I have just been reading an article in yesterday's Telegraph about a plot for Corbyn's allies to tighten their grip on power. Quite honestly I got bored before the end and gave up but one phrase leapt out at me. The article claimed that their plotting could 'keep moderate MPs out of power for decades'.
Let's examine this. Firstly the Telegraph is avowedly right wing and has no interest in seeing anybody in power but their beloved Conservative Party, therefore any sympathy they show for any other party must be viewed through the lens of their own self interest. Should Labour win a General Election at some time in the future, and these things tend to be cyclical, then the Telegraph would definitely prefer what they call a 'moderate' Labour Party in power and not a 'hard left' one. A party in fact like the previous incarnations under Blair, Brown and Miliband which offered policies which although slightly more populist did not offend the well-heeled too much and embraced the concept of the Market as being the driving force in the economy. If we include the Lib Dems in our discussion, because it is possible that they too may one day experience a revival in fortunes, then the British electorate would be offered a choice between three centrist parties who differ really only in the detail, although under Cameron and Osborne the Tories have shifted significantly to the right under a smokescreen of 'we're all in this together big society austerity'. While our eye has been off the ball they have dismantled a great deal of what made Britain a place worth living in and there is no obvious sign that Mrs May will halt this, she even kept the odious Hunt on as Health Secretary for goodness sake.
Secondly they are implying that those who support Jeremy Corbyn are 'hard left' infiltrators who want nothing less than the rebuilding of the Berlin Wall and a statue of Josef Stalin in every town in the land. The great bleat from those in the PLP who oppose Corbyn is that he is unelectable and that they need to be in power in order to implement Labour policies therefore he must go. A question to them. What are these great Labour policies they a wanting to enact? More New Labour same old same old, can't tell the difference from Tory policies, or those claimed by their champion, their great white hope, Mr Normal Smith? If they are talking about Mr Smith's something old something new something borrowed ideas then they are talking policies not dissimilar to those put forward by their arch nemesis, Moriarty Corbyn. If so then why is Smith so much more electable than Corbyn? Well he's not. I know it, they know it, my brother-in-law's cat knows it. He's just another distraction while they regroup and come up with another better solution which is more to the taste of their corporate sponsors.
What all these different interest groups are ignoring that there is another interest group, and for the first time in a couple of generations they have found a voice. They are those in society who believe that greed is not good; that success should not just be measured by wealth; that it is appalling in a society as rich as our that significant numbers of families have to rely on food banks; that social care and the health service are crumbling through lack of funding; that the market is not the way to run public services, which should be just that, services not businesses; that our education system is failing our young people and that giving away schools to businesses is not a solution; that our public transport system is an utter disgrace.
Many of these people will have voted for Labour in the past, not because they thought Labour would bring about a better society but because it was the least bad option. Now they actually have a voice. It is no longer taboo to use the word socialism. In the face of an onslaught comparable to the bombardment which preceded the first day of the Battle of the Somme from all parts of the media, including those who should have known better, the movement has grown. That it's leader is as unlikely a man as Jeremy Corbyn is almost incidental. Many many people have felt so stifled in their political desires for so long that it was inevitable that one day the carbuncle would burst. The movement is frequently dismissed as a personality cult, again often by those who should know better, but it is nothing of the sort. Corbyn espouses a different approach to the way this country is run. He is quiet, he is careful to listen, he appears to tell the truth, he answers questions, he connects with ordinary people and that all helps. But deep down a significant number of the population have been looking for a different way to do things. Have been dismayed at the apparent inevitability of the parliamentary process. Have grown weary of the braying from the benches at PMQs. The Labour party had become a party controlled by individual donors who, like Michael Foster seemed to think this brought with it extra privileges. Single handedly Jeremy Corbyn has inspired hundreds of thousands of people to join the party. Their membership fees have swollen the coffers by about £10 million which puts Dr Aseem Allam's donations, generous though they were rather into the shade.
If the Telegraph's moderates succeed in wresting back control of the party then it will effectively leave me and many many like me disenfranchised. In this country we need a genuine socialist party. It used to be the Labour Party, it could be again, but if not, then what next? I rather feel the genie has been let out of the bottle on this one and will not easily be enticed back.
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