Jeremy Corbyn has now twice won the Labour leadership election, with, as David Lindsay notes, 62,000 more votes than last year, and an increase in the voting share from 59.5 per cent to 61.8. If he didn’t have a mandate to swing Labour leftward going in, he certainly does now.
I am not, by any means, an uncritical supporter of Corbyn. His stance on the European Union I find a bit credulous. His support of Amnesty International I find irritating. His support of Irish unification outside the UK I find distressing. His republicanism (very much a back-burner issue for him, thankfully) I find repugnant. But at the same time, Corbyn represents a few of the very, very best traditions of Old Labour: realism in international politics; embracing real working-class values; treating unions as though they aren’t simply outmoded anachronisms; championing (what ought to be) national institutions like mail and rail; and treating young people as though their voices matter. As a member of the unabashedly Old Left he represents, at bottom, a socialism which owes far more to the moralists of the early 1800’s, than to the British Marxists of the later 1800’s – and that’s a very good thing. But Corbyn’s moralism is emphatically not of the hectoring, totalitarian and Puritanical type; contrary to popular assertions, he is neither a pacifist nor a tea-totaller, and even his vegetarianism represents a practically-Johnsonian personal preference and sympathy rather than a rigid ideological position.
My heartfelt congratulations to this distinguished veteran of the British trade union and peace movements, and I, for one, wish him all the best. Godspeed, sir!
Living in the UK Corbyn is my local MP. I admire him for his honesty as an MP both in principle and practice but his politics I find really distressing. Also what I find particularly concerning is Corbyn operating as the acceptable face of a wholly unacceptable hard-left entryist movement that has thoroughly alienated the traditional working class base of Labour. In their place is a Labour that acts as a centralising power that appeals to fringe and pressure groups increasingly defined by its leveraging of identity politics. Corbyn's political purges of his own party further distance the party from its traditional base and his cabinet is selected less on ability but amenability to Momentum's vision of politics. Momentum is the true picture of Corbyn's offering and theres nothing pleasant about it.
ReplyDeleteDo you think Corbyn can win a general election and become prime minister?
ReplyDeleteHello, Keith - welcome to the blog, and thank you for the comment!
ReplyDeleteMy own reading of Corbyn is somewhat different, and has been influenced pretty heavily both by David Lindsay's assessment and by his record on issues of war and peace. He is a considerate, polite, mild-mannered, thoughtful and (this is what really counts for me) realist statesman. His Momentum-based followers are not all the rabid hecklers the media have made them out to be, and even the truly egregious hooligans among them have not really exerted any noxious influence on his manner of address or on his style of leadership. Corbyn has said that deselection is not something Labour MPs have to really worry about, and I think his word is good on that question.
On the other hand, though, his critics within Labour do seem to be driven to an alarming degree by their endorsement of ultra-feminist, LGBTQ and Jewish identity politics. The fact that they call his style of politics 'outdated' and 'retro' actually appeals immensely to me.
Thanks for the response. As mentioned previously I think he is probably the most principled MP out there currently. Despite this I think he isn't much of a realist. I'm also concerned by those he's associated with at an international level. Economically I also feel he's pushing for some form of 'new deal' type scenario by arguing to borrow heavily and invest in infrastructure. However this seems like a massive gamble as they haven't outlined how they'll turn this around into revenue whilst positioning to be a heavily interventionist government with existing business which seems to be coming at a really bad time when we want to be encouraging investment in the wake of Brexit.
DeleteI think your assessment of Momentum is unfounded, its not say they are 'rabid hecklers' but they are a far cry from 'considerate, polite, mild-mannered, thoughtful' to which you ascribe Corbyn. They've been linked to attacks on people like Angela Eagle, an opposition candidate in the leadership bid and been a major influence in calling for purges of those who don't support Corbyn. They've also been linked to the rise in Anti-Semitism in Oxford thats been occurring there. Its a far cry from the 'kinder, gentler' politics Corbyn positioned himself as representing.
Personally I come from a family of Old Labour supporters. Many in similar positions feel alienated and the Labour heartlands of Wales, Scotland and the North East are disappearing to the likes of the SNP, Plaid Cymru and UKIP. Corbyn's labour only cares about Corbyn's labour and the everyman only to the extent that they support Corbyn. Every allegation is painted as a conspiracy of the right and whilst he's acted as a lightning rod for hard-leftists its drained the only major opposition party of any genuine lifeblood by alienating the british working classes. Its propped up by the Unions now.
Hello again, Matthew!
ReplyDeleteAs the closest analogue Corbyn has in the United States, former Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich, once quipped, 'I'm electable if you vote for me.'
And the fact that he's won his second leadership election on a basis of bringing in outside voters speaks volumes. If Corbyn isn't electable, then certainly his defeated Labour opponents weren't either.
He's going to have win the votes of some of the people who voted Conservative in the last election. I asked a Corbyn supporter what he could offer those who voted Tory in 2015 and he didn't seem to able to offer an answer.
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