JC takes on the world (a personal view)
There has been much criticism of Jeremy Corbyn –
particularly on the right of the Labour Party and centre-left commentators like
Polly Toynbee and Jonathan Freedland.
They fear, for example, that he is a great campaigner but not much of a
politician. Does he really have a will
to govern? Or the ability to be Prime
Minister? Is he leading a political
party, a plausible party of government? Or is he rather leading a movement,
with a huge groundswell of support amongst the young and the forgotten left-wingers
of yesteryear?
Oscar Wilde said that the trouble with socialism (or any
other well-meaning political work?) is that it takes up ‘too many
evenings’. Jeremy Corbyn has devoted a
long political life to the cause. Is
that impressive and inspiring, or just dumb?
PURITY NOT POWER
Corbyn has called for a kinder, gentler, more caring
society. By transforming the weekly
parliamentary show of PMQs he has also –
so far – introduced a more positive, more grown-up style of politics. As one commentator put it, he is changing
politics although (by being ‘unelectable’) he may not change the country. He apparently has no appeal with those middle
earners who do are not dependent on Tax Credits (which Osborne is slashing
cruelly) and who also – telling point – never even come across those who
are.
STIRRING UP A DIVINE DISCONTENT WITH WRONG
His forebear, Labour’s founder Keir Hardie, talked of
‘trying to stir up a divine discontent with wrong’, and Jonathan Freedland (The
Guardian) described his early Commons appearances thus: ‘he came across as
earnest, committed and charmingly diffident’, ‘he radiated a winning humility’
– even if Winston Churchill wouldn’t have been impressed! And despite all the supercilious dismissal by
delighted Tories and the insular and petty right-wing media he comes across, as cartoonist Steve Bell
commented, as ‘plausible and straightforward’: ‘he’s completely outfoxed them’,
says Bell. Or, as journalist Jenni
Russell said on Newsnight, ‘he isn’t playing the game’.
Could this be the man to change hearts but not – at least
not so obviously – the world? Is Jeremy
Corbyn’s heart in the right place, but not his political instincts? Is Jeremy Corbyn the man to take forward Keir
Hardie’s idealistic ambition? Or is he just leading an ineffectual movement,
destined to be for ever a counter-cultural, ethical, but not political force in
British society? Some might boldly draw parallels with another
JC, who preached a kinder, more caring society in first century Palestine: he
too had little time for political games but devoted his life to inspiring an
oppressed underclass and … well, changing hearts and thereby, maybe, the world.
George
Monbiot wrote an interesting article last week reporting a study by the
Common Cause Foundation that found that we are more unselfish than is often thought. He later tweeted that the knowledge of this was enough to make him
feel more benign towards his fellow man.
So if we are not selfish but we nevertheless (pace an electoral system
which may distort our true intentions) seem to favour tough but harsh
governments, what is it which will motivate us to be better people and improve
our world?
‘THE CHURCH MUST IDENTIFY WITH THE POOR’
No doubt the spectacular result of the May general election,
confounding all expectations, is still being analysed: was it shy Tories or
fearful English voters, a gullible electorate or just the cunning of Lynton
Crosby that made half the voters say they’d vote Labour or LibDem but then
change their minds? Whatever our true beliefs and however they affected our
actions in May, the fact is that we are where we are for the next 5 years and
the poor and the climate will just have to take the consequences. But maybe there is still some hope and some
compassion: the Pope seems to be on their side, Jeremy Corbyn cares enough to risk
ridicule by quoting the needy in Parliament, and the SNP make quite a good
opposition. Even the Archbishop of
Canterbury this week echoed his own words from 2014, that ‘the Church must take
the risk of identifying with the poor’.
Now steady on…
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