I welcomed Corbyn's
election as Labour leader in September 2015, not because I'm 'an extreme
left winger', but because I was tired of listening to a Labour party that was
pre-occupied with fighting for the 'centre ground' which in reality was well to
the Right of the Tory governments I had experience of in the 1950s and early
1970s.
But I grew increasingly impatient with the distractions of
squabbles about Trident renewal, and the constant attacks from people like Simon
Danczuk, which fed an anti Corbyn agenda in the media and allowed the debate
about whether to sanction the bombing of Syria to be presented as a crisis of
leadership. What these critics of Corbyn
failed to notice is that the Right wing press, in the shape of the Daily Mail,
was very doubtful about some of Cameron's claims and made comparisons with
Blair's 'dodgy dossier'.
Corbyn should never have let Trident renewal become the
touchstone of his leadership. Single
issue politics holds no attractions for me whatever the cause. In the long run practical politics will
reassert itself as the leaders of the engineering trades unions point to the
job losses which could follow from the 'wrong' decision.
But at last, in a speech to the Fabian Society, Corbyn has
set out his vision of what Labour stands for, and what policies it should enact
when it next forms a government.
Commenting on this
Nigel Morris of 'The i' wrote:
'Mr Corbyn's critics, both inside the party and
outside, will seize on his plans as evidence that he is attempting to drive its
policy platform to the left.'
And so will the people who voted for him.
No one can describe the policies he is proposing as 'extreme
left-wing' without doing an injustice to the English language. If these policies are criticised by the self
styled 'moderates' I shall begin to wonder if there would be any point in
voting Labour if they reassert their strangle hold on the party.
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