When Jeremy Corbyn was elected, I said that the best course of action was to give him about a year to see how he did. Well, it's been about a year, so how's he done ?
Badly. Really, really badly. Here's a nice pleasant way to start the week.
These are the people he's supposed to lead in government, and they don't want to work with him. Having nice policies is only part of his job. If he can't persuade people to work with him in opposition, what hope is there he could form a credible government ? None, that's what.
The only sensible response to this is to leave. Doesn't even matter why his MPs hate him, the fact is that they do. No individual is supposed to be bigger than the party, so the only sane response is to accept that you can't lead this group of people and bugger off. But, astonishingly, he didn't. This is madness. There are some who claim that this is all due to "Blairite" opposition. Well, sorry, but that's bollocks.
If you won't even leave when 80% of your MPs tell you to step down, what does that say about building bridges, a kinder politics, or forming a consensus ? To ignore this most extreme and extremely clear method of ostracisation is tantamount to declaring a dictatorship. A vote this far against you is a no-win situation : you can either leave with honour and everyone accepts that it's unfortunate (but you've still gone), or you can stay and reveal your true colours : every bit as unprincipled as any other politician.
[I remain completely unable to understand how anyone can think that a leader who ignores a defeat this brazen can be regarded as anything other than extremely dangerous.]
http://astrorhysy.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-fall.html
Or, the blairists could stop trying to revive their movement and surrender to history.
ReplyDeleteYou mean the 80% of elected Labour MPs who don't support Corbyn ? Oh yes, very sensible.
ReplyDeleteRhys Taylor MPs are not directly elected, Corbyn is.
ReplyDeleteIt's fairly easy to abuse a FPTP system to get unwarranted representation.
Anyway: Corbyn will keep going until the MPs stand down and fall in line.
They may not like it, but they have no alternatives.
StevPhillips I would agree except that I no longer trust Corbyn in the slightest. Much as I mostly still agree with Nick, it's just that I now have absolutely no idea if he'd ever really do anything his says. Having a nice lefty presents a good, clear alternative to the Tories.
ReplyDeleteProblem is I no longer think Corbyn is a nice lefty. Bizarre as it may sound, I don't think he's nice at all. He has no clue how to lead or negotiate with people, he just seems determined to get his own way. For me, refusing to leave after the no confidence vote was his tuition fees moment - there's no way he can recover trust. I'm not voting for someone with despotic tendencies even if most of their policies strongly appeal to me.
Communism is scary and I don't like it.
ReplyDeleteIt's also despotic of the Blairites to try to obstruct Corbyn. I mean, they did it for one season, hoping that maybe his election was a fluke.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't.
Now they have to accept that Blairism is evil, and either repent or fuck off.
I mean, they could protest his election by resigning their posts, couldn't they?
ReplyDeleteOh, pish, Andreas Geisler, that's just so much nonsense.
ReplyDeleteRhys Taylor Last I checked, it's despotic of a monopolist class to overrule a popular vote.
ReplyDeleteOr did you mean the resignation thing? Because they probably won't resign, that's true enough.
But they ought to. It is now decisively proven that they are out of touch with the party base.
They can either adapt or take the consequence and resign.
No, I refuse to play the game of wasting an order of magnitude of extra energy refuting BS on this occasion. Another time, perhaps.
ReplyDelete