the Gillen Arms (the pub they'd modestly named after themselves) one evening for my first of many dozens of encounters with the most evil, manipulative bastard ever to enter British politics.

Mandy, picked at his fish and chips (the Gillen's chippie was next door to the pub) and tried to be an urbane, down to earth, ordinary bloke. He failed miserably. It would have been easier if I’d pretended to be the Archbishop of Canterbury.  The fish and chips in a pub was the same tactic Blair had employed with the can of beer while he watched the footy. It might have worked with John Burton and his cronies. It didn't cut the mustard with me. I saw through Mandelson from day one. Of course I didn't let on.

In the intervening seventeen years, I've watched a succession of chancers, bullshitters, posh boys, middle class intellectuals and con men infest the Labour Party. The takeover is now complete. Ed Miliband. Posh, middle class intellectual bloody freak show and he's leading the Labour Party. If you ever wondered how the hell that happened I guess you know now.

As we approach the 2015 election, I laugh when left-leaning voters suggest that a vote for Labour is essential as anything is better than the Tories. Such stupidity and gullibility leaves me aghast.

When Blair and Mandelson hijacked the Labour Party all those years ago their agenda was simple: they wanted to feather their own nests and create their own version of the Tory Party. Job done.

So, if you think the 2015 election is going to provide you any choice then think again. Tory, Liberal Tory, Racist Tory or Tory Lite. You takes your ballot form and you takes your pick.

Alternatively you could do the sensible thing and take the first steps to destroying a corrupt system that allowed Blair and Mandelson to take hold. DON'T VOTE. IT ONLY ENCOURAGES THE BASTARDS.

FEEL IT? LOVE IT? THEN SHARE IT!