Sunday 27 September 2015

The Corbyn Thing Is Heating Up

This is getting interesting and very quickly, too.

You have to believe Corbyn (a) wasn't first choice for the 'hard' left;  (b) didn't really want to stand; (c) didn't expect to win.  Also, he probably doesn't imagine he can become PM. 

Or didn't.  Because some evidently hard-headed elements in his fast-forming coterie have decided there's at least enough of an outside chance, that it would be utterly crass to lengthen the odds unnecessarily.  I don't know any other way to interpret what they are doing:
Perfectly intelligent power-politics.  Items 2 & 3 above can even be rationalised for a thinking leftie:  you can honestly sign up for the headline declaration, knowing (2) that your commitment to a balanced budget is to be achieved by raising taxes and eliminating (e.g.) defence expenditure, or (3) that you can sign up for the 'staying-in' camp knowing full-well that if you come to power, the EU federasts will be only too pleased to reverse any aspect of Cameron's referendum accommodation you don't fancy.

But that's not how the headlines look (- intentionally so!) and items 1 & 4 are self-evident craven line-toeing for Daily Mail consumption.  How will this moderately ruthless, extremely hasty show of political populo-realism play with the slavering *idealistic* hordes so enamoured of unbending sea-green radicalism or whatever it is they think the New Politics is all about?  Check out "Susan's" reply here: 
@JeremyCorbyn4PM  Hope @johnmcdonnellMP isn't going to do the contortions Miliband did and make us keep reading the small print. Risky game
Yes Susan, lots of ducking and diving, you and the rest of the faithful/hopeful will need to keep your wits about you.  The Labour conference may give some more clues. 

And look at this lot.  A serious, serious power-play.  The contrast with Michael Foot couldn't be more stark: being of an age, I well remember the ecstatic leftist MPs reeling away from the conclave (of the Parliamentary Labour Party only in those days) when he beat Denis Healey for the leadership.  "We've done it, we've done it!" they giggled for the waiting cameras, much as naughty schoolchildren do when, out of childish devilment, they elect the class eejit as form captain.

Yes, someone of serious intent (Watson?) has taken charge in the happy-go-lucky Corbyn camp.  For the Tories, there is good reason for pausing awhile before deciding exactly how they should be 'framing' Corbyn.  At the very least, he seems determined not to have Michael Foot's donkey-jacket stuck on his back, if he can help it.  He might soon be fairly armour-plated, and comfortably placed for any half-arsed attempts at a palace coup in the Labour ranks from those of his party who haven't rapidly come to terms with the New Reality.  Guess which fast-recanting 'moderate Labour intellectual' Vicar-of-Bray this is*:
"There are few more obvious signs of political morbidity than the collapse, intellectual as well as organisational, of those moderate sections of the Labour party that did not back Jeremy Corbyn."
Tory high command, we are told, sees in this an opportunity to destroy the Labour Party once and for all.  Maybe: but it could be a fight to the finish with a tooled-up and grimly determined, if minority, political movement.  Rather than a push-over perpetrated on a bunch of hapless, hopeless clowns.

ND

____________________
(* Ans: Tristram Hunt)

3 comments:

Scan said...

I didn't have THAT much a problem with Corbyn not singing the national anthem or turning up dressed like a tramp. Yes, if he had any decency he would have been dressed properly and sung the national anthem (as our British traditions tells us to do). However, we, collectively, were celebrating and paying tribute to those people who fought and died for the freedom that allows him to act like a massive dick if he wants to. If he's made to sing the national anthem, at all costs, then we're wanting to have the North Korean society we don't want him to build.

He should be allowed to turn up anywhere dressed in sacks of potatoes and stand there in silence with a face like a slapped arse. That way we can see what an utter tool he is and let him be hoisted by his own petard.

Sackerson said...

Interesting analysis, ND.

And there is the question of style. As I said on BOM a few days ago, "For some decades, the two main parties in Parliament seem to have had leaders facing each other who somehow matched like bookends. Could this suggest that a replacement may be found, not for Corbyn, but for Cameron?" Look at how the DM has gone for Cam's throat just now.

MyMondayName said...

On the anthem thing - anyone with a brain laughs at anthems. I mean its complete nonsense to have a national song. I think his stance was more Pythonesque than anything.

@Sackerson - good points. The Tories are due a change, probably hastened by Camerons outing as a Kermit. The next leader might again be a rightist in which case we could be back to ideology as a reason for voting.
I have said many times before that the professional-centrist-managerial class that smudged the lines between Labour and Tory couldnt hold sway forever.
We see this across parties and across Europe, people want leaders, not managers.