Yet Mr Corbyn is the man of the moment. Because Mr Corbyn is an honourable man. He is reasoned and relaxed, polite, unruffled and bearded like a peacenik. He doesn’t sound as if he could be turned, let alone spun. He is happy to sit down for a nice chat with Hamas and Hezbollah — with Israel’s views entirely unrepresented — because “yesterday’s terrorist is tomorrow’s leader” and “if you don’t talk then you don’t move forward.” He also made it plain, long ago, that Britain should also talk to the IRA. It happened finally because of Mo Mowlam’s style and because the IRA was skint, but how long should one leave it, decently, after the Brighton bombing before sitting down, as Jeremy did, for a nice chat with the bombers?
Mr Corbyn, it has been reported, has voted 500 times against his own party and has never held office in 30 years. Now that is refreshing. But then neither has George Galloway, so why not elect him as leader? Possibly because he is so blatantly “reasoned in his madness”, whereas Comrade Corbyn is only obliquely so. Galloway’s supporters have flocked to the Corbyn campaign.
Is Jeremy in favour of a two-state solution, I wonder? How does he feel about Khamenei’s latest post-nuclear-deal statement that in 25 years there will be no Israel? Is he equally concerned about the right of return of Palestinians to Jordan. Iraq, Iran and Yemen? Does the Egyptian blockade of Gaza exercