It must be a huge boost to Tory MP Charlotte Leslie’s recovery from illness to learn that her erstwhile opponents in the Bristol North West constituency, the Labour Party, have all but guaranteed her re-election for the foreseeable future by nominating Jeremy Corbyn to continue his destruction of the Labour Party, as did 23 other Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs). Corbyn himself was thrilled: “Thank you to the 24 CLPs who endorsed my leadership yesterday. Grateful for your ongoing support and enthusiasm.” Leadership? Really?
This is not an election about leadership because otherwise Corbyn would not be on the ballot paper. And why? Because he is not a leader. This is a man who has said and done nothing since the appointment of a new right wing Tory prime minister whose voting record shows, beyond reasonable doubt, that she stands for everything that was bad about the Cameron era. This is a man who chose not to attack David Cameron after the architect of the vicious attacks of the sick and the poor, Iain Duncan Smith, resigned. This is a man who appointed an MP to a ministerial job whilst she was being treated for cancer and then sacked her without telling her anything about it. This is the friend of the murderous IRA, Hamas and Hezbollah. This is the man who voted against his own party, as leader, on the recent vote on the renewable of our nuclear deterrent. This is the man who has tolerated bullying, misogyny, violence, abuse and the intimidation of opponents. This is the man who has not stood up to anti-Semitism. This is the man who went on holiday halfway through the EU campaign. This is the man who is not fit to hold the position of Labour leader. And Bristol North West have nominated him.
They plainly don’t want a Labour government, that’s for sure, because anyone who speaks to people away from the political bubble knows that Corbyn is not a credible prime minister in waiting. And he is acting contrary to the very purpose of Labour which is to provide political representation for working people in parliament. This is a fact. The likes of Corbyn, along with his henchmen the foul-mouthed John McDonnell and Jon Lansman, freely admits he wants a social movement, not a Labour government. Lansman, the leader of today’s Militant, Momentum, explicitly said as much.
But it’s all right for the comrades, a huge number of whom are from the affluent middle classes, if Labour turns into a social movement and away from a serious political party. It will not be the Champagne socialists who will be affected with permanent Tory rule. It will be the very people Labour was formed to serve, in parliament, not at a protest march or a rally.
The comrades of the hard left attack those not of the hard left verbally as well as by lobbying bricks through their windows, denouncing them as Tory-lite, Blairite, Red Tories and so on. They are the pure socialists, you see. But they are not the true socialists. They are the puritans of the left, always putting their purity above the interests of working people who they don’t really understand. There is NOTHING socialist about abandoning the poor, the sick, the disabled, the old and the vulnerable to the free market neoliberals of the Tory party. There is NOTHING socialist about permanent opposition. But permanent opposition is what Corbyn offers.
I keep hearing that Corbyn is a decent, kind man. I have never met him, but I have come across plenty of his fellow comrades over the years and decent and kind is not how I would describe them. The comrades, overwhelmingly middle class and university educated, always think they know what’s best for the proletariat they pretend to belong to.
Worse still, Corbyn has no policies. Nine months of hopeless leadership and not a single policy, just positions, slogans and empty rhetoric. You cannot blame it all on the fact that Corbyn is a terrible public speaker and is incapable of articulating his views. He speaks the simplistic language of Tony Benn and I can’t think of anyone worse to compare him with.
Charlotte Leslie and all the other Tory MPs sitting in the seats Labour needs to win if they have any hope of winning the next general election will be popping the Champagne corks today. And it’s all because of Jeremy Corbyn, the worst leader in the history of the Labour Party, who continues to tour the country speaking with adoring people who already agree with him to satisfy his ego, oblivious or even uncaring of the near certainty that he will condemn working people to a generation of Tory misrule. Some socialist.
