The current furore over the clinical removal of the tax credits on which so many lower paid workers depend – the same workers to whom the Tories are trying to reach – illustrates vividly the susceptibility of even a brilliant strategist like Osborne to the blithe expectation that ‘the market will provide’ when state support is withdrawn'Brilliant strategist', eh? Just like the original, this second chappie does rather seem to credit Osborne with more than do most of us around this parish. Or perhaps it's sarcasm, who can tell with lefties?
Can it really be less than a month ago when all seemed so rosy?
We will be keeping half an eye out for Momentum though: a rather ambiguous phenomenon with a curious blend of piss-artistry but at least a soupçon of the sinister.
... Corbynism as a Gramscian ‘primitive political bloc’ that has mobilised several constituencies whose support will be critical to any progressive electoral coalition, including newly energised younger voters, left radicals, the environmentally conscious, and anti-austerians. But Labour urgently needs to extend its appeal beyond that bloc. The new leadership’s Momentum initiative indicates an appreciation to reach out to a wider audience. It is simply too early to say whether Corbyn’s Labour has the ideological flexibility to build on its core base. At best, a long, difficult road lies ahead as the party seeks to follow the example set by the Tories in 2005ND
