As the time for Labour members to cast their votes for a new
leader of the party draws near with the announcement of the winner of the
leadership election coming on September 12, it seems likely, as Stephen Bush in
the New Statesman posited this
week, that Jeremy Corbyn may triumph as the various polls at the close of the
leadership hustings indicate and as Corbyn mania sweeps the media.
I hope Bush and the polls are proved to be correct and that
the media continue to give Corbyn a platform to talk politics. He is the man to
resurrect and rejuvenate Labour.
Where rival leadership candidates Liz Kendall and Yvette
Cooper in particular stress the need for electability over policy and Andy Burnham
comes across as increasingly desperate in his pleas for Labour members to elect
him (he’s been raising his voice a lot of late in attempt to appear assertive
and persuasive when really he’d struggle to coax a dog with a bone - in spite of
his mother-me-eyes), Corbyn places emphasis strictly on ideas; ideas about how to make
UK society more just and more inclusive, in doing so reinforcing his identity as
one of the most experienced, principled and downright sensible politicians in
recent memory.
It is clear the Labour party cannot compete and should not
compete with the Conservatives on the centre, centre-right ground of UK politics.
The Conservatives are better at spin and electioneering and in David Cameron
and George Osborne have two politicians that positively thrive there; secondly and
most importantly, a Labour move to the centre, centre-right makes the party
less distinct from their Tory rivals and carries the simplistic and misguided assumption that
the electorate as a whole is somehow predisposed to be right-wing in individual and collective outlook.
Corbyn, of course, is left-wing but he is not so far left as
to be a communist, moreover his rhetoric is increasingly sounding like the
politics of the future embraced by the youth of today, the core-voters of
tomorrow what with his pro-diplomacy/anti-war stance, desire for more
investment in the quaternary sector, an amnesty on tax-dodging international
corporations (Boots, yes Boots is the
latest!) and the frivolous, ultimately exploitative TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), not to mention more
prevalent, better funded and implemented green policies. Indeed, it has been
suggested in some quarters that if Corbyn was elected, the Labour party would
have to rebirth and reform as in ’97 with New Labour (hopefully minus too
significant a Blairite influence) and in this scenario it would be interesting
to see whether the Greens would be willing to unite behind or combine with a
Corbyn led Labour party – after all, he wants a broad church, a wider
grass-roots movement driving change.
Even Alex Salmond at least hinted the SNP could do political business with a Corbyn led Labour
party which might enable Corbyn to go some way to achieving a kind of reparations with the
Scottish left-wing (pinches of rock salt at the ready). But Corbyn’s politics
is that of encouraging dialogue, and it’s a dialogue he wants to begin at all
times outside of Westminster, among the people – you and I, north and south of the 'divide', north, south of Hadrian's Wall.
One of Ed Miliband’s endearing characteristics was that he
tried to listen to the people, even if his efforts to respond were sometimes
political double-speak or intellectual gobbledegook; for Corbyn both listening
and responding in a clear and dignified manner come naturally. I would venture
to say our current PM believes so wholeheartedly in his blinkered vision of how
society should be run and who for that he might as well leave his ear trumpets
at home, while of Corbyn’s rivals for Labour leadership, Kendall can hear nothing
but the sound of her own voice echoing in a barren, empty room, Cooper a radio
jam, while Burnham’s favourite band is the Courteeners (ahem!).
Joking aside, it’s hard not to like Burnham, Corbyn's main challenger: he resembles a
well-groomed extra from Captain Scarlet and is something of a man of
the people with the ability to appeal in a tonal sense to the masses, some of
whom voted for UKIP over Labour in the recent GE – but he seems, paraphrasing
Tony Benn, to be a political weather-vane rather than a sign-post pointing the
way to a better future. Nevertheless, he was gracious enough to say he would consider
standing in a Corbyn led shadow cabinet whereas Kendall and Cooper were not, in
the process delegitimising the views of thousands of Labour members at one gesture. Kendall said it would be ‘disastrous’ if Corbyn got elected which does
lead one to wonder what she is doing in the Labour party. As an aside, her
statement was endorsed by Chukka Umanna, a man who in this instance would do
well to remember the trials and tribulations of his Streatham constituents who
loyally voted him (Labour) in by a landslide in May.
Corbyn’s election to Labour leader may upset some in the
party but only those who are actively encouraging Labour toward the centre
ground, where the movement will be stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard
place and be easy prey for the ghoulish spawn of Osborne and Cameron
Incorporated. That is to the say the end point of a drift to the centre will
also bring about a split in the party, but one that will leave remaining very
little of principle to build on from a left-wing past that has given the UK the
NHS, the National Assistance Act and public ownership of (other) major
industries and services. Labour needs to reclaim this past now and take it (and
some elements of Blair’s more
aspirational, wealth generating policies) into the future. Corbyn is patently
the only candidate to do so.
