Jeremy Corbyn

As someone who tends to sit on the Tory side of the benches my opinion of Jeremy Corbyn shouldn't seem all that relevant, but Scarlet always feels the need to speak out.

So for those of you who haven't noticed the race is on to become the next Leader of the Opposition.  A national representation of our Democratic state the role is one of the most important in the system.

The next leader of the Labour Party will be the most public voice against the Government until the next election (provided bonnie Prince Charlie keeps his mouth shut that is).  There is now a very real possibility that that person will be veteran Labour left winger Jeremy Corbyn.  Jezza is everything Labour was thirty years ago, Scarlet's observations:

The Return of the Left?

Outside Scotland Parliament has near enough lost its bent to the left.  The New Labour bandwagon turned the old party of the unions into a centre right alternative to the Tories, indeed Lady Thatcher once claimed her greatest victory was getting Labour to shift to the right.  

Although many welcomed a shift to the right for Labour it has left the party in nowhere land, these days if you want to vote for a mottled Centre Right you can vote for Cameron and Boris, why would you vote for Labour?  As for the left, well Labour really aren't there anymore, I didn't hear Ed Milliband suggesting any Re-nationalizations or a strengthening of the unions?  Without anything to reach for Labour appears stale and the socialist movement has no-one to vote for.  Could Corbyn bring Socialism back to the agenda on the national table?

#ToriesForCorbyn

What nasty political skulduggery this is.  Many Tories are registering/supporting through media Corbyn in an effort to get Corbyn elected believing he is an unelectable spoof candidate the British public will see through, what a horrifyingly unsporting thing to do.  If you support the Labour Party you should have your say but to feign interest to try and destroy a political party is so vindictive even Lord Archer would be embarrassed.

Secondly what if Corbyn proves popular?  Imagine if the left rise as above and Corbyn gets into number 10 and you as a Tory helped it happen?  What a Muppet you would feel.  Let us leave who is representing Labour to Labour, and then debate their leader on mutual terms.

A Real Opposition

What is the point in an opposition like the current Labour Party?  Yes they rant and rave about Tories and complain about their handling of everything but there is really no ideological reason for this, it is just part of their ploy to get back into power.  If Red Ed was the PM at the moment we would see a cut in the deficit, less public spending and HS2.  Sound familiar?

With Corbyn at the helm we would see a whole new agenda, I'm not saying I would agree with it at all but at least we would have something different on the menu, a leader of the opposition arguing for much higher taxes on the rich and a return of Socialist values.  This might draw some of the protest vote back in, in the last general election Labour/Tory seats in the house are 86%, in 1992 between them they had 93%.  The big parties are losing their support: UKIP, SNP, Greens may be here to stay.  Labour could grab back from all three with the right package.



In spite of all this it seems to me that Andy Burnham will probably edge it, but New Old Labour could be on the agenda in 6 weeks time!