The main contradiction confronting Corbyn's Labour Party isn't the contradiction inherent in the capitalist system which will, according to socialist lore, lead to its demise and eventual replacement by the great grey bearded one and his cohorts: it's the contradiction in a party, founded and built over generations as a parliamentary party to provide opposition to the Tories, being led by someone who, throughout his political career, has shown no respect to that party or to the ins and outs of parliamentary business, preferring instead to channel his energies into extra-parliamentary activities with groups like the SWP or the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, while ignoring all calls for party unity and voting against the Labour whip over 400 times.
Daniel Finkelstein, in the Times (£), has a point. Corbyn might at least have the courage of his convictions and go all out for what he seems to believe in:
Instead of a traditional party centred on parliament, Labour should be a grassroots campaign, built through social media and attracting radical parties and pressure groups which can bring energy to the cause. The economy is going to hit a rough patch, the Tories will get tired and a vigorous extra-parliamentary campaign can run them ragged....
His only hope must be as a subversive challenger, relentlessly organising to take over the party and talking about his efforts to do so. He should come out with huge, earth-shaking radical left-wing policies and not care that Yvette Cooper and I both think that they are bonkers. He should skip prime minister’s questions in order to attend protest rallies. He should organise to deselect critics and win selection contests for his people.
If he doesn’t do that, then what’s the point? Isn’t that why his supporters chose him? If he’s going to go down, for goodness sake go down fighting. I mean, this? This is pathetic.
Alternatively, as Janan Ganesh argues in the FT - Under Corbyn, the Labour party saunters into history’s mausoleum - it's just as well Corbyn's so incompetent. If voters understood what he really believes, the Labour Party would be in an even worse mess than it is already.
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