I watched BBC's Question Time last night and the one thing that struck me above all others was how little Owen Smith cares about democracy. I understand that what laughingly passes for democracy in our green(ish) and peasant land is far from perfect. The Electoral Reform Society calls first-past-the-post the worst possible system for electing our representatives. That may be a bit harsh. I can think of several which might be worse. Throwing candidates into a pond and only choosing those that drown for example, but in broad terms I agree with them and agree that our system desperately needs reform. That having been said I voted against the proposed changes during the coalition government, basically because I thought they were half hearted and would not achieve enough.
Nevertheless this is the system we have got and in the absence of a revolution we are forced to accept, those of us who believe in democracy, that we have an elected government. This government called a referendum on whether we should remain a member of the EU or whether we should leave. This particular referendum offered a binary choice and merely required a simple majority of those who could be bothered to vote for one or other of the choices to be adopted. As you probably know now a majority voted for us to leave.
In May 2015 following a defeat in the General Election the Labour leader, Ed Miliband resigned thus triggering a leadership election within the party which Jeremy Corbyn won with a very significant proportion of the votes.
Although the rules for each of these votes were different they all fell within the general category of democratic choice. Democratic choice only works if those taking part in it agree to stand by the results. Otherwise why bother? Owen Smith has been forced by circumstances to accept the result of the General Election. I don't think even he has the balls to call for a re-run, although with the allegations of electoral misconduct within the Tory Party with regard to excessive spending in certain constituencies, and that fact that the police are still investigating these, who knows what might happen.
He has however made it quite clear that he is unwilling to accept the results of the other two votes. He wants a re-run of the referendum on the grounds that we were lied to. If that was grounds for the re-running of an election then every election in history would have to be re-run. Politicians promise the earth and then conveniently forget their promises once you have elected them. That's how it works. Nobody believes party manifestos. They are just wish lists, even what Jeremy Corbyn is promising depends on factors which may prove beyond his reach. Forgive me but I don't remember the name Owen Smith coming up very often when discussing the referendum campaigning. To hear him speak you would think he was the most prominent of all the remain campaigners. I don't think he was, but if he would like to send me evidence to the contrary I am prepared retract this. He lays the blame for the result firmly at the door of Corbyn for 'not campaigning hard enough'. Apart from saying, 'Physician heal thyself,' I think the majority voted out for many and complex reasons, depending on who they were and what they were trying to achieve. Rather than addressing their concerns Smith wants to either re-run the referendum or put the result to the test at a general election. He would be far better employed respecting the democratic wishes of the population and working hard to secure the best possible deals. After all he is not slow to tell us how good he is at negotiation, what with his experience in Northern Ireland, where apparently he negotiated the entire Peace Process single handed.
With regards to his behaviour against his democratically elected leader I feel he is even more misguided. Corbyn was elected and immediately as if by magic several members of the PLP resigned from the Shadow Cabinet, which was nice of them as they hadn't been invited to be in the Shadow Cabinet at this point, but just in case Corbyn was thinking of offering them a job they pre-emptively refused. As a democratic socialist (a word not heard in labour circles since 1994) Corbyn appointed a cabinet which recognised he fact that the Labour Party was a broad church. I am afraid that many centrists in that shadow cabinet behaved disgracefully, led by Hilary Benn and his warmongering speech in the commons. Repeatedly they demanded Corbyn resign, although quite why was never made clear. They declared he was unelectable, quoting the Telegraph and the Mail. Then when that failed they resigned en masse, strangely all at the same time although of course this was in no way a co-ordinated action. Corbyn took up the leadership in September. He had no party machine to support him, he had no team with any experience of running a leader's office. By June it was open season. I think it is fairly clear that those opposed to him were never going to give him a chance. They rejected the democratic vote of the party and tried to impose their own choice. Firstly Angela Eagle, but when she proved not to be up to snuff, Owen Smith. At least many people had heard of Ms Eagle. Nobody had a clue who Owen Smith was.
Well let me tell you what he is, because I too have no idea who he is. He is a disloyal member of the party who has so little regard for democracy that he challenged the incumbent leader, before he had even had time to make any mistakes. If Corbyn is as awful as we are led to believe, give him a couple of years and enough rope and he will hang himself. Then the real choice of his opponents can put him or herself forward and save the party in a blaze of glory. Maybe that's what they are going to do anyway, but if so, why all the crap that's going on now. Maybe they are afraid he actually has more support than them, and that support is growing. When an audience member called Smith out for being disloyal on the BBC last night Smith accused him of abuse. Abuse? Or just a guilty conscience Owen?
What all this underlines is the difference in approach between Corbyn and Smith. Corbyn believes in inclusivity and treats adults as adults. Smith is from the autocratic school of politics. Corbyn wants to represent the wishes of his supporters, Smith wants to do what he thinks is best for them, regardless of what they say. Nanny knows best, even when nanny is a smelly old goat.
And talking of Nanny I was going to rant a bit about grammar schools and Mrs May. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns. With all the important stuff happening at the moment she decides that this is the right time to talk about grammar schools. Is this a smokescreen? I shall return to this anon.
No comments:
Post a Comment