Wednesday 12 August 2015

The Times, They Aren't A-Changing - Corbyn and all that

Update.


As I write this Jeremy Corbyn looks set fair to become the next Labour leader.

Along with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and George Bernard Shaw, Jeremy Corbyn is an unflawed example of a useful idiot. Look it up, please, if you are unaware of this useful expression. I was interested to read that although attributed to Lenin there's no evidence of the expression in his writings.

Corbynites are taking currently great comfort in the following.

Jeremy Corbyn is being rubbished by the Daily Telegraph and therefore the Tories fear his victory in the Labour leadership race.

It is difficult to write this without appearing as condescending as Corbynites are to critics of JC. (In the light of his startling recent rise he was born to have those initials but I'll try.) 

The Daily Telegraph is rubbishing inter alia Jeremy Corbyn's economic illteracy and his desire for the UK to leave NATO because, I'm afraid, his ideas are weird. 

My oh my, I've got my doubts about anyone doing anything to disturb Jeremy Corbyn's acquisition of the Labour leadership. The Labour Party is about to condemn itself to annihilation in 2020 and if Labour Party people are foolish enough to elect JC as leader they deserve this.



OK, I should start with a short glossary of terms because if one day this esteemed blog ever gets a reader he or she will hang or condemn me by noticing where and how I have used the term "left wing" or whatever.

Glossary

Left Wing - radical

Radical - radical

Anti-austerity - radical

Extremist - radical

As "radical" means from the roots I need to borrow it from any so-called political wing to try to use it neutrally. Where I use it below it means any of the interchangeable euphemisms above.

If you're still here I'll go on.

Next pitfall

I should answer your unasked question, "Where is he coming from?"

I am a conservative though not dyed-in-the-wool and I'm full of doubts. I don't care much for George Osborne but like David Cameron more or less I suppose, wish I liked Boris more but think he's an election winner at least, Socialism dismays me, communism and/or Putinism disgusts me and the Labour Party bewilders me. I think UKIP, irrespective of ANY little merit they might have had once, has been hijacked by detestable people, who are as bad as their radical (see glossary above) critics. The Lib-Dems and Greens make me think of meadows and buttercups and ponies.

Don'tya Love Labour?


Only the quixotic genius of the radicals of the Labour Party could come up with a reason for an electoral defeat by claiming, as they have done many times before, that their message wasn't radical enough.


You have to be a grey voter, and I am certainly that, to remember Michael Foot. Radicals like Owen Jones can read about Michael Foot and watch Michael Foot in documentaries but they can't remember him. You just had to be there. 'Tis one of the only benefits of being older.

Jeremy Corbyn is a reincarnation of Michael Foot.

True, time has passed and dear old Michael Foot was elected as the antidote to Benn but here are the similarities:

1. Jeremy Corbyn is oldish. Jeremy Corbyn will be the next Labour leader and 70 in 2020, the same age as Michael Foot was in 1983.

2. Jeremy Corbyn is a fanatical CND supporter.

3. Jeremy Corbyn is radical.

On the downside for the Corbynites, Jeremy Corbyn should be a little worried by a couple of things, which might look insignificant at first glance.

1. Michael Foot packed halls with devotees before losing in 1983. Jeremy Corbyn is packing halls now. A radical at a rally shouting loudly has only one vote no matter how loudly and passionately he shouts.

2. Jeremy Corbyn has been adopted as the Messiah by the Twitterati. (I notice that a Twitter Twit compared him with Gandhi and JFK, the other day.) The election in May 2015 caught out Twitter badly as radicals buoyed each other up and believed their own propaganda.

3. Jeremy Corbyn has been endorsed by Owen Jones. Yes, the man who brought you the magnificently wrong.

Russell Brand has endorsed Labour – and the Tories should be worried

http://archive.is/lY2Dw#selection-1547.1-1547.70

Owen Jones is an archetypal young, radical firebrand. There are literally millions of radicals like him.

Nonetheless they are outnumbered by the small c conservatives in Britain. 'Twas ever thus. Radicals are claiming that change is coming. That the untainted rich, virginal seam of disaffected non-voters will form the basis of Jeremy Corbyn's success is pants and self-delusional.

Once Jeremy Corbyn is Labour leader and it dawns on shy voters that he could one day scrap Britain's nuclear weapons (to the delight of Putin - international politics is playground politics. The subtlety of our not owning nuclear weapons so not being a nuclear threat will be lost on the Russians.) shy voters will shyly vote away this danger just as they shyly voted away Westminster becoming dominated by spiteful, nationalistic Scots in May 2015.

Thank you for reading.

Please remember.

A radical at a rally shouting loudly has only one vote no matter how loudly and passionately she/he shouts.

A radical on Twitter has only one vote no matter how loudly and passionately she/he tweets.

Prediction


The Labour Party, unlike the Tory Party, don't do coups so it will have to wait for Jeremy Corbyn to be defeated in 2020. After recriminations and dear old Jeremy acting as caretaker leader until a new leader can be elected (and tempting radicals to say 'hang electoral success, let's hang on to our glorious principles and dear old Jeremy') either a woman (radical or not, it won't matter) or the "King Across the Water" David Miliband will return to give the Tories a tough election fight in 2025.