Tuesday 19 January 2016

Corbyn addresses Fabian Society


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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