Since winning another Labour Party Leadership Challenge it may appear to some that Jeremy Corbyn is unassailable. He may even believe so himself. It appears that the promise of change and a possible swing to the left helped propel Jeremy Corbyn back into the leadership post. In my opinion this was because he came across as the most left wing of the candidates. He had a longer left wing legacy that the newcomers. However so far we have seen nothing that radical from Mr Corbyn and nothing really that justifies all the left wing support he received to secure him another term as the Leader of the Labour Party.
My hope was that by now he would have at least firmed up his commitment to having a proper Clause IV of the Labour Party Constitution reinstated. This would lay a firm foundation regarding the Labour Party’s future direction, taking care of the much needed economic principles that will be required to back up this commitment to socialism. So far though we have had only silence on this matter which is crucially and singularly the most important debate for the Labour Party in it’s history. Re-instating Clause IV with it’s traditional interpretations would signal that the Labour Party intends to go back, pre Blair, towards honouring it’s socialist roots. Any further and unnecessary procrastination on this matter signals a more dubious intent and raises the matter as to whether the Membership has been misled by Mr Corbyn in the Leadership Contest regarding his intentions and socialist credibility.
So what is going on here? Yes we have seen good PR stunts that would maybe have been designed with the purpose of cultivating the left wing support he needed, I am referring here to a sound bite last year about Clause IV and the Railway Stunt he pulled in the run up to the leadership vote. Both Of these I now believe to be orchestrated to achieve a strong left support in the run up to the leadership election. But since then nothing really. No hard policies, no radical changes in direction: in fact no direction at all because his ship has not yet left the port. So what’s going on here and does Mr Corbyn really deserve all the support from the left wing that he is currently enjoying? My answer would have to be a categorical no he does not deserve the left wing support from the left of the Labour Party and he is no champion of the left nor will he steer a course back to some real Socialist Style of Government leading a Labour Party whose agenda should include public ownership of the Gas and Electricity suppliers in Britain and leading the way towards Public Ownership of the Railways.
Jeremy Corbyn is a nice guy but he is not tough enough to implement such a radical left wing agenda because he does not like conflict and does not wish to upset anyone along the way. Unfortunately if you really want to change the Labour Party and steer it back to it’s true course of ultimately being a real Socialist Style Government it is inevitable that you will upset a lot of people in the Labour Party particularly the glut of right wing Blairites that are still in the membership. You need to either persuade the Blairites that their cause is lost, tell them to either support the new agenda or just let them ship out to find another party to infest. This can only be done by facing the inevitable battle ahead of who controls the Labour Party. This can only be achieved by outlined a true Socialist agenda with a proper set of Economic principles in line with Webb’s interpretation of Clause IV of the Labour Party Constitution to back this up. Then and only then when this seemingly eternal struggle of who is at the Driving Wheel of the Labour Party Movement can you develop a set of principles to add to the Labour party manifesto to take to the Country to seek a proper mandate to change Britain.
I will be examining more about the Jeremy Corbyn leadership factor, or lack of, in forthcoming posts under this category.