Do you remember this character mask?
Foto: 123rf/inkdrop
A nice thing: The Labor Party under Keir Starmer has handed the British Conservatives the worst defeat in their history. You’re as happy about Bayer Leverkusen’s championship after the endless Bayern series. Symbolically it has a lot of significance, but politically it has less appeal, more of a feeling than a systemic restart.
When Tony Blair defeated the eleven years of Thatcherism for Labor in 1997, there was also great celebration. Margaret Thatcher had almost broken the unions and implemented neoliberalism. In contrast, the long-term German Chancellor Helmut Kohl was a peaceful man. Together with a friend, the later electronic musician Ekkehard Ehlers, I ran a club event every Sunday in Darmstadt where we played records for a better world. It was called “Lounge Nouveau.” When Blair won, we papered the room with the front pages of English newspapers proclaiming his election victory and raised a red flag.
We played classic anti-Thatcher songs like “Kick Out The Tories” by the Newtown Neurotics, “Margaret On The Guillotine” by Morrissey, left-wing bands like Redskins, Specials, Jam and of course Attila the Stockbroker, with drums in between. and bass piece, that was the music of the moment from the UK at the time. We also served complimentary cucumber sandwiches and whiskey shots to celebrate. The mood was very good.
On Monday a band from the London Ninja Tune label (I forget which one) came to the club for a concert and were amazed at the remaining Labor headlines on the walls and the red flag, because for them it was clear: Tony Blair’s new government had nothing to do with socialism.
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