Corbyn's Labour
I know lots of Labour voters who feel exactly the same way as Chris Deerin towards the party leadership which is now controlled by an unrepresentative group of 'leftist' political ideologues.
The folks I know voted Labour in spite of Corbyn not because of him, but the events of the past couple of weeks show how spectacularly unfit Jeremy Corbyn is for high office.
The Labour leader's response to the chemical attack in Salisbury was pathetic, he then managed to outrage the country's Jewish community over his involvement with an anti-Semitic mural and finally sacked a front-bench colleague (Owen Smith) for supporting a referendum on the final terms of Brexit while completely ignoring the fact that his 'leftist' ally Diane Abbott had done the same thing just a few months earlier.
The Labour Party these days is not just not a broad church - there is no room at the top for anyone who does not behave like a Jeremy Corbyn 'groupie' which requires people to leave their integrity, dignity and critical faculties at the door.
Chris Deerin hits the nail on the head with an opinion piece in today's Herald - here's a flavour of what he has to say.
There is a problem, though. Their Labour no longer exists. The people are being cleared out. The rules are being rewritten. The locks are being changed. This Labour – Corbyn’s Labour, John McDonnell’s Labour, Jon Lansman’s Labour, Len McCluskey’s Labour, Seumas Milne’s Labour, for they are the masters now – is a grotesque bastardisation of what once was. This Labour is a moral black-hole, an apologist for many of the world’s worst regimes and a defender of anti-Western sentiment. This Labour is firmly in the grip of people who, for good reason, were previously banished to the fringes, and they’re not giving it back.
I agree with his assessment, but read the full piece and decide for yourself via the link below to The Herald.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16117713.Chris_Deerin__Shame_on_all_who_let_Corbyn_destroy_the_Labour_Party_we_knew/
Chris Deerin: Shame on all who let Corbyn destroy the Labour Party we knew
By Chris Deerin - The Herald
Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn with Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell(Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images).
IN 2016, I joined the Labour Party. It was a decision I wrestled with – although naturally sympathetic towards Labour in its centrist form, I’ve always believed journalists shouldn’t be joiners. Independence of thought and practice – what Graham Greene called the “splinter of ice in the heart” – is the writer’s most precious possession. There are times you need to wield the blade, and that’s easier to do if you’re free.
That June, Jeremy Corbyn found himself facing a leadership challenge less than a year after being elected to the post. His short reign had been marked by one calamity after another. He had failed to use the weight of his office to campaign for a Remain vote in the Brexit referendum. As a hopeless Tory Government flailed around in the wake of the referendum’s surprise outcome, he showed no capability of or interest in holding it to account. He clearly wasn’t up to it. Labour MPs passed a motion of no confidence in him by 172 votes to 40.
Britain needed – needs – not just an effective and mainstream Labour Party, but an effective and mainstream official Opposition. It has never needed it more. It was this, more than the silly juvenilia that makes up the hard Left’s political credo, that convinced me to break my iron rule. It felt less like a choice than a patriotic duty. Corbyn and his useless coterie of privately-educated Marxists had to go.
It didn’t work out, obviously. The cult was too strong – as with Donald Trump, there were too many fanboys caught up in self-important, quasi-religious rapture –and he was, disastrously, re-elected that September. I cancelled my direct debit immediately.
Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn with Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell(Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images).
IN 2016, I joined the Labour Party. It was a decision I wrestled with – although naturally sympathetic towards Labour in its centrist form, I’ve always believed journalists shouldn’t be joiners. Independence of thought and practice – what Graham Greene called the “splinter of ice in the heart” – is the writer’s most precious possession. There are times you need to wield the blade, and that’s easier to do if you’re free.
That June, Jeremy Corbyn found himself facing a leadership challenge less than a year after being elected to the post. His short reign had been marked by one calamity after another. He had failed to use the weight of his office to campaign for a Remain vote in the Brexit referendum. As a hopeless Tory Government flailed around in the wake of the referendum’s surprise outcome, he showed no capability of or interest in holding it to account. He clearly wasn’t up to it. Labour MPs passed a motion of no confidence in him by 172 votes to 40.
Britain needed – needs – not just an effective and mainstream Labour Party, but an effective and mainstream official Opposition. It has never needed it more. It was this, more than the silly juvenilia that makes up the hard Left’s political credo, that convinced me to break my iron rule. It felt less like a choice than a patriotic duty. Corbyn and his useless coterie of privately-educated Marxists had to go.
It didn’t work out, obviously. The cult was too strong – as with Donald Trump, there were too many fanboys caught up in self-important, quasi-religious rapture –and he was, disastrously, re-elected that September. I cancelled my direct debit immediately.
