As Theresa May’s government is involved in one
political car crash after another the big question has to be why the Labour opposition vehicle is not in better shape.
Will 2018 be the year the Labour party gives British
politics some much needed Opposition? Might Labour find a leader who - a. can
lead b. is not soiled by Iraq c. is not scared of Brexit or tainted by not
campaigning to Remain in Europe?
Jeremy Corbyn does not realise that his catastrophic
dithering over Brexit is already his legacy just as Iraq (plus global
terrorism, private sector infiltration of schools and hospitals and generation-obliterating
tuition debt) is Blair’s.
NOT actively campaigning for (or even declaring a
sentient position on) Brexit, left the Remain campaign with no engine. Brexit
was not won. No one was paying attention so the conmen were able to yell into
the electorate’s bad ear as EU membership slipped out of Britain's arthritic
fingers.
As I’ve written many times on this little blog and
in letters published by newspapers including The Guardian, The Independent, The
National and others - everything from 23rd June 2016 onwards has been
about damage limitation. Britain is fighting over which bits of the socio-economic
corpse can be used in political organ donation.
Even Corbyn’s blanking of Brexit at the 2017 Labour
Party Conference mattered little although it showed he was capable of being
politically grubby. It showed he had one skill; despite his faux revolutionary,
misguided out-of-touch social sentiment and his snail pace intellect, Corbyn can look the other way when the big issues of the day are screaming
for attention. You have to envy him the ability to calmly and genuinely – for
example – flag wave for the NHS having done nothing to keep EU workers, on whom
the institution now relies, IN BRITAIN. That is a sort of skill. Like being
able to make fart noises with your armpit… mesmerising and useless.
Experiencing Corbyn’s end-of-2017 announcement it
occurred to me he must be the only ‘leader’ in history who could say “We are a government in waiting” and
sound as if he just said ‘does anyone
want that last digestive biscuit’.
And for those getting exorcised about the recent activities
in Haringey, the London borough where sitting councillors have complained about
being replaced by others who intend to campaign against an unpopular local
development – chill - that is actually how democracy is supposed to work. The
irony is that any benefit gained by Momentum – the group that formed to support
Corbyn’s leadership – will be so outweighed by the harm to the British working
class by Brexit that they may as well have handed Haringey council to G4S.
For people whose memory lasts longer than an episode
of a soap opera – Blair will forever be the little shit who went against overwhelming
public opinion, common sense, intelligence and history and illegally invaded
Iraq. Corbyn will be the knacker who failed
to go in, political guns blazing, righteous indignation to the fore and fight
to prevent a plainly foreseeable catastrophe; a catastrophe driven purely and
simply by Cameron’s inability to deal with the dough-boy fascists in the
‘nastier party’. Cameron played Russian roulette with Britain’s future with all
the chambers full, the barrel pointing at Britain’s foot. Corbyn was unable to
make political capital because he was still pointing his blunderbuss at
Thatcher’s ghost.
While Farage (with his EU pension) and Boris Johnson
(rewarded with a front bench position in government) and Gove (who derided
‘experts’ during the EU referendum and is now Secretary of state for the
Environment) all lied and lied and lied and lied and were not challenged – Corbyn
hunkered down and did a big grey nothing.
Yes I know it’s becoming increasingly unpopular to say
all this. Shut up and get on with it, is the popular mantra. Discombobulated MPs
have taken refuge behind the British public, bleating on about respecting
Democracy as if the referendum – won on prattle and xenophobia – had anything
at all to do with real democracy. History will point to the EU referendum not
just as the tipping point when Britain lost its seat at the top table in the
world, it will also be the focus of much
debate concerning the end of real democracy in the so-called oldest democracy.
Currently MPs are enjoying some welcome relief from
blame, pointing the finger at Google, facebook and other online social media
platforms over issues of ‘fake news’ and information manipulation. However,
there is a deafening silence regarding the older media whose favour they slavishly
court. The BBC, infamously unrepresentative of ethnic minorities or the working
class majority who pay its licence fee, continually platformed Farage. The
tabloid newspapers fed a celebrity-T.V.-anaesthetised public a diet of bigotry
and jingoism and anti-EU nonsense for DECADES – from the plague of straight
bananas to the idea that we are all being oppressed by Health and Safety
legislation from Brussels – well – tell that to the victims of Grenfell Tower.
Iraq was Blair’s Vietnam – except the effects are
global not national. Corbyn’s dull, dull mediocre, grey, pathetic,
didn’t-need-to-happen ‘Iraq’ is Brexit…