A spectacular achievement by the Labour Party. Against a widely disliked Conservative government, led by a man about whom it's almost impossible to find a good word said, they....crash to their biggest loss since 1987 [actually, since 1935]. Of course, with the perspicacity that has come to define the Labour Party in recent years, they're blaming it all on Brexit. Well, Brexit undoubtedly played a part, but the main reason - of course - is that Corbyn was widely seen for what he is: a nasty, dim-witted hard-left ideologue with a penchant for antisemitism. Good for the British electorate for rejecting the bastard so convincingly.
The reason Jeremy Corbyn is not preparing to lead the first majority Labour government since 2010 is Jeremy Corbyn. The Labour leader is proving the falseness of the cliché that ‘oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them’. Unless enough people are convinced of an opposition’s competence and decency it will not take power, even when all it has to do is beat the mendacious rabble that make up today’s Conservative party.
Jeremy Corbyn’s opposition did not win a majority and could never win a majority because millions could not vote for the incompetent and indecent Jeremy Corbyn. It’s that simple.
I am not just repeating anecdotal evidence from Labour MPs and canvassers. A vast poll of 12,000 voters, released tonight, showed Jeremy Corbyn was by far the single biggest reason voters gave for deserting Labour. Of those who voted Labour in 2017 but were less than 50 per cent less likely to vote Labour now, Deltapoll found the overwhelming reason people gave was they ‘don’t like Jeremy Corbyn’ with 46 per cent agreeing with that blunt statement.
As tonight’s epic defeat shows, Labour could not win because of Jeremy Corbyn and the rancid political clique he led. Do not underestimate the scale of the rout for a moment. Johnson’s triumph is absolute. The Conservatives could be in power for most of the 2020s because a bunch of student politicians and narcissist performance artists destroyed a once viable party. [...]
Then there are the Jews. I have friends and colleagues I once considered good people, and politicians and celebrities I once admired, who I can never look at the same way again after they endorsed Labour. Not reluctantly, not as a grim but necessary compromise, but joyously with the absurd conviction that the collection of creepy and half-witted conspiracy theorists they sold their souls to could end poverty and restore the shattered public realm. To support Labour with a smile on your face was to say anti-Jewish racism doesn’t matter. [...]
‘The ease with which you turned on us, may it be a stain on you for the rest of your miserable lives,’ cried the Labour activist, Dan Fox to Labour members. ‘As our grandparents would say, ken der veytik in aundzer hertser geyn tsu deyn kef – may the pain in our hearts go to your heads. We were your comrades. And you betrayed us to people some of whom have still never lifted a finger for this Party of ours. You sold us out. You abandoned us. Damn you to hell. We were comrades.’
I think you could find a good word to say about Boris. He’s sort of “likeable” despite being a toff. Trustworthy or principled might not be apt. (I would much prefer JRM as PM)
An acquaintance of mine is probably the oldest Labour Party member in Port Talbot. Stephen Kinnock calls to see him every time there’s an election. This time, he said to Kinnock “I’m not happy with the Labour Party direction under Corbyn”. To which Kinnock replied, “Neither am I”.
I wonder how successful a Corbyn government would have been in implementing a hard socialist agenda given the opposition to him in the Parliamentary Labour Party. We won’t know that, but it’ll be interesting to see where Labour goes from here. Undoubtedly, there’ll now be a power struggle between the communist Momentum faction and the Social Democrats within the Party.
Posted by: Andy | December 13, 2019 at 08:05 PM
Well, fair enough. I don't hate Boris the way a lot of people seem to. But really, now, he's got it all to prove.
Posted by: Mick H | December 13, 2019 at 08:57 PM