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- Sat Aug 08, 2020 9:44 pm
#619957
I’ve been thinking a lot about Corbyn’s latest bit of trouble-making (his outrageous assertion that the 2017 election campaign was actively sabotaged by Labour Party staff).
It’s become clear very quickly that Corbyn and the rump of his cult following are simply determined to, as they see it, wreak vengeance on the “centrists” for this despicable act of sabotage. That vengeance, will, if necessary, seemingly even extend to sabotaging Sir Keir Starmer’s efforts to lead the party back to government (and in the process condemning us all to at least another 5 years of Tory misery and corruption).
They aren’t about to go away of their own volition, either. There are four years to go until the next election, and more of this really will dash Labour’s hopes of success in 2024.
What has also become clear is that there is no prospect – none whatsoever – of unity with the cranks and cultists, including Corbyn himself, and, what is more, there never has been. I frankly lost count of the number of times when, expressing misgivings about Corbyn’s leadership, I was told “Why don’t we all just unite behind Jeremy and concentrate on fighting the Tories instead of arguing amongst ourselves? “. Now I hear virtually the same refrain from some of those of a more, shall we say, simplistic frame of mind in support of Keir Starmer : “ Why don’t we all just unite behind Keir and concentrate on fighting the Tories instead of arguing amongst ourselves? “
There is a difference, of course. Expressing misgivings about Corbyn’s appalling leadership was done sincerely, out of concern for the way that Corbyn was leading the party down an electoral cul-de-sac. In other words, criticism of Corbyn was legitimate, and entirely justified. The same cannot be said of criticisms from The Cult of Keir Starmer. With barely 5 months in post, Starmer has made a remarkable impact. He has already established himself as the electorate’s preferred Prime Minister over Johnson, has skewered Johnson effortlessly and mercilessly at every PMQ session since Johnson returned from illness, and has begun to narrow the gap with the Tories in opinion polling. Nevertheless, the Corbyn tribe still manages to manufacture utterly spurious grounds for criticism of Starmer, as if it were their bounden duty so to do. And in a way, it is.
At the root of this is that Corbynism is above all a mind set. A mind set that says that Labour under Blair and its thirteen years in power was worthless and might as well have been the Tories governing. A mind set that dismisses anyone in the party that dares to disagree as “neo-liberals”. A mind set that casts Blair-ites, Brown-ites, and above all “centrists” not as comrades with a common objective within a “broad church” party, but as mortal enemies. “Red Tories”.
Now, there may well have been a few within the party who shared this mind set before Corbyn ascended to the leadership, but it is to be regretted that the several thousand new members who joined the party, inspired by Corbyn, bought into this poisonous mode of thought wholesale, and cling to it still. It means that the mind set has burgeoned and swollen, and has become a monster.
Surely no-one can deny that this poses a very serious problem for the party. Keir Starmer in his leadership campaign made much of striving for party unity, and on the face of it that is a laudable objective. But what if party unity is unachievable? What if a public image of a united party – essential, we are told, to attaining government – simply cannot be presented thanks to the continuing sniping from Corbyn and his band of cranks ? Because we are up against a mind set, and a determined one, it is all but impossible effectively to combat it.
Logically, and effectively, the Corbynite mind set means that the Labour Party is in fact now two parties. The Corbynites, with their dolchstosslegende mind set, and the mainstream of the party membership, who voted for Keir Starmer and who desperately want him to lead the party back to government. The party can no longer be regarded as the “broad church” that so many fondly imagine it to be.Unity between the two parties is, to all intents and purposes, simply not achievable - nor perhaps even desirable.
Considered in this way, the conclusion is inescapable. The continued existence of a destructive Corbynite sect within the party cannot be tolerated. Expulsion is the obvious, and increasingly, I feel, unavoidable course of action. I sense that Starmer is simply waiting for both the ECHR report and the Forde Enquiry Report to be published before taking decisive action. I certainly hope so.
It’s become clear very quickly that Corbyn and the rump of his cult following are simply determined to, as they see it, wreak vengeance on the “centrists” for this despicable act of sabotage. That vengeance, will, if necessary, seemingly even extend to sabotaging Sir Keir Starmer’s efforts to lead the party back to government (and in the process condemning us all to at least another 5 years of Tory misery and corruption).
They aren’t about to go away of their own volition, either. There are four years to go until the next election, and more of this really will dash Labour’s hopes of success in 2024.
What has also become clear is that there is no prospect – none whatsoever – of unity with the cranks and cultists, including Corbyn himself, and, what is more, there never has been. I frankly lost count of the number of times when, expressing misgivings about Corbyn’s leadership, I was told “Why don’t we all just unite behind Jeremy and concentrate on fighting the Tories instead of arguing amongst ourselves? “. Now I hear virtually the same refrain from some of those of a more, shall we say, simplistic frame of mind in support of Keir Starmer : “ Why don’t we all just unite behind Keir and concentrate on fighting the Tories instead of arguing amongst ourselves? “
There is a difference, of course. Expressing misgivings about Corbyn’s appalling leadership was done sincerely, out of concern for the way that Corbyn was leading the party down an electoral cul-de-sac. In other words, criticism of Corbyn was legitimate, and entirely justified. The same cannot be said of criticisms from The Cult of Keir Starmer. With barely 5 months in post, Starmer has made a remarkable impact. He has already established himself as the electorate’s preferred Prime Minister over Johnson, has skewered Johnson effortlessly and mercilessly at every PMQ session since Johnson returned from illness, and has begun to narrow the gap with the Tories in opinion polling. Nevertheless, the Corbyn tribe still manages to manufacture utterly spurious grounds for criticism of Starmer, as if it were their bounden duty so to do. And in a way, it is.
At the root of this is that Corbynism is above all a mind set. A mind set that says that Labour under Blair and its thirteen years in power was worthless and might as well have been the Tories governing. A mind set that dismisses anyone in the party that dares to disagree as “neo-liberals”. A mind set that casts Blair-ites, Brown-ites, and above all “centrists” not as comrades with a common objective within a “broad church” party, but as mortal enemies. “Red Tories”.
Now, there may well have been a few within the party who shared this mind set before Corbyn ascended to the leadership, but it is to be regretted that the several thousand new members who joined the party, inspired by Corbyn, bought into this poisonous mode of thought wholesale, and cling to it still. It means that the mind set has burgeoned and swollen, and has become a monster.
Surely no-one can deny that this poses a very serious problem for the party. Keir Starmer in his leadership campaign made much of striving for party unity, and on the face of it that is a laudable objective. But what if party unity is unachievable? What if a public image of a united party – essential, we are told, to attaining government – simply cannot be presented thanks to the continuing sniping from Corbyn and his band of cranks ? Because we are up against a mind set, and a determined one, it is all but impossible effectively to combat it.
Logically, and effectively, the Corbynite mind set means that the Labour Party is in fact now two parties. The Corbynites, with their dolchstosslegende mind set, and the mainstream of the party membership, who voted for Keir Starmer and who desperately want him to lead the party back to government. The party can no longer be regarded as the “broad church” that so many fondly imagine it to be.Unity between the two parties is, to all intents and purposes, simply not achievable - nor perhaps even desirable.
Considered in this way, the conclusion is inescapable. The continued existence of a destructive Corbynite sect within the party cannot be tolerated. Expulsion is the obvious, and increasingly, I feel, unavoidable course of action. I sense that Starmer is simply waiting for both the ECHR report and the Forde Enquiry Report to be published before taking decisive action. I certainly hope so.
"The opportunity to serve our country. That is all we ask." John Smith, Leader of the Labour Party, 10 May 1994.
- By The Red Arrow