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Friday 3 April 2020

So Farewell Then Jeremy Corbyn

Voting in the contest for Labour’s new leader and deputy leader closed yesterday. The result of those ballots will be known this weekend, and by that time we may well have a new team at the top of the party. So it is that Jeremy Corbyn bows out, with those who have spent the past four and a half years using their media platforms to vilify him cheering and sneering, while those without a platform continue to suffer.
Farewell not only to Jezza ...

And while it is true that some out on the left of the party are sometimes inflexible and hung up on ideological purity, the problem for those in the media constantly sniping, moaning and looking to destabilise Corbyn’s Labour are no better, no matter how big the wads of cash they are able to trouser. They, too, demand ideological purity, of a far more narrowly based kind: most of those critics would only be happy with the return of Tony Blair.

But the Blair ship sailed long ago, even though, yes, New Labour did some good things for the less well-off, families, the NHS and the disabled. We should not forget that, nor that it is better for Labour to be in power in whatever form, than for it to be out of power. But things could have been so different, had the Labour movement come together behind Jeremy Corbyn. Instead, too many of those who benefited from office did not.

Last December, we had the grotesque spectacle of Ian Austin, a talentless, loud-mouthed creep who had achieved precisely nothing as an MP, joining with the Tories to inflict as much damage on the party that had given him its support as he could. It was the action of the lowest of the low. But Austin was not alone. And he will not be alone in ignoring the millions of victims of austerity as he counts his pile of newly acquired wealth.
... but also to Laura Alvárez

Corbyn has today told Labour members “It has been the honour of my life to lead this party. Our members are my inspiration, and I am so proud that we have become a party of nearly 600,000 strong”. On the Coronavirus pandemic, he notes “It has also reminded everyone how the people who keep our society running are not the hedge fund billionaires, but the cleaners, nurses, care workers and supermarket staff”.

And in a rare media outing, Corbyn’s wife Laura Alvárez (it’s pronounced L-OW-ra, not L-OR-a) has toldIt has been incredibly hard for me to watch my husband vilified and to hear his words twisted by his political opponents and some in the media. It has been even harder to watch him be attacked by his own Party. The brutal irony is that if we had pulled together, we would have been ready to lead the country rather than suffer more austerity under the Tories”. Her regret is as deep as it is sincere.

My greatest wish ahead of the 2017 general election was that the party would stay together so that we could beat them. Unfortunately, my wish was not granted and I will forever think of that lost moment when we were so close to winning for the people of the United Kingdom”. But she wants the party’s supporters to know “I believe that the spring will come one day again with happiness, social justice and hope For The Many”.

Whoever succeeds Corbyn has a mountain to climb, and yet more sneering, worthless media nobodies pushing against them. Our free press is not fearless when it comes to the prospect of a Labour Government. Maybe they don’t speak for ordinary people after all.

Jeremy Corbyn did speak for them. It is a realisation that is slowly, but surely, dawning.
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10 comments:

Anonymous said...



Diabolical - uncalled for.
Who died?

Oh, sorry, so much doom and gloom going on it wasn't what I was expecting.
Anyway, keeping with the theme.

Today's unlucky numbers are 3301

Anonymous said...

Jeremy was that rare thing , A good man.

The Bogus Doctor said...

Sorry, but no. The Corbyn experiment was an unmitigated disaster for the party and left the country bereft of an effective opposition when it needed it most. He went AWOL during brexit, he allowed anti-semitism to flourish, he introduced a culture in the Party that allowed those who considered themselves righteous could therefore never be wrong. Just as Nadine Dorries personifies the small-minded caricature of a Daily Mail Tory, Jeremy is a living cartoon of a Socialist Worker High Street activist. The kicker - for them - is that if John McDonnell had even the smallest inkling that the Tankies were in with a chance, he would never have allowed Jezza anywhere near the nomination.

Jonathan said...

Jeremy like Jesus, vilified for standing up for those long abandoned by the media pundits and New Labour.

We're going to miss Jeremy, to hear some of the things I heard about him on the doorstep was truly awful, whilst a liar,cheat,coward and puppet of Cummings occupies No10.

Sad days...but Corbyn was right the state can afford to improve society for all, his manifesto pledges were modest considering the sums Bozza is splashing to prop up the British economy.

Anonymous said...

I warned years ago things would get much worse, and that even a complete reversal of policies would take decades to get traction.

Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell were a chance to make a tentative start - nothing more - to that process. The chance has gone for the time being. Starmer and co. will see to that, all of it couched in the phony wheedling bullshit of "centrism", actually tory capitalism by another name.

Decency and fairness will be at a greater premium. Institutional corruption and looting will intensify, promoted by weasel words and mealy mouthed lies. Britain likely will become a seedy, hollowed-out state run by yet worse legalised thieves and even outright gangsterism.

This is one fucked-up Yankified nation with little immediate hope of restoration.

Sam said...

Corbyn an experiment? I don't think so. A lawfully elected leader who 13M and then 10 million Brits decided they liked what he offered which in comparison to how Boris is going to have to bail out the country (talk about Magic Money Trees!)seems very reasonable.
If those in Labour just want another Tory Lite Blairite party what in the Hell is the point?. There is a theory that rather than win (and boy, what a time to lose- like a blessing) with neutered Blairite style policies far better to let the Tories go full pelt as far to the right as they want and if the electorate wants that, so be it but I reckon millions are going to be ruing the day they allowed Boris into No 10. And far from an experiment Corbyn has ignited a movement especially among the young like no other politician has for decades. It's not going away.
And with the current virus calamity proving Harold Wilson's words "a week in politics etc etc" I guarantee there are numerous banana skins facing Boris whenever he emerges from isolation.

Frankie D. said...

Yeah, no....

Frankie D. said...

And like Jesus, the fictional accounts of his good works were massvely oversold.

Anonymous said...

Whoever succeeds Corbyn has a mountain to climb, and yet more sneering, worthless media nobodies pushing against them.

One set of 'worthless media nobodies' who won't be doing that will be all the ones in the liberal press who spent five years going after Corbyn and who now, presumably, finally got what they always wanted (or so they think...). 'The adults' were in charge, it's just that most of the pundits regressed to tantrum-throwing kids because they and their mates weren't.

Anonymous said...

Jeremy was a flawed but thoroughly decent man who was shat on by the Blairite Red Tories in the so called Labour Party. If Starmer takes the party back to the Neo Liberal "centre" then what's the point of existing at all. Stay safe people in these stranger than fiction times.