Who he?
Jeremy Corbyn is one of a small group of Labour MPs standing as candidates to be Leader of the Labour Pary. The others are much younger than he, far less experienced in politics, and they follow the recent line of timid Labour talking. Not Jeremy.
Jeremy calls for us to be proud of Labour. Proud of the NHS, proud of building houses with moderate rents, proud of paying benefits so kids don't starve and people down on their luck can survive with dignity. He voted against Iraq and supports world peace. He fought racism before that was fashionable. There's hardly a worthy cause in Left politics he hasn't worked for.
He points out that we have a deficit which is 60% of GDP, but after WWII it was more than double our GDP (225%). Yet by investing in the nation's resources, building houses, roads and railways, establishing the NHS and filling pockets with welfare money to spend, the government got the economy healthy again.
It worked then and it can work now. But austerity won't work. It is already not working as we see businesses laying off staff and going bust. When public services are cut, bang go the contracts with private companies and they close or cut staff. Less tax for the Treasury ... who cut more public services! You couldn't make it up.
Corbyn is a plain speaking bloke who doesn't blah jargon yet has all the facts at his fingertips. Never condescending, he actually listens to what people say. The room was packed tonight, twice as many people came as expected. The applause was heartfelt.
This man has a message people want to hear.
Of course he'll be blanked by the news and slagged by Blairite Labour. But such is the rush to join Labour to support him, by people who thought hope was lost, he's in with a chance.
Either he becomes Leader of Labour, or the new Leader will know that Corbyn represents a BIG movement of people: a voice that has to be respected. Oh, and he says 'we' a lot, and means it.
0 comments:
Post a Comment