I do not always agree with Owen Jones, the brilliant Guardian journalist and author. But my God I do rate him as a journalist and an author. I have read his books ‘The Establishment’ and ‘Chavs’ which are essential reading in order to fully understand the power and extent of the establishment and the demonisation of the working class. In the last year, I have disagreed profoundly with his promotion of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. Of course, I respect his right to do so but I was beginning to despair when I perceived he was not beginning to remotely understand the existential crisis was in. No more.
In his latest Blogpost (read here), Jones deals head on with the failings and inadequacies of Corbyn. In his very first line, he says: “Labour and the left teeter on the brink of disaster.” That theme is developed by mountains of evidence, much of it highly inconvenient to the Corbynistas. He admits that it is not enough to just hold public meetings where the leader can speak to just those who already agree with him. You do not need to read between the lines to understand that Jones knows the game is up. He says it specifically when calling for someone from the “new intake like Clive Lewis (should take over the leadership) in, say, 2018.” Well, I am not sure about Clive Lewis, who strikes me as a defeatist who wants to do deals with the likes of the SNP and the LibDems presumably because he believes Labour cannot win under Corbyn. Well, he’s right about the latter but wrong about the former.
This intervention changes everything. Now, the most articulate and erudite member of the Corbynista camp has come forward to say, very publicly and very honestly, that the man he supported, wrote speeches for, appeared on platforms with, is not up to the job and neither is the team around him. Owen Jones has shown immense courage.
The penalty from Labour’s comrades for being honest and telling it like it is means that Jones is – and you know what’s coming here – a Blairite, he’s moved to the right, he’s become a member of the establishment he wrote about, he has sold out. And because of his great honesty, he has been the latest victim of the abuse from the friends of Corbyn. This afternoon Jones was forced to log off from twitter.
I find this comment telling and strangely moving: “Let me put this in stark terms. As Jeremy Corbyn is surrounded by cheering crowds, Labour generally, and the left specifically, are teetering on the edge of looming calamity.” That is exactly as I see it. Jones does not refer to the Corbyn cult, but that is precisely what it is. It is a cult of personality. For the last year, this career backbencher, who still expouses the same failed politics of the 1980s when Labour was crushed by a rampant Tory government, has been seen by some as representing a new politics when it is no such thing. He seems to stand for a puritan type of politics untainted by the passing of the years and changing circumstances. He stands for something, except that he stands for nothing at all.
But there is one sentence in Jones’ essay that stands out for me: “Labour needs to make some inroads into the Conservative vote.” But this is not a view shared by many of the comrades, like Jon Lansman, founder of the shady party within a party Momentum and today the influential Paul Mason who went as far to say that Labour should not, categorically not, seek to attract those who voted Conservative. We don’t need people like that, apparently. They don’t believe what we believe. They are not pure, like us. But hang on. A lot of these people who vote Tory, the vast majority of whom are not Tory Party members, believe in the NHS, want good schools, they have aspirations, they want to get on and they want their children to get on. Do we just turn around and say, “Well, we don’t want people like that to soil our party! We’d rather be in permanent opposition with Jeremy making speeches to thousands of his followers! What does the electorate know about anything?”
Do we want to give up, like Clive Lewis wants to, and try and do back room deals with the Scottish nationalists or the LibDem enablers of the last government that shafted working people like few others? Do we want to reject that vast swathe of people who do not worship at the altar of Corbyn because they are not as pure as we are? Do we want foul-mouthed bullies and liars like John McDonnell at the heart of the people’s party? Do we want serial incompetents like Diane Abbott to be anywhere near the shadow cabinet? And above all, do we really want someone so obviously unsuited to be Labour leader as Jeremy Corbyn to continue to lead us to electoral oblivion?
I leave you with the words of Owen Jones:
“As things stand, all the evidence suggests that Labour — and the left as a whole — is on the cusp of a total disaster. Many of you won’t thank me now. But what will you say when you see the exit poll at the next general election and Labour is set to be wiped out as a political force? What will you say when — whenever you mention anything vaguely left-wing, you’re mocked for the rest of your life, a throwback to the discredited Labour era of the 2010s? Will you just comfort yourself by blaming it on the mainstream media and the PLP? Will that get you through a lifetime of Tory rule? My questions may strike you as unhelpful or uncomfortable. I’m beyond caring. Call me a Blairite, Tory, Establishment stooge, careerist, sellout, whatever makes you feel better. The situation is extremely grave and unless satisfactory answers are offered, we are nothing but the accomplices of the very people we oppose.”
Exactly.
