New Labour?

So Corbyn did it. He's now the leader of our esteemed opposition - at least until the Blairite element shaft him, or the newspapers make his continued leadership untenable and the knives come out anyway. Or perhaps he will make it through 5 years of hell to win the next election, at which point he will be in his early seventies. At that point he is likely going to face another Tory leader as Cameron will, most likely afterwards, make way for Osborne - unless that wiff waff peddling pretend-buffoon and class hater Boris pushes through. Then we could see a world where Boris the posh boy is President Trump's poodle. This of course assumes the Americans are stupid enough to elect that racist misogynist cunt their overlord.

And yet the rhetoric continues: the message of Labour's inherent financial incompetence abounds still, after five years of Tory mismanagement and austerity. Never mind the foodbanks, the dismal failure to restart the economy, to manage the housing benefit bill, to address unemployment (particularly in the young), to 'help' the disabled; people are still being convinced that Tony Gordon Blair Brown tanked the economy. This message was not challenged by Labour, and I'm not even sure John McDonnell is up to the job. Despite losing his job 'sir' (how the fuck did that happen) Vincent Cable is in the media, whining mostly, like an old stink that refuses to leave. Mainly haunting the Guardian like the spectre of a friendly deceased uncle that the family desperately wants to believe in. We'll ignore that he was at the heart of the coalition and, in particular, instrumental in the sale of the Post Office.

But are the cracks starting to show? John McDonnell's strained performance on Question Time the other week - the first time I have ever seen him appear - was heartbreaking as he was forced to apologise for misrepresented comments made over a decade ago. The selective prejudice of a troll in the audience wanting only to score points, ignoring the discussion entirely to focus on his own assumption that John is the sort that would think IRA violence acceptable. This fool clearly happy to entertain the notion that left wing thinkers and politicians would themselves entertain such notions. And so John was excoriated by the establishment; ritually scarred in order to be made ready for the public's approval. As a result he has now watered down Labour's pledge to restore the top rate of tax to 50%, not 60. It was even higher under the milk snatcher.

Meanwhile this morning Shadow Education Secretary Lucy Powell refused to argue in favour of restoring schools to local education authority, offering only a milk-thin sop to bring them under some kind of local 'oversight'. It is clear that the pressure from the right wing element in our society, via the media, has had an effect; the question is what will the cumulative effect of this mean come the next election and can Jeremy survive it? If he stepped down, would that mean John McDonnell takes over, or would that give the Blairites the chance to try and reassert power. There can't be that much gas left in that tank, Liz Kendall, their representative, couldn't even muster 5%!

I really hope that Labour can hold it together. They h ave a chance to penetrate the media barrage and get a socialist message across. If they aren't going to push that message or aren't able to then what is the point. Then who do we have? The Class War idiots who think having a snap crackle and pop at a couple of easy target hipsters running a novelty cafe?