Comrade Corbyn Proves Himself a Populist

In his first major speech of the campaign, Jeremy Corbyn attempted to define this election as one of The People vs. The Establishment. Member of Parliament for Islington North since 1983, the Labour leader proved touchy when asked whether he himself might not be part of that very 'Establishment' he had just spent fifteen minutes railing against so gleefully from a horse as high as Babel.

Tax the Rich! Bash the Banks!

His message was a simple one: the faults of Modern Britain are due, it appears almost solely, to the insatiable rapaciousness of a dastardly top-hatted 'elite' straight out of the pages of Soviet anti-Capitalist propaganda. These puppeteers of the 'rigged system' hold a vice-like grip on Corbynland, gobbling up all the wealth for themselves and leaving none for the rest of us (wealth, of course, being a static entity in Corbynland; there's only so much to go round). The solution: Tax the Rich! It's so simple. Squeeze them instead of them squeezing us, Corbyn squeals in delight from his pulpit, the enamoured choir applauding all around, hissing at any who dare speak up from the media bench against their Comrade Prophet. Somewhere far away, Tony Blair ruefully wonders whether New Labour ever actually happened, while, back in Labour HQ, the '83 Election re-enactment squad rolls serenely on.

 Corbyn Tries to Trump

The platform Corbyn unveiled today was unashamedly populist. Shades of Trump played prominently in the Labour leader's denunciations of 'the establishment and their followers in the media.' The rallying cry went up against 'those at the top' who 'leach off' the ordinary honest worker. The People were told that they must take back control, must wrest back their rights from the clutches of 'a cosy cartel' of 'elites' who have usurped all power for themselves. The tribute act may have forgotten his costume and wig, but he knew his lines by heart. But when Eddie Mair pointed out the glaring similarities of the US President's rhetoric to Mr Corbyn's, Labour MP Dawn Butler was less than comfortable with the comparison. Her attempts to side-step the question demonstrating a deftness and lightness of foot equal to that of Talos waltzing across a frozen lake; and met with like success.

When elected leader in 2015, Corbyn spoke of seeking to forge 'a new kind of politics.' He has instead promptly proceeded to leap, with as much enthusiastic abandon as his sixty-seven years will allow, into the oldest and most dangerous kind: that of pinning all society's ills on a certain distinct segment of society. But feverishly scapegoating 'the rich,' though a popular pastime of many, is about as new and radical as it is appropriate and useful. As the speech went on, whatever  hope had been frantically nursed in the battered hearts of the PLP that their leader might yet attempt to address with relevant responses the real problems facing Britain today, sailed serenely out of the conference hall window. 

'Drunk on a failed ideology.'

Crude, simplistic and outdated, Corbyn's shrill cries against 'the rigged system' not only demonstrate an astonishing lack of engagement with reality, but are dangerously divisive. The populist rhetoric he espouses corrosively undermines the trust in government and institutions so essential for a society to function for the good of all. Corbyn once talked of desiring an 'Honest Straight Talking Politics.' His recent performance shows him instead to be an agent of quite the opposite camp: fuelling division, distorting reality and feeding a poisonous narrative of class struggle, rich vs poor, establishment vs people, which only distorts, creates, and deepens divisions instead of healing them. It is the voice of the past, not the future. The Labour leader even had the gall to speak of the Conservatives being 'drunk on a failed idealogy,' but it is rather the cup of Corbyn that runneth over with ideas long-dead and discredited; relevant, perhaps, for a bygone age, but with more darkness than light to offer our own. 

The outcome of this election is foregone; but though he will never wield power, Jeremy Corbyn nevertheless exercises a toxic influence upon a Britain so badly in need of a calm, sensible and pragmatic voice to unify a post-Brexit nation and propose real, appropriate solutions to contemporary issues. Instead, genuine discontent and suffering is exploited so a few bitter old diehards and a gaggle of young idealists can play out their fantasy of putting forward a platform of 'real Socialism' to the British electorate. History tells the present how that venture will fare. In these uncertain times, when so much is at stake, it is a tragedy that the Labour Party has so indulgently consigned itself to oblivion. There are millions who need a progressive, radical government, and they deserve better than the 1983 manifesto (the 'longest suicide note in history,') reprinted in a nicer font.