Well two surprises and a shocker: First, that I have remembered that I blog.
Second: not only did Jeremy Corbyn make it on to the ballot paper but he seems to be taking the whole country by storm. My facebook has turned into a shrine to Jeremy Corbyn and I have read and written so much about him that I forgot that I had this wee blog to play with.
A few weeks ago I said
"Jeremy Corbyn may not win the vote of the membership. He may not inspire. He may not have what it takes to translate his vision into practical policies. He will make it harder for the party and the other contenders to fiddle with the edges of policy and vision because they will be challenged. He will present an alternative vision of the party and he will give a voice to people who believe that they have been silenced since 1995".
Well, I am eating my words now. Not only has he inspired, he has galvanised the party and the membership to a degree that noone predicted. He has ripped up the austerity script and told us that we are going to rewrite the agenda.
Actually, not only did we not predict it, when Corbyn was first confirmed as a candidate, the consensus seemed to flow from "Jeekers.. that's nice - we will have a bit of a debate about things now" to the foul (in my opinion) Toby Young starting a #ToriesForCorbyn campaign. Toby, y'see, thought it would be really hilarious if Corbyn won because it would consign Labour to the dustbin of history for generations.
Meanwhile, the ever polite Corbyn got his head down and started a civil and respectful campaign to put left wing ideas to the people. It's a straightforward enough campaign. Labour should be a social movement. There's no place in the 21st century for poverty, homelessness and inequality. Austerity is a big con. And, we held our collective breath and waited to see what the people might think of this big idea.
Well, the people must have been sitting in their living rooms, waiting for the call.
Even with the evidence that something big is happening, we're still rubbing our eyes and pinching ourselves. We can't quite believe what we are seeing. And this is the shocker: Corbyn might actually win. As I write, the bookies are predicting a win. Membership of the Labour party is exploding and on every news bulletin and in every newspaper, there are debates about policy and alternatives to austerity.
A lot of people seem to think that it's pretty basic.It's about choosing your priorities. A lot of us out here are of the view that, as Tony Benn once said, "if we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people". It seems so simple.
Personally, I will be eternally grateful to the MPs who swallowed their own beliefs for the few minutes it took to write his name on the nomination papers. For some reason, I feel particularly grateful to Neil Coyle and Chi Onwurah, who did it in response to requests from members even though they won't support him in the ballot and Frank Field, whose views are so far removed from Corbyn's that they should really be in different parties. But, Neil Coyle, Chi Onwurah and Frank Field recognised something that some others didn't - you can't defeat an argument by ignoring it. They acknowledged that, even if you are fundamentally opposed to an idea (or maybe especially), you have to be prepared to take it on and present your argument. Most of all, they knew that people wanted to hear Corbyn's message and they acted on that. They did not run scared and to my knowledge, they have not joined in with the appalling smear campaign that has ensued. To me, they are proper Labour people.
