Jeremy Corbyn has taken the helm of the Labour Party and everything is going to be great!
He and Tom Watson embody some hopeful prospects. I expect they will be effective in opposition, and I would like to feel positive about Labour’s chances of being elected to power but I share the concern of the more pragmatic democratic socialists such as the Fabian society:
The quasi-religious fervour around him, this idea that he is different from other politicians, pure and good, and will be the saviour from the previous false messiah of Blair? Well that just seems naive to me. It is expected that he will somehow change politics for good. If you project so much unrealistic hope onto anyone or anything you will be disappointed. Look at Obama, the Phantom Menace or pictures of the food in Burger King.
I am willing to be cautiously optimistic but I want rid of the Tories and I would like a government that is able to implement a fairer society. I am not yet convinced there will be enough popular support across the country for this incarnation of New Old Labour.
But he’s different, you tell me, as if he was the latest closing time pick-up after a string of disastrous encounters, he has principles. Well yes, he’s principled, but he has appeared to be hypocritical, he said one shouldn’t share a platform with racists but then went on to do just that, repeatedly, with holocaust deniers and antisemites.
This is not a smear from the right-wing press, this is an observation of concern from the left e.g. Rafael Behr in the Guardian or Left Foot Forward.
That’s not racism, you might say. That’s just legitimate criticism of Jews because they control the media, and secretly run the world, and are just more evil than well, all other humans on earth and if we could just eradicate Israel from the map the whole Middle East would be a joyous Sunni/Shia reach around. And I would take on board what you had to say, as you would have demonstrated your expertise in racism and it’s important to share a platform with racists, or isn’t…no further questions!
Anyway, I’d like to be enthusiastic about him so I hope to see him address this and to recognise – like his champion Owen Jones -that there is a problem of anti-semitism that exists in the left, embedded in, and therefore poisoning the just causes of Palestinian rights and the anti-war movement.
Particularly the Stop the War movement of which Corbyn is chair and which is very particular about which wars it wants to stop and which warmongers it wants to curb and which are just misunderstood teddy bears like Cutie-Wutie-Putin, bless him! Look at him sharing his military toys with lovely Mr Assad so that he can kill, maim and poison with chemical weapons his civilian population. Aren’t they both just adorable! Not like the awful west, urgh I *hate* them so much.
The Syrian refugee crisis is composed of people fleeing Assad AND ISIS, though Russia Today – the mouthpiece of the Kremlin, will tell you otherwise. The most appalling human rights violations have been recorded under Assad’s tyrannical reaction to mostly non-violent dissent. Read it and weep, literally. (Save the Children – untold atrocities PDF)
I understand the need to oppose ‘western imperialism’, particularly after such misguided, horrific and counter-productive wars as those in the Gulf, but not blindly, doggedly, dogmatically, excusing each and every other terrible ‘non-western’ agent of misery and terror and oppression in the process.
And further, In terms of policy – getting rid of our nuclear weapons would be something great if we could do so multilaterally with every country in the world. But if we alone get rid of Trident won’t that make us more, not less dependent, on the US?
Or is the proposed new relationship with Russia meant to supersede that? Are we to rely on Putin’s protection instead?
Ukraine had 2000 nukes and gave them up. Look what happened.
I’d like to be enthusiastic, but I’ve ordered a Whopper before, and it did not look like the picture.
