Jeremy Corbyn has had a “speak your brains” day trip this week and it seems to have achieved something quite unthinkable. He has managed to alienate some of his hardcore support, who have, until now, stuck with him despite the fact that he is Jeremy Corbyn. Being Jeremy is indeed the new strategy – let him be, it can’t get any worse – and who knows, the pure, unspun essence of Jeremy may cut through and inspire the doubters. We all need to be “woke” in the days of fake news and “populism” – a word that is often used, but little understood. The “real Jeremy” was to be unleashed. This presumes that the real Jeremy is something we are all equally enamoured with and want to see more of. Some do – but where others see kindness, I see only repressed anger. Where others see principle, I see a refusal to think and to learn. But then we all know I am guided by lizards, am a Tory, a Blairite, evil or just a stupid woman or any one of the multiple-choice insults for the unbelievers. Yadda yadda yadda.
So, rebooted and resuited, Corbyn reappeared, somewhat confused about a policy on pay differentials and then upsetting some of his core support who certainly do not want a hard Brexit or for freedom of movement to be compromised. Quite a feat. Was he sacrificing a principle (freedom of movement) for power – to appeal to leavers – to shore up power? If so, then surely he must feel power ebbing away.
This is painful to watch. Labour now dwells in a kind of limbo. Nothing can move forward until he goes, and he will only go in an electoral wipe out. This is the ultimate selfishness from someone who we are told by his groupies is some kind of saint. Labour can’t regenerate with him in charge and, indeed, Labour’s problems are far bigger than this one personality. He is now a bed-blocker – yes, this is a horrible, ageist metaphor – in terms of renewal. The merry band who preach with revolutionary zeal that we are on the verge of overthrowing the elites seem to be having some sort of flashback. In reality, people are joining the Lib Dems, Wales is no longer a heartland, the NHS is in meltdown. What there is left of the party when Corbyn is gone may not even be leftwing.
Many – including, perhaps, even the man himself – assumed this leadership was a holding pattern until someone else took over – perhaps with Corbynite blessing. That this, somehow, could lift the paralysis of Labour.
Jon Lansman of Momentum used the word paralysis, too. He was talking of the structure of the “movement”, which hopes to affiliate to the Labour party and work for its electoral success. Of course, this has angered some of the far-left groups who can now no longer use Momentum to infiltrate Labour. This may be some sort of reality check for party activists, but it’s not one that has reached Corbyn’s inner circle.
Talking about pay differentials is good, riffing without facts or figures is not. Likewise, vague expressions of concern about austerity, inequality and neoliberalism are now a political code that results in a vast switch off. More code was uttered by Corbyn with his talk of “managed migration” and “access” to the single market. Everyone has access; the point is the terms of that access, and managed migration is not going to be one of them. That makes his utterances meaningless.
One of the lessons learned here from populists such as Trump or Farage is about language. If Corbyn is to be rebranded as a populist by his inner circle, there has to be a feel for the way people actually speak. There has to be a real understanding of how populism is located. We are not Spain or Greece, or even Michigan. What do we learn from Syriza or Podemos? We need an extremely strong sense of the location, identity and territory that is being defended and a clear idea of the enemy. It can be the country, the nation state, the city state and its people. The EU. Wall Street. The establishment is defined against them. But the left as a whole remains squeamish about location, seeing it as only divisive. It cedes this to the right – and indeed Brexit is part of this.
A populist leader emerges from a movement. This attempt to grow a movement off the back of Corbyn’s leadership has been incoherent. If this movement, rather like him, sees extra-parliamentary activity as the way forward, this is going to be problematic for a political party. The dizzying degrees of self–deception that parts of the left have been involved in here, often played out in full view on social media, have been utterly destructive.
No one thinks Corbyn can win, nobody thinks he can be deposed.
Labour are hamstrung by the inflexibility of its leader and its own internal structures. As the world shifts – as free trade is being attacked from the right – the least an opposition can do is to respond quickly.
Instead, there are long absences where Corbyn is not visible. He was in Mexico hanging out with like-minded folk, now he’s back in the UK, spreading discord. What vainglorious egotism, this willingness to kill a party for the thing he loves. One fundamental of populism is simply that it is popular. He is not. Please let Corbyn Unchained be the final roll of the dice.