I Come to Praise Mr Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn yesterday wrote a piece in the Guardian, entitled “We won the argument, but I regret we didn’t convert that into a majority for change”.

It’s an interesting piece, not least because of the number of people raging about it, who clearly have read nothing more than the title.

I am tempted to describe the piece as Stalinist, but that would be unfair, and cheap, because many of the points: for instance…

“ Our country has fundamentally changed since the financial crash and any political project that pretends otherwise is an indulgence.”

are so common place, they are almost a performative…. am I right?

It too is the date Douglas Murray claims as his starting point for his book When Political Correctness Went Mad. Indeed a whole range of things have been ascribed to the financial crash, it is almost as if it is a handy crutch on which to hang an argument.

A year zero…. no less.

What proceeds this appeal to common knowledge, is rhetorical flourish of equal banality…

“ We now need to listen to the voices of those in Stoke and Scunthorpe, Blyth and Bridgend, Grimsby and Glasgow, who didn’t support Labour.”

It’s wonderful alliteration, and you need a heart of stone not to laugh.

I mean, this is pure knock-about comedy…

“ The media attacks on the Labour party for the last four and a half years were more ferocious than ever — and of course that has an impact on the outcome of elections. Anyone who stands up for real change will be met by the full force of media opposition.”

Hahahahahahahahaha…. stop it…. you are killing me….

I can’t recall who it was said, ‘all political careers end in failure’… Oh it was Enoch Powell… but regardless…. Jeremy Corbyn should at least take solace in his election campaign not degenerating to the point of discussing the biology of sex changes… as Jo Swinson’s did.

I suspect a by-election in Islington North will occur in the near future — hopefully due to retirement rather than death — and Mr Corbyn can retire gracefully, having done his bit to uphold the dwindling Quaker tradition of the Labour party. If not, I fear Mr Corbyn’s vanity will be his downfall.

As a piece of rhetoric the article is nicely done, at times almost dignified.

As a headline… it says more about the Guardian than it does about the Labour party.