WHICH is the party of the gluttonous super-rich?
No marks if you guessed the Tories: they are now being outdone by Neil Kinnock's new-model Labour Party as it turns its back decisively on the working class.
Farewell totes, jumble sales and collections: today's Labour Party apes the US Democrats and Republicans, raising money at astronomically priced 'Red Rose Campaign' dinners.
Perhaps your invitation got lost in the post? We can inform you that this summer's £500-a-head thrash is to be followed by a relative bargain - a £175 October 21 nosh-up at Frederick's Restaurant in Islington, supposedly to 'mark Labour's commitment to London.
Discounts are available (a table for ten goes for just £1,400l), but this is clearly not an evening at which socialists, or any of Labour's bedrock voting supporters - working class families from the industrial and inner city heartlands - would be welcome:
Those with sufficient readies and a strong enough stomach can cavort with Labour's affluent, ostentatious elite - not least Glenda Jackson, Ken Follett and Ruth Rendell - as they flaunt their wealth and right wing policies while scoffing back the volau-vents.
If such elitism was not enough of an insult to Labour's homeless, unemployed and poverty-stricken supporters, the political implications of this new turn are even worse.
The wealthy do not back Labour for nothing: they expect at least a quid pro quo if Labour ever should take office. In targeting the minute and overprivileged section of the middle class who might be drawn to such events, Kinnock and co have already abandoned any hint of radical economic policy and proffered promises to limit taxation of the super-rich.
If grotesque displays like this are already happening before the election, imagnie how appalling will be the celebrations for those on the gravy train if Kinnock were to win!
Socialist Outlook has a handy hint for any reader intending to join the revelry on October 21: bring some food and drink with you. Top of the guest list is Roy The Hoover' Hattersley - and he could eat your portion, your neighbour's, and all the cutlery before you could say 'Jack Cunningham'!
He quoted Todd's own speech in 1988, before his collapse into Kinnock's line, when he called upon Labour to: 'sweep away all Tory laws lock, stock and barrel'. Scargill said the unions are entitled to be free of state interference, 'that is the difference between these two resolutions'.
While the hard right trooped ip to support Ron Todd, Roger ¿yons of MSF told the Congress that he was amazed that 'any