We Need To Talk About Jeremy
Aug. 18th, 2015 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootJust popped online to vote for the next Labour leader. Wish I was going to the conference, but with the wedding, Oz and Africa, I just don't know if I can afford 4 days in Brighton at its most expensive. Pity. Maybe next time.
I am baffled by the bizarre drama that surrounds the possibility of Jeremy Corbyn becoming the next leader of the Labour party. Maybe the country developed a sudden allergy to allotments, it's hard to say. Tony Blair warns that he would make the party unelectable, the Daily Mail has accused him of a)riding a bicycle, b)being teetotal and c)eating beans out of a can, the British Jewish Community seems to be uneasy because of his...what? No-one is sure... association with Hamas? Has anyone accused him of being anti-semitic? Goodness no, but they are uncertain because he has protested vociferously against the shelling of Gaza. But what about his friends, they say. Well, Margaret Thatcher's friends included some of the most brutal despots in history, wot, no waving of hands, no woe? Strange that.
In the meantime the Labour party talks about what it will do to prevent him from winning and the Right Wing rubs its hands in such high glee that it's all a bit Gertrude... The Lady Doth Protest Way Too Much. See, if I wanted someone to make a political mistake, the last thing I would do is shout about it. I would keep very quiet indeed. I certainly wouldn't endlessly tell them that they were paving my road to victory if they vote for this person. Bit odd really.
And why are they so concerned, so determined that he shouldn't be their adversary? Don't they want someone they can defeat, guaranteeing their glorious vision for the next 10 years? Ah but they want a strong opposition they say, for the sake of democracy...until the SNP steps in and then the spluttering indignation starts. Do they want Jeremy so they can defeat him or do they want someone else for the sake of a democratically electable Labour party? In honesty I don't think the right wing actually know, but I'd be very surprised if they really wanted the latter. It's as though there is a consensus that the soft right is now the middle, and both mainstream Labour and the Conservative party are ardently trying to claim this shift as the norm. But it isn't.
Socialism and Left Wing thinking has an honourable history in this country. The centre is between the right and the left, not tilted to the right. It's not even about Jeremy. It's about the tacit acceptance of the current bias as a given, unchanged and unchangeable, and an almost hysterical demand that everyone plays by the new rules, pretending that it was ever thus.You won't win if you don't play the game our way. Don't you want to win?
Sometimes you have to stand by what you believe in. And if the people don't like it, that's the people's choice. Pandering is not the solution.
I am baffled by the bizarre drama that surrounds the possibility of Jeremy Corbyn becoming the next leader of the Labour party. Maybe the country developed a sudden allergy to allotments, it's hard to say. Tony Blair warns that he would make the party unelectable, the Daily Mail has accused him of a)riding a bicycle, b)being teetotal and c)eating beans out of a can, the British Jewish Community seems to be uneasy because of his...what? No-one is sure... association with Hamas? Has anyone accused him of being anti-semitic? Goodness no, but they are uncertain because he has protested vociferously against the shelling of Gaza. But what about his friends, they say. Well, Margaret Thatcher's friends included some of the most brutal despots in history, wot, no waving of hands, no woe? Strange that.
In the meantime the Labour party talks about what it will do to prevent him from winning and the Right Wing rubs its hands in such high glee that it's all a bit Gertrude... The Lady Doth Protest Way Too Much. See, if I wanted someone to make a political mistake, the last thing I would do is shout about it. I would keep very quiet indeed. I certainly wouldn't endlessly tell them that they were paving my road to victory if they vote for this person. Bit odd really.
And why are they so concerned, so determined that he shouldn't be their adversary? Don't they want someone they can defeat, guaranteeing their glorious vision for the next 10 years? Ah but they want a strong opposition they say, for the sake of democracy...until the SNP steps in and then the spluttering indignation starts. Do they want Jeremy so they can defeat him or do they want someone else for the sake of a democratically electable Labour party? In honesty I don't think the right wing actually know, but I'd be very surprised if they really wanted the latter. It's as though there is a consensus that the soft right is now the middle, and both mainstream Labour and the Conservative party are ardently trying to claim this shift as the norm. But it isn't.
Socialism and Left Wing thinking has an honourable history in this country. The centre is between the right and the left, not tilted to the right. It's not even about Jeremy. It's about the tacit acceptance of the current bias as a given, unchanged and unchangeable, and an almost hysterical demand that everyone plays by the new rules, pretending that it was ever thus.You won't win if you don't play the game our way. Don't you want to win?
Sometimes you have to stand by what you believe in. And if the people don't like it, that's the people's choice. Pandering is not the solution.
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