I was called very early one morning by a friend worried about a Labour election victory. This was no Tory fretting about garden tax or VAT on school fees, but a long-time Labour activist. Out canvassing for weeks, she’d been reassuring supporters who despised Jeremy Corbyn that they should return their Labour MP, “because, you know, he won’t win”. Now she is tormented: “But what if he does?”
It is probably a blip: pollsters struggling to track the migratory patterns of 3.8 million Ukip voters, the usual over-trust in young people’s promises to get out of bed. Yet there is a weird new vibe. Maybe more in London, maybe amplified by social media. A kick against demonising Tory attack ads and wild-eyed tabloid headlines: a Brexit-like recklessness is in the air. I find sturdy folk, previously apolitical or non-aligned, declaring “Jeremy for PM”. It might never happen but it can no longer be ruled out.
Within Labour, the Corbyn-critical are enduring an awful déjà vu. They see Jezza seducing voters exactly as he did Labour members. “He’s so authentic,” people cry, as he presents homemade jam to The One Show while condemning the low-wage economy, calmly, without artifice or spin. “Bless! He seems so real!”
“There’s fury among young Corbynistas that a full life is unattainable
And so he does, compared with Theresa May, a broken pull-string doll who can’t even utter her five pre-programmed phrases. Just as in 2015 Corbyn compared well with bland, drilled Yvette Cooper or Liz Kendall, as they triangulated every utterance against how it might play in the Daily Mail. Starting each fight with nothing to lose, Corbyn has applied the adage “dance as if nobody’s watching” to the political stage.
So it is awful to be among zealous Jez-We-Can converts, rolling our eyes, muttering and shaking heads. Yes, he’s a great campaigner but in office would prove himself incompetent, work-shy and dim. Yes, he seems benign but surrounds himself with odious people. He’s beloved of narcissists and conspiracists, such as Julian Assange, George Galloway, John Pilger and Ken Livingstone. Antisemites and vicious misogynists who threaten women MPs follow him like a swarm of flies. He appeared on Russia Today and Iranian TV, is a friend of Hamas, lied about his links to the IRA and can barely speak the words “Islamist terror” through his gritted-teeth hatred of the West.
Advertisement
“Fake news!” cry these newborn Corbynistas. “Why be so disloyal? Do you want the Tories to win?” And that is the question keeping my friend up at night, one that till last Saturday no one even considered. In the face of an inevitable May victory we sought a Goldilocks majority: neither too big so it wiped out every decent Labour MP, nor too small so Corbyn wouldn’t quit. Now a rowdy internal dialogue plays in moderate Labour heads.
Idealist: well, he could grow in office, surrounded by excellent civil servants. The best ex-ministers would swallow their pride and work for him. He could build a team of rivals — like Macron!
Realist: but does anyone really change in office? Have we learnt nothing from Trump? Or from JC as leader? We thought he’d convene a progressive coalition: instead he cleaved to a narrow cabal. As PM he’d ignore wiser economic heads: instead the leather jacket bros, Paul Mason and Yanis Varoufakis, would steam in. Imagine John McDonnell or Diane Abbott with actual power?
Idealist: but why must French and Spanish state companies run our railways; why are teachers being laid off because of a punitive school funding formula; why can’t we fund social care?
Realist: Corbyn just made a manifesto wish list, promised everyone a pony, without any pony-delivery system. Or money for hay. Capital will fly, Len McCluskey will call in his dues, the economy will tank and, woe of woes, Labour’s fiscal credibility will be snuffed out for good.
Advertisement
On and on it goes, this internal ding-dong. Yet it is no doubt a needless debate, since northern Labour seats report working-class voters still can’t stand Corbyn. “They just find him weird,” says one activist. Economically they may agree, but on security issues such as fighting terrorism, retaining the armed forces, policing borders, immigration, he just makes them feel unsafe.
Nonetheless Corbyn’s unexpectedly good election has demonstrated more than May’s mediocrity. There is an appetite for deep change, not just a nibbling away at the edges. Plus people are weary of still being punished for 2008 banker crimes. They want to hear hope, not just “suck it up”. Among young, ardent Corbyn fans is real fury that a full adult life is unattainable: stagnant wages, debts, temporary contracts, high rents, only the good fortune of parental wealth to guarantee your own home. Truly a society is in trouble when its young cannot nest and reproduce.
Moreover, the Labour manifesto, for all its rich-baiting and glib promises, revives a golden, long-forgotten idea: the public good. The NHS and BBC are beloved not just for their intrinsic merits but because they are shared. They bring us closer. For seven years with Conservatives trying, and often succeeding, to flog the post office, forests, blood banks, air ambulance, land registry and the profitable east coast main line, this concept was ideologically erased; dismissed as some Soviet relic.
The response to the Manchester attack — the concerts, vigils, spontaneous sing-songs, countless kindnesses — has shown how hungry people are to act in the public good. Shared institutions are a buffer against globalisation and fear: we feel like fellow citizens not just atomised consumers.
Jeremy Corbyn will probably not walk into No 10 and will be hard to unseat as leader. Yet in forcing this uncomfortable internal dialogue he has made us ask the question: what do we really want?