Thankfully it is over

By this morning I was in such a catatonic state that all I could hope for was that 11.30 with the announcement of the Labour leader would come soon. It came in due course and the Labour party proved to be more docile than the electorate at large and voted the way the media had told it to do. Tom and Jerry are now the Deputy Leader and Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition.

The turn-out was 76.3 per cent, which makes one wonder about the 23.7 per cent who, though members of the Labour Party, do not care who their leader might be in a highly polarizing election. Of those who did turn out Jeremy Corbyn won 59.5 per cent of the vote, which makes one wonder about the Labour Party in general.

As I have pointed out before, Corbyn was until a few months ago a little known left-wing backbencher who appeared a great deal on RT (Russia Today as was) and on various rallies, usually together with terrorists, extreme Islamicists, anti-Semites and, sometimes Holocaust deniers. Very few people had heard of him. The amusing idea of nominating him for the leadership election in order to have a more interesting debate has badly misfired and there are, I suspect, a few MPs now in hiding from their furious colleagues. But, you cannot get away from the fact that the majority of the Labour Party members as well as the unions wanted this out of date socialist.

So what are his policies? As a matter of fact, he has none or none that anyone has managed to discern. Making fiery speeches about inequality (not in itself a bad thing, as he knows full well, earning as he does a great deal more than average, what with various expenses and so on) is not quite the same as having policies.

I am glad to say a friend of mine who lives in a very different country and, therefore, possibly finds this all a bit more interesting, unearthed Corbyn’s “policy on the EU” and asked me “what will Corbyn really try to do re the EU”. Anyway, here is the policy, as quoted from a statement Corbyn released to the Guardian on July 28:

Labour should set out its own clear position to influence negotiations, working with our European allies to set out a reform agenda to benefit ordinary Europeans across the continent. We cannot be content with the state of the EU as it stands. But that does not mean walking away, but staying to fight for a better Europe.

As a left-wing journalist of my acquaintance said about another comment of Corbyn’s, what a lot of waffly woo. At least, he is not so far in favour of Brexit. I rather dread that as Corbyn’s support would lose us a good many votes. So far so good. Now, what about any other policy? Speaking at a rally, organized by the Stop the War Coalition, and saying that refugees are welcome here does not count as a policy or even as a political idea. Try again, Jeremy.