Will The Labour Party allow me to vote for in their leadership election?
As a lifelong Labour voter until the Iraq War – its seems I am not wanted.
I can’t help wondering if there is really any point in Jeremy Corbyn becoming Labour leader.
Labour MP’s are plotting against him, the hierarchy is trying to exclude his supporters, and its grandees are on a media carousel denouncing his candidature.
A minority group are obstructing rejuvenated and excited supporters from joining the party – on the basis that their values are not compatible.
So… what is the point of Labour then?
Its electoral malaise stems from a phobic unwillingness to fight for hearts and minds – preferring a supine alignment slightly to the left of whatever the corporate media defines as the centre. As George Monbiot put perfectly – this centre ground is a magic mountain that shifts ever further to the right as soon as you approach it.
By joining the neoliberal consensus, Labour has cut swathes through its support – driven away to the Greens, SNP, UKIP and apathy. The current interest is solely down to Jeremy Corbyn – saying what an excluded majority want to hear.
As many have said “I didn’t leave the Labour Party – it left me” – well if the Labour hierarchy chooses to reject Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters – perhaps this clear majority should just leave the Labour Party and begin anew.
Regardless of the outcome it seems clear that a marriage between the right wing neoliberal minority and a revitalised social democratic grassroots would be a bloody mess.
Now just suppose that instead of trying to achieve this impossible union, Jeremy left to set up a new party instead, one that could stand for exactly the kind of social democracy his supporters want.
The vast majority of the newly energised support that is currently trying to break back in to the Labour Party (!) would follow Jeremy . Those MP’s that retain socialist ideals would surely go too.
I suspect most Labour activists would campaign with Jeremy before a withering rump of right wing blairites. Scottish Labour supporters would surely plump for an anti-austerity ticket ahead of Labour’s disastrous tory-lite platform. In short I suspect the majority of the party would leave with Jeremy.
The remaining right wing MP’s and careerist neoliberal agitators could be left to get on with it. Shorn of Labour’s traditions they could offer exactly what they do now – a pale faux alternative to the tories with mauve frosting. It would be brightly illuminating to see how ‘credible’ and ‘electable’ that really is.
The new party would have a clarity, unity and energy that the discredited Labour brand can only dream about.
There would be no need for the ‘progressive alliance’ called for by the Greens as disaffected former Labour supporters could return to a truly centrist party.
The biggest force in British politics – apathy – would be shaken up and millions of people would have a genuine voice again.
You think this is all impossible ? Maybe.
But who amongst us predicted that Jeremy Corbyn would be on course to lead the Labour Party? Jeremy Corbyn – Tony Benn’s favourite MP – a man who has shattered the crash barriers around British politics since his candidature was announced.
Maybe Jeremy is not the best man to lead a divided Labour Party? Perhaps he is one of the few credible links with the traditions and values of a socialist movement – someone to lead supporters away from neoliberal capture to a fresh start.
What matters are Labour’s traditions, values and aims. If the modern Labour Party doesn’t want to continue those – then why bother trying to break back in?
If Jeremy wins then democracy will decide policy making and selection leaving no hiding place for people like Liz Kendall and Chukka Umanna.
At present all this is just a thought experiment – but we live within interesting times and I live in hope that Corbyn might yet see the inside of Number 10 Downing Street and Tony Blair the inside of a jail cell.
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Much better if – instead of Corbyn and his supporters splintering away from Labour – that the new Labour / Blairites take themselves off and form their own new party.
Basically if Corbyn wins then he’s won the majority of Labour Party supporters / members so has full right to lead the Party. Those who don’t respect the democratic process should take themselves off asap.
if the momentum is with Corbyn, why not seize the initiative and break away from the neoliberals – it would be much easier to manage.
Agree with Robert Dunn. Breakaways unfortunately fizzle out (eg Respect, SDP, & maybe even Blairism). If Corbyn wins, as seems probable, there will be a leader of the opposition genuinely opposed to TTIP. Even if he achieves nothing else but stopping this, he will have made a major contribution to our history.
this is an unusual scenario though – this wouldn’t be s splinter leaving the main body of the tree – it would be the tree leaving the splinters behind. The Blairite neoliberal faction has no legitimate claim to the Labour tradition so why not move away from them?