THE UK right and the acquiescent left have no peers in global politics when it comes to cooking up a myth and persuading some of their more sclerotic camp followers in the London media to give it life. Jeremy Corbyn has been subjected to a campaign of vitriol and hostility that has often bordered on naked hatred in the few months since he was elected leader by an overwhelming majority of party adherents.
Stoking the flames is a small and insidious coterie of Blairite former advisers whose political currency diminishes with every fresh electoral misadventure with which they are associated. These people are desperate to remain relevant and to be invited to the launch of every new policy document by the latest centre-left or centre-right think tank. When these invitations dry up it denotes social and cultural death in London, and the placing requests for schools in discreet areas are all returned unread.
They are beloved of the right-wing media because they stoke the flames of anti-Corbynism and give it some philosophical heft by being described as Blairite. Being called a Blairite means that you are sensible, safe and never likely to scare the horses with silly ideas such as raising taxes for the rich and helping the society’s worst-off. And you can also be relied upon to back any war going on the pretext that Britain will be made more secure by the waging of it.
Only in a UK commanded by reactionary Conservatives, aided and abetted by a state-approved left, could last week’s chilling scenes at Westminster have occurred. The narrative had obviously been pre-prepared with all the main protagonists knowing their lines.
1. Announce a package of early Christmas presents to the military in the autumn pre-Budget statement, including 19,000 more spies.
2. Announce a Commons debate on bombing some desultory targets in Syria under the control of an Arabian mafia called Daesh.
3. Portray the leader of the Labour Party as some kind of Stalinist terrorist-lover because he opposes these tactics.
4. Drip poison in the ear of willing Westminster journalists by telling them that poor pro-war Labour MPs are being terrorised by the “hard-left”.
5. And when Labour MPs are given a free vote – which almost 70 of them deploy – to back the Tory-led non-policy in Syria, use the same hacks to convey the message that the Reds are assembling firing squads for their pro-war MPs.
6. Decree that Corbyn has had a catastrophic week and that he must be gone by Christmas or it will mean “The Death of the Labour Party”.
This is what really happened, just in case you missed it. Corbyn had a good week in the House of Commons in which he came across as reasonable and statesmanlike in setting out his reasons for opposing air strikes in Syria. He wasn’t convinced there was a proper end game or exit strategy and remained unconvinced that such strikes would make Britain a safer place. He was fearful about the threat to innocent civilians, always early casualties in wars waged by laptop. Ordinary Labour supporters obviously thought so too. In the Oldham by-election the next night, his party was returned with an increased majority.
In stark contrast to this, David Cameron was petty, vindictive and small-minded. He implied that to oppose air strikes was to support terrorism and then refused to apologise for this bizarre rant. Then he produced out of thin air the number 70,000, which he claimed was the number of “good rebels”who were ready to back Western forces. Within minutes this claim was unravelling: no-one had heard of the figure 70,000; such good rebels as there are have been split into dozens of factions and there was no clear command structure. Yet it was Corbyn who was portrayed as an extremist and an anti-democrat.
And then Hilary Benn rose to give a rousing pro-war speech in defiance of his boss, who had just promoted him a few months previously. He was able to do this because Corbyn was persuaded from imposing party discipline on his MPs because of the sheer carnage that he was told would result if he didn’t allow the Benn faction to vote for war.
Benn, no matter what you thought of his speech (it was heartfelt and eloquent), had nevertheless committed a gross act of disloyalty to a party that has given him the backing and resources to embark on his journey to Westminster and then to thrive there. He was only given the freedom to vote the way he did because of the rumours, gossip and innuendo that daily makes its way into the London press from Jeremy Corbyn’s faceless and nameless opponents.
Even as the Syria debate was happening last Wednesday, BBC and ITN were weighing in with news items that showed how the RAF had perfected the art of precision bombing to such an extent that none of their raids in Iraq had resulted in civilian casualties. This was accepted as fact because, of course, this is Her Majesty’s Armed Forces telling us it. British intervention in Syria, though peripheral, could definitely make a real difference, according to ITN. The reports were beautifully choreographed with precision timing for maximum effect.
Jeremy Corbyn ought to be proud of the way he has conducted himself in his first few months as Labour leader. He has displayed grace and humour under an avalanche of pressure the likes of which I can recall no other UK political leader ever having endured. As Oldham showed, he retains overwhelming popular support in Labour’s wider community. He has stuck steadfastly to his principles even as he has faced down a chorus of contempt and hostility from across the entire spectrum of the UK establishment.
But I fear for his leadership. I simply hadn’t realised how much of this hostility was coming from within his own party, and was genuinely taken aback that so many Labour MPs were still so enthusiastic about using bombs in third-world countries simply to show that we can.
What I do know is that the events in and around Westminster these last two weeks have presented the most persuasive argument yet for Scotland leaving the UK.
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