Hard Labour
My suspicion is that the Right in Britain is actually terrified of Jeremy Corbyn. Of all the candidates for the Labour leadership he is the only one who presents an alternative to the cruel neoliberal consensus which worships money, dumbs down our culture, and produces ever greater inequality, insecurity and hardship among the lower paid. Give him a platform and he will begin to expose Cameron and co for the scoundrels they are.
The man has ideas, compassion, humanity, stuff we’re not used to. He’s not a nuclear psychotic, like every other English party leader bar Natalie Bennett. The novelty value of a man who can articulate a vision he believes in, who cares about ordinary people, might take him far – much further than Cameron, who is little more than an I-speak-your-ideology machine.
Once the silly British press stops going nyah nyah he’s a nasty lefty and starts reporting what Corbyn actually has to say, they might just realise how much more sense he talks than any leader of any party we have seen for some time. Tories signing up as Labour voters just to vote for Corbyn – thinking he’ll keep Labour out of power for the duration – should be very careful what they wish for.
Richard Bradshaw, North Yorkshire, UK
In the article Wanted: Someone to save the Labour party from Jeremy Corbyn, you point out that Labour electing Corbyn would be equivalent to the Tories “winning the world cup three times over”. Why do none of these articles make mention of the boon a far-left Labour Party would be for the British Lib Dems? It seems to me that they would benefit the most from a mass-defection of Labour voters, just as the Liberal-SDP alliance did in the 1980’s.
Angus Jellis, Greater Manchester, UK | @angus_jellis
Editor's response
On the potential for a Lib Dem revival, of course anything is possible.
Iain Martin,
Editor, CapX
Far from being a disaster, a Labour split, following Corbyn’s selection as leader, would be excellent for Britain. We might never have to suffer another Labour government. That party has drained the public finances every time it has been in office, crippled our education system, deeply embedded a welfare dependency culture, and would have ruined our economy if it had not been for the Thatcher reforms, which it fought tooth and nail.
Labour’s raison d’etre, the protection of the industrial working class, is pretty well irrelevant in a modern economy based largely on services and innovation. Why do we need a Labour Party that will always remain to some extent wedded to old and outdated beliefs? Those are beliefs, moreover, that don’t work, and do immense damage when they are tried.
A Conservative Party that always has to start by picking up the pieces from the previous Labour government always starts with a handicap. Incidentally, it’s hard to see the Conservatives as complacent, given that we’ve just had the first Conservative budget in 20 years.
Of course we need an opposition, but don’t forget that UKIP is second in 120 seats, most of them Labour. A lot of UKIP support comes from the old working classes who feel they have lost out in modern Britain. The rise of a Northern-based but widespread UKIP would give the Conservatives a lot to think about. It would also make our politicians pay a lot more attention to the biggest issue facing Britain, namely whether we should remain a member of an EU dominated by the Eurozone.
Would we be better served, for example, by EFTA membership – part of the single market without the political superstructure? Many people say that this is precisely what they want, but few British politicians take this option seriously.
It’s hard to see future political argument being dominated by the Left, even though a Labour split would throw the Liberal Democrats a much-needed lifeline. Miliband didn’t lose the election because he wasn’t Left enough, and Corbyn’s antics would have still further discredited Socialism, perhaps terminally. The SNP’s efforts to run Scotland as though money was no object probably won’t help either.
With so much public disillusionment with politics, a major political realignment might be just what we need. It might even get us feeling that politicians do listen to us, and sometimes even act on our concerns.
Ken Worthy, Surrey, UK
A Eurosceptic writes...
Britain doesn’t need the EU. Britain doesn’t need Germany. Britain doesn’t need to negotiate, even if the EU would. Simple “free” trade agreements with mutual respect, and being free to trade with anyone else is what we need.
There, I fixed it for you. As for Cameron and Merkel – I heard they had a thought between them but it died of loneliness.
David Dale, Ross-shire, UK
Surely the best thing we can do to prevent this latest expression of Germanic hegemony – into which Berlin has blundered, rather than advanced – is to destroy the vehicle of that hegemony, namely, the EU? A United Europe has always been in the interest of a great land power on the continent – Rome, Spain, France, Germany and Russia. Britain’s interests – and that of the European peoples – have been served by a disunited Europe acting when necessary in concert to preserve the balance of power.
