We warned you about Corbyn

I've said it before and I'll say it again, slightly more succinctly.

If the question is, "do you want to be right or do you want to win ?" then the only sensible answer is both. I support 90% of Corbyn's policies, but the man himself is a nasty piece of work. Anecdotal though this may be, I know too many lifelong Labour supporters who now despise him. It is universally accepted among my left-wing friends of all ages that Corbyn doesn't have a hope in hell of winning. So he may be right, but he's not going to win, ergo he's politically useless. Being right is of no benefit to anyone if you don't get to actually implement policy.

For me the defining moment came when he refused to step down after massively losing a vote of no confidence (and what's really depressing is that Labour tried every means at their disposal to force him out - they know he can't win, but they appear to be out of options). This is ludicrous. The point of the opposition is not just to hold the government to account but to also present a credible alternative government-in-waiting. If they can't do this, then they won't win - end of. A leader without the confidence of his MPs in opposition has exactly zero chance of having their confidence in government. Utter madness.

"I have a responsibility to the people who voted for me", quoth the Corbyn. Yes. A responsibility to from a credible opposition, which you haven't. It's nothing but an alternative way of saying, "I'm more important than anyone else in the party and even more unprincipled than the rest of you, because I won't abandon power even when I don't have any." Aaaaarrrgghh.

I don't know whether to be cheering the prospect (though still remote) of an early election or cowering in fear of it. Currently the only two parties talking any sort of sense are the SNP and the Lib Dems. I mean that in as objective a sense as I can (being wholly biased toward the left, mind you) : the Tories have been rendered impotent by Brexit and UKIP have the organisational skills of a dead hamster (sure, they won a popular vote, but a popular vote doth not a credible opposition make). The SNP are at saturation point anyway (and last time I checked their economic policy was, "let's become "independent" so we can become a parasite of England !"). Plaid Cymru are still a bunch of nutters who harp on about "the people of Wales" every other bloomin' sentence - which conveniently leaves little time to discuss actual policy. The Greens ? Also have two much of a whiff of madness about them and uninspiring leadership. Labour could easily win me back, but not with Corbyn in charge.

Rant over.


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/19/jeremy-corbyn-labour-threat-party-election-support?CMP=share_btn_fb