The Corbyn Phenomenon

When Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour Party, an astonishing number of about 300,000 people were moved to join the Labour party.  I guess this should not have been as much of a surprise as it was.  For a long, long time, people had been waiting for someone to be elevated to a political platform who would then genuinely be their spokesperson - to express, on their behalf, their hopes, their beliefs, their wishes, their aspirations for  a better, fairer, more just, country and world.  For so long people had been enduring the tired, threadbare old mantras of "we're in it together", "we inherited this mess", "we're working as hard as we can", etc, etc.  Finally - at last - there was the ghost of a possibility that someone with real determination to improve things - not just for the majority but particularly for those from deprived areas and backgrounds and non-priviledged origins. These would, altogether, form a majority of the population and it would therefore be a considerable task to lift them out of the mire and depressing swamp of austerity that the Tories had let them sink into.

Jeremy Corbyn - it is well known - has been a lifelong campaigner for equality of not only opportunity, but also of an improved standard of living for those with the poorest, for the struggling, the deprived and disenfrachised, the jobless, the voiceless.  Jeremy, because of the courage which is his character and the compassion which is his nature, would strive to create a better, more just and more equal society and it was this dream that the thousands who flocked to Labour with him as Leader had been dreaming for so long.  Huge numbers of them had deplored the continuing use of precious public resources on the development of nuclear weapons and the unimaginable sums needed to refurbish the Trident submarines (what, on earth, was wrong with the old ones?) to deliver them in the very flimsiest likelihood of possible scenarios.  It does not take a Jeremy Corbyn for you to work out that firing nukes at each other is going to make losers of us all, besides which Corbyn, because of his humanitarian princples, could not- would not- countenance  condemning massive numbers of people to obliteration by initiating a nuclear attack.  Acknowledging my ignorance here, I don't know for certain, but I guess, from what I know of the man, that Jeremy would have equal difficulty in the event he had to respond with nuclear weapons. (If I'm ever fortunate enough to meet Jeremy, I will put that question to him.)

And, apart from his antinuclear stance, Jeremy Corbyn has courage and resilience.  It is a part of political life that if, as a politician, you speak out about injustice that you see happening in other parts of the world, you are bound to face severe criticism and antagonism from the perpetrators of that injustice, and they will do what they can to destroy your reputation and your credibility.  If, as Jeremy is, you are occupying a democracy-based platform, those perpetrators will make every effort to demolish that platform and use every method- fair or foul- to convince everyone that you are bad news - that you are not honest, that you are prejudiced and willing to sacrifice others for your cause.  Jeremy Corbyn has endured a lot more than his fair share of opprobrium for speaking out about the issues he feels deserve comment and/or criticism.  It takes a brave politician, knowing he/she is risking electoral unpopularity, to "stick his/her neck out" about injustice, especially when that injustice is controversial.  I admit my admiration for Jeremy Corbyn for his courage in the face of that.

I don't really want to immerse myself in the massive issue of antisemitism in this blog, except to say that anyone who considers Jeremy Corbyn to be antisemitic,  either is deliberately ignoring his (Jeremy's) abhorrence of any form of racism (for that is what antisemitism is) or has never made any effort to understand Jeremy's true nature and principles, easily  discernable from his  many, many public pronouncements and appearances.  While I do acknowlege that there have been examples of antisemitism demonstrated by some Labour party members, I cannot accept that Jeremy Corbyn would ever have been complicit in covering up such examples or, for that matter,  knowingly to have refrained from taking action in cases where such instances were found to be true.  I sincerely hope I am justified in that view and,  if I am not then, no doubt someone better informed will put me right.

And now, we have Keir Starmer.  In an effort to be honest and impartial,  I admit I thought at the outset that Starmer would be a good Labour Leader.  I know some of his work as a lawyer was involved with human rights and assumed he was an intelligent person and someone who would be concerned that in conducting politics, the truth - and the facts- should always be paramount.  I was dismayed and disappointed when, as one of his early actions, he sacked Rebecca Long-Bailey for exposing Israel's adoption of US police training methods (in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by employing some of those methods).  What is so deplorable about that is not that Rebecca Long-Bailey did something wrong - simply that she (or her action) implied some criticism of the Israeli regime.  I do accept that whether that implied criticism was justified or not, some might regard as debatable.  But what is not acceptable is that Keir Starmer is conflicted about the issue of criticism of Israel, but is not being open and honest about that conflict.  Starmer's wife is Jewish, so it is understandable that he might wish to hold back about commenting about issues concerning the actions of the Israeli regime.  He might feel that he cannot be impartial about such matters.  My point is that Starmer should openly declare and own  this conflict of interest and acknowledge that it is therefore difficult for him to comment on- or take actions in response to- issues regarding Israel.  His lack of openness about this does, for me, suggest a lack of integrity, of moral courage.

And now it's starting to look as if Keir Starmer is waging war on Jeremy Corbyn's legacy.  It certainly looks as though, in spite of Corbyn no longer being Labour Leader,  Jeremy is still hugely popular among the membership and continues to enjoy very strong support, a fact that Starmer appears to find so discomforting that he is using flimsy reasons to weaken Jeremy's influence - suspending him from the Labour party, then after being compelled to reinstate Jeremy, continuing the withdrawal of the Whip from Jeremy, which is a pretty drastic action, usually used to sanction some sort of misdemeanour.  It looks, currently,  as though Labour members who are supporting Jeremy and are critical of Starmer's actions, are now themselves being threatened by punitive action by Starmer.  Makes me ask myself- is Keir Starmer afraid of Jeremy Corbyn and the support he enjoys?  I would have thought that if Starmer could harness this strength of feeling for Jeremy Corbyn,  he could turn it to his political advantage - but then, I'm not a politician, so what do I know?

I do hope that if you've taken the trouble to read this long diatribe, you'll feel clear about where I'm coming from,  even if you don't agree with me.  I feel so strongly about the above that I felt compelled to share it with you all. Stay safe.