That the balance broke down in the 20th century is Germany’s fault, as responsible Germans admit. Versailles was more than justified in apportioning blame. Therefore, we should revert to the Gaullist vision – a Europe of nations – and promptly, please.
Denis Sugden, Reading, UK
Red is dead
Luke Johnson in his recent article hammers Socialism, but it’s a bit like going for the Hackney Carriage. Lousy transport by modern standards – but long since off the roads. Socialism was dead before it was even tried, killed by the evil Totalitarians like Lenin, Stalin and Mao in single Party States. Killed by the modernisers in Europe. Arguably Britain only once had a Socialist Government (1945-1951) but it was hardly occupying the commanding heights of the Economy.
Had Churchill won in 1945 I think that in healthcare, education and national planning he would have followed the same path as Attlee. True he wouldn’t have nationalised the mines or steel, but he could well have created British Railways.
The post-war consensus was broadly unchallenged until Thatcher. But even she was not rolling back Socialism, which did not exist in 1980s Britain. What she did was grapple with inefficient industries some, but not all of which were state-owned. It was not an anti-Socialist crusade. That monster was dead (if it ever existed). It was a war on inefficiency and restrictive practices mainly.
The 1997-2010 New Labour Government was not remotely Socialist, or even Left Wing. Cameron’s Governments are largely Blairite – much to the discomfort of some in his party.
The most dangerous ideology today is not Socialsim but the only one that has momentum. It is the ideology of Nationalism – in Scotland and in the credo of the Conservative Right (and their cousins in UKIP).
The existential danger is not the minority mad men of the Left who yearn after a socialist Britain which never existed and will never exist. The likes of Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Jones can do their comic turns, but nobody is going to give them the keys to anything that matters. Douglas Carswell, Daniel Hannan, Owen Patterson and all the Rightist fellow travellers are far more dangerous. They crave after an England that actually did once exist. Insular, Myopic, Xenophobic, Patriotic and Philistine. It’s not the preposterous clown-like Nigel Farage we have to worry about. It’s the Europhobe, obsessive neo-liberals we should be worried about.
Paddy Briggs, Twickenham, UK | @PaddyBriggs
Editor's response
Thank you for this Paddy. If socialism is dead, no-one has told Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters.
Don't let's be beastly to the Germans
Like Alex Massie I don’t feel disposed to be beastly to the Germans. It seems to me that Tsipras has been incredibly inept, getting voters all fired up in the expectation that the politics of protest can overcome hard reality and leaving himself with nothing but a humiliating climbdown. But if Greece stands condemned of budget irresponsibility and fiscal ineptitude, it is also the victim of a massive dose of double standards, which seems to have attracted little comment.
The EU is administered by the European Commission, a notoriously profligate body whose control of its finances is so poor that for years its accounts have not been signed off by its auditors. The corruption, featherbedding of public employees and general waste of the EC year-on-year must put that of Greece wholly in the shade – and anyone who tries to throw some light on this murky subject is quickly silenced.
P. John O'Neill, Rayong, Thailand
Give us your money
Live Aid, highlighted in a recent article on CapX, was a hugely potent liberating movement that stressed anything is possible. Comic Relief followed swiftly after, and other copy cats, but as a cultural explosion it also put the music business at the centre of global influence and kick started global media events, which the Brits excel at. This is very much a part of today’s UK’s natural industrial business sector, that is also growing, at least 8% a year, and becoming a significant contributor to the UK’s international positioning and the country’s finances. So, yes, rock and roll pays and is not to be underestimated.
Ashley Goodall, Oxfordshire, UK | @HybridComms
A cheery word from South America...
Argentina will not change from its pathetic Peronismo in October. Cuba will not change from a slave camp with twenty dollars a month wages and no internet despite Obama being nice, Venezuela will lock up Corina as well as Lopez and starve its people. Ecuador is suffering from depletion of oil reserves and will be poorer and nastier to the rich. Brazil is run by the awful bank-robber Dilma and the PT and the crooks of Petrobras. Colombia will run out of oil in six years., and is rotten with coca, as is Mexico. Galeano was an idiot, as is Petro the mayor of Bogota. So called “Democracy” is abused by populists. Face it, only the military have achieved solid progress, using technocrats in their cabinets. Bad years lie ahead. Of course I love living here and growing orchids, and the climate, and the music, and the people!
David Hutchinson, Bogota, Colombia
