Where have all the bad men gone, mummy?

Where are they all?  The Today programme yesterday was interrupted so they could go over to Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson's house in the hope that they could interview him or at least get a quote from him as he left, to go we know not where.  Not a peep was to be heard from him and that's not something you will hear said very often about the heir presumptive to the Tory throne. Similarly The Gove, he too was nowhere to be seen.  Where were they, and where was Gideon?  The chances are that The Gove and Alexander were closeted somewhere absolutely bricking it because they had realised what had actually happened and that it was, in all probability going to be down to them to sort out the mess they had created.  Dave had done a Pontius Pilate and cleared off.  Gideon was probably consulting whichever oracle he had been using in his startlingly successful career as destroyer-in-chief of our public finances.  

Who knows? We shall just have to wait until they put their heads above the parapet again.

Meanwhile in the Red Corner the knives are out for Jeremy Corbyn.  Well that is scarcely news. They were out for him before he had even been elected and have not been put away since.  The PLP are really not covering themselves in glory.  The Tory party is in total disarray so they decide that this is the moment to take advantage of the situation by copying them and trying to destroy what little unity there is within the Labour ranks as well.  For a democratic organisation they really fail to see the irony in trying to get rid of their leader in this way. It's not even as if they have a strong alternative candidate to replace him.  I have to admit that I find Jeremy Corbyn a bit underwhelming at times. He is capable of anger, and I have seen him speak with real passion but often comes across as lacking in fire by speaking quietly and avoiding soundbites. Over the issue of the EU he has refused to associate himself with the Tory camp, and for that he is accused of losing the Labour heartland vote.  I saw an interview on the BBC with Angela Smith MP the Labour member for Penistone & Stocksbridge, a Sheffield constituency.  This was an area where a large number of traditional Labour supporters voted Leave.  She complained that Jeremy Corbyn had failed to connect with the Labour core voters in her constituency and had been less than charismatic.  I don't like to point the finger, but two things occurred to me as I watched her. The first that she no stranger to the art of lacking charisma. The only thing she inspired me to do was to fling something at the TV, and I resisted that. The second was: It was her constituency. They had elected her, why had she not been able to persuade the voters to support the Labour Party line? After all Corbyn was travelling the length and breadth of the country in his uncharismatic quest to keep us in the EU.  She only had to travel the length and breadth of her constituency.  Who was the more culpable? I will leave you to decide. 

There are definitely times when I wish that Jeremy Corbyn had a sharper tongue, but he made a conscious decision not to indulge in banter and name-calling and to try to conduct himself in a way which would distance himself from other politicians of the Trump/Johnson/Cameron school, where bullying seems to be second nature.  This approach may ultimately not work but he has been party leader for less than a year and deserves a chance to prove that it can. 

As I see it if we strip away the bombast and shouty behaviour and look at the policies there is no contest. The celebration of greed or the establishment of social justice.  You decide once again. Many matters need to be sorted out, not least that of immigration.  It was undoubtedly that which swung the result of the referendum.  As I said yesterday there are many ways to deal with the fears of the electorate.  One is to demonise foreigners and pretend that somehow we can take back control of our own borders.  I wait to see how that actually pans out.  The other is to start spending on social housing and services in deprived areas.  It's become a radical idea that we might actually spend money, which we would have to borrow, despite this being the way that every business in the country behaves.  We have been sold an austerity lie by that world renowned economist, the Boy Gideon, he who has gone off radar, and the poorer in society are suffering greatly as a consequence.  Farage has somehow convinced them that he has the answers and that he has their best interests at heart.  Let me just quote myself from a Facebook post.  This man has all the allure of an undercooked pork sausage glistening on your plate and promising a dodgy few hours on the loo. He has already gone back on the promise to spend the £350 million per day we send to the EU on the NHS, saying it was a 'mistake' and that he would never have said that despite video evidence from the BBC Question Time which would suggest otherwise. 

I shall break off here as I need my tea, and will continue anon.

Right, it's Sunday morning and I'm back and I have discovered where Boris had gone to. While eating my tea I watched a recorded edition or The Last Leg on which Stanley Johnson revealed all.  In a drunken performance which rivalled that of Oliver Reed on Aspel, he told us that the whole family was playing cricket.  Is this the modern equivalent of fiddling, while Rome burns?  It must be close.  And if you have ever wondered why Boris is like he is, watch his father, it will tell you all you need to know.  If you get a chance to watch the show it's available on All 4 but here is a taster to whet your appetite. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxRkQ8rO7PQ.

I'm writing this having just slept through a re-run of the Night of the Long Knives.  Hilary Benn has been sacked, Heidi Alexander has resigned.  A posse is being formed, a rope has been found and the PLP are off to lynch Jeremy Corbyn.  Why? I'm going to go for a walk and I will give you my thoughts on my return.  

I'm back.  Lovely morning and a brief toddle through the woods followed by coffee and toast. No developments on the Labour Party front although Tom Watson has been seen making his way back from Glastonbury.  That may be significant or maybe after catching Adele yesterday he has no stomach for Coldplay and left early to avoid the rush.  

To return to the Corbyn issue.  It's no secret that a majority of the PLP do not want him as leader. They didn't want him to stand and he only just scraped the requisite number of seconders in the nomination.  Why was this?  I don't have a definitive answer but it is clear that the old grass-roots local Labour MP has become an endangered species.  Hilary Benn is a Londoner representing a Leeds constituency, John Ashworth was parachuted in to Leicester South, Luciana Berger represents a constituency in a city with which she has no connection, Roberta Blackman-Woods was born in Northern Ireland and represents the City of Durham. I could go on but I think I have made my point and I've only got to the letter B in Wikipedia. I know all this proves nothing and that many Labour MPs are local to their area, but It always puzzled me why voters in Hartlepool voted for Peter Mandelson, and indeed what voters in Sedgefield saw in Tony Blair.  One can only suppose it was tradition and the lack of a credible opponent which gave these two their mandate. Neither was remotely local nor what could be described as 'a man of the people'.  

The current crop of Labour MPs seem to come from the right of the party, They have believed the assertion that:

1. The only way to get into government is to ape the Conservative Party which is how Blair did it
2. Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable.

In the aftermath of the referendum they have been offered the opportunity, maybe of a generation, to unite behind their leader, with his huge mandate from the party membership and the support of the unions, and give the government a bloody nose.  They fear that any new leader of the Tories will call a snap election in order to get a mandate from the people and say they must be prepared to fight.  In what alternative reality is the best way to prepare for a fight to start a massive blood-letting in your own ranks?  May be that's what they do in Game of Thrones, I don't know because I've never seen it, and the reason I have never seen it can be summed up in one fly-specked word.  Murdoch.

This fight in the PLP is not about the election. It is not about the people.  It is not about the EU.  It is about the careers of Labour MPs.  And what is the greatest threat to them?  Not Corbyn.  Not the Tories.  

Farage. 

He is on a roll and must be stopped.  Not because I don't like him but because he is dangerous. A man who lies as a matter of course and yet manages to convince his target audience that he 'tells it like it is'. From the moment I first came upon the odious little prick, I had a flashback to pre-1933 Germany.  In style if not in substance the comparison still stands.  Goebbels, I think, rather than Adolf with a touch of Goering's flamboyance. 

Farage managed to persuade people to vote who have never voted before.  People who have never even considered voting before.  Now they see that their vote can make a difference.  Who knows what he has unleashed?  I hope we never find out.

Love Tim xx