Nobody
was too surprised to see Jeremy Corbyn re-elected as Labour Party leader except
perhaps those who had vehemently opposed him. Their vigour in doing so failed
to achieve anything except both reinforce and strengthen Corbyn’s hold on the
post which he seems likely to keep until the next election at least. His
opponents’ strategy appeared to be to treat both the incumbent and the Momentum
movement as some kind of invading enemy. “They” have infiltrated our party, it
was declared and made it unelectable. The inconvenient truth that they failed
to grasp- or perhaps did not even recognise- is that Corbyn is the most
traditional Labour leader in over thirty years. His and Momentum’s ideals are
much, much closer to Labour than anything Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Ed
Miliband had to offer. If you flip it over it is Blair and co who were the
invaders, changing Labour beyond recognition, and now the party has taken back
its purpose and re-linked with its origins.
The irony
is that his detractors within Labour have often joked that Corbyn’s policies
have not changed in decades which Trad Jez himself probably views as something
of a compliment. He would say he has retained his principles, his Labourness if you like. It
is they who have wandered away to
other places. As for Momentum being some dark force propelling Corbyn it
actually started less than a year ago, a month after Corbyn was first elected.
And I’m sure the right wing of the party has some equally shadowy group behind
it.
The other
main thrust of his party critics against Corbyn is that his policies make
Labour `unelectable` but they are basing this on the past two decades.
Certainly ten years ago they would have been unelectable had they presented
such a collection of defiantly Socialist ideas but with recent events the slate
is wiped clean. The statement that they are unelectable under Corbyn might just
end up in the same trunk with “The UK would never vote to leave the EU” and “Scotland
would vote for independence if they had the chance”. I think there is growing
evidence that the electorate is no longer voting or thinking predictably. A
succession of scandals has eroded trust in politicians and the growing divide
between the parts of the country for whom things seem back to normal and those
still suffering under austerity means that the kind of conditions that might
embrace a socialist agenda are re-appearing albeit in a different guise.
Of course
like many a left wing politician, Corbyn’s ideas sound reasonable until you
read the small print and realise the only way to afford to do any of them would
be increased taxation not just for some but for everyone. Take one of his
signature beliefs- that the railways should be re-nationalised. Ignoring for a
moment just how awful British Rail was in its apparent heyday (rarely has a
view been more rose tinted), how will the majority of people in the country who
drive rather than use rail feel about paying more tax to fund something they
never use? I know the idea of socialism is us all chipping in for the greater
good but as a concept that is a very hard sell nowadays because the amounts we
are talking about that would be needed are huge. Corbyn needs to learn the
lessons of the 1970s when tax and spend got this country into a terrible mess
and laid the ground for the rise of Margaret Thatcher. On the other hand he
definitely has ideas that could never be mistaken for Conservatism and you
couldn’t say that about Blair and Brown. Plus he does want to scrap HS2 which
is the biggest waste of money currently on the table.
Labour
have wasted a year faffing about over the leadership but now have an
opportunity to do something. The last Labour leadership’s idea that by saying
as little as possible- and often agreeing with the government- meant that
people would have had enough of the coalition after five years and would automatically
vote Labour didn’t work. There are far worse things Labour could do now than to
adopt some of Jeremy Corbyn’s politics and present themselves in effect as New
Old Labour. Unelectable? They won’t know
unless they try. Maybe what really scares Corbyn’s enemies is that his ideas if
put to the electorate may be more popular than they would dare to think…
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