What "the left" is now

Depressing, from Nick Cohen on Corbyn. The Labour leader's belated apology over support for that antisemitic Brick Lane mural, and his tacit backing of the Russian line over the Salisbury poisoning, should demonstrate beyond argument what kind of politics this man represents. Yet he's still adored by the Corbynista masses.

A few months ago, a friend who is also a successful stand-up told me that he was one of only four comedians on the circuit who did not support Corbyn. In  universities and the left-wing press those of us who have spoken out against the far left have grown used to being met with – how can I put this mildly? – a cool response from our colleagues. The assumption among right-thinking, left-leaning people is that they are good and wickedness is confined to the right. By this reasoning the worst charge that can be thrown at the far left is that is naively idealistic, a charge which, when you think about it, is no charge at all. By this reasoning, Corbyn is an amiable old buffer rather than a dirty old man.

Such thinking can predominate because, until now, no one in British history has had to confront the reality of the far left in control of the Labour party, and perhaps soon the country. Most comedians have not satirised it, most academics, dramatists and journalists have not exposed it because until now there has been no need to take it seriously; no need to understand that the far left is not merely an extension of the centre left but a malign force that, as Momentum is proving, regards the centre-left as its avowed enemy.

Perhaps as more is revealed about its darkness respectable opinion will change. Whether it will change in time is another matter. Maybe I am being pessimistic but it looks to me that the politics Corbyn represents are ‘the left’ now and will remain so for a generation.

Comments

[Joanne]

This is worse than the rise of Militant Tendency within Labour Party in the early 1980s for two reasons: (1)the outlandish, in-your-face antisemitism; and (2) the fact that Labour under Corbyn has a chance of getting elected.

[Martin Adamson]

It is not just a question of getting elected, Joanne. The whole point of a Marxist Party is to gain permanent power in institutions that don't depend on the elections - the Police, the Judiciary, Education, the Media etc. Elections are merely the cherry on the cake.

[TDK]

They already have power in Education. They are openly talking about controlling the press. It's closer than people think.