Corbyn Cant' Cut It

Matthew Norman hits the nail on the head with this column in The Independent in which he argues that the Tories have no need to call a snap general election because under Jeremy Corbyn's inept leadership the Labour Party is in the process of destroying itself.

Norman is also right to say that Jezza's recent 'don't panic' unity call to the Labour Party is the worst performance YouTube has witnessed since the appearance of Gordon Brown and his  'rictus grin' in the wake of the great MPs' expenses scandal.

The truth is that to win a general election Labour needs a leader who can reach out to uncommitted voters beyond the narrow confines of party and trade union activists - and that's a quality Jeremy Corbyn simply doesn't possess. 

   

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/snap-election-may-labour-corbyn-destroying-themselves-a7641711.html

Of course Theresa May isn’t calling a snap election, Labour is doing a fine job of destroying itself

It was Napoleon who advised against interfering ‘with an enemy while he's in the process of destroying himself’

By Matthew Norman - The Independent

While the Government prepares for the negotiations that will define our future, Labour seeks sanctuary from its irrelevance within its tragicomic internal affairs - Getty

If Theresa May’s government had form in executing a tyre-melting U-turn, on some minor Budget measure or whatever, you might sprinkle any pledge from No 10 with the contents of the Saxa warehouse.

As it is, what reason could there be to doubt Downing Street’s word that the Prime Minister won’t add a snap general election to the local elections on 4 May.

The force is so strong with this one that many of her own whips and backbenchers are baffled. Why wouldn’t she want to celebrate Star Wars Day by unsheathing her trusty light sabre and lopping off Labour’s head?

Among various explanations is protecting the brand. She approved the Budget but didn’t deliver it, and the punters still trust her word. Reversing a categorical promise would undermine that.

Another theory is that the last thing she needs right now is a huge majority. The power of 20 (comparatively) centrist Tory MPs to derail legislation partly nullifies the frothing Brexit right wing to whom compromise is a synonym for treachery. David Cameron needed protection from his nutters (in that case from his Liberal Democrat partners), and so might she.

Can't Cut The Mustard (22/09/17)

I listened to quite the most devastating assessment of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership abilities on Radio 5 Live, the other day, from his first wife Jane Chapman.

Now this was not the bitter rant of a woman scorned, not least because Jane voted for her former husband first time around when he won the Labour leadership in 2015.

Nor was this 'uninformed' opinion of someone with an axe to grind since Jane is now widely regarded Professor of Communications at the University of Lincoln and a visiting Fellow at Wolfson College Cambridge.

Nonetheless Jane's view was that Jeremy had failed to mark his mark in any of the roles he has played throughout his life as a local government councillor, a trade union official and/or as a Labour MP, observing that:

• as a local councillor Jeremy chaired nothing more important than a council sub-committee
• Jeremy's trade union career never progressed beyond the 'entry level' rank
• as Labour MP for 32 years Jeremy never took on any position of responsibility - not even that as the chair of a parliamentary select committee 

So without rancour or any hint of personal animosity, Professor Chapman essentially came to the same view as the vast majority of Labour MPs - that Jeremy Corbyn does not possess the skills for the job of Labour leader.

Which is, of course, my considered view as well.

 

'Bog Standard' Officials (24/06/16)

I was unfazed one way or the other by Jeremy Corbyn's appearance on 'The Last Leg' TV programme which had the Labour leader arrive in a chauffeur-driven Bentley, dressed in a dinner suit and a full-length white fur coat.

After all if you have an image problem, then why not do something out of the ordinary to confound and confuse your political opponents.

But no, my real problem with Jeremy is that in answer to a 'dolly' question about how he would rank the importance of the next week's EU referendum on a scale of 1 to 10, Jezza responded with the unbelievably lame answer of "7 to 7 and a half".

Now when so much is at stake in next week's referendum, you would think a Labour leader worth his mettle would have emphasised, in the strongest possible terms, the very real threat to the UK economy, jobs and investment posed by the country's withdrawal from the European Union (EU).

So Jeremy's a complete fool if you ask me, a political half-wit, but that's what you get if you elect as Labour leader a man who rose to the dizzying ranks of 'bog standard' union official before finding a niche as a backbench Labour MP in the House of Commons for the next 32 years.

And while there are some decent trade union officials around, believe me there are plenty of complete 'duds' in the ranks too, as the Labour party and the country is finding out to its cost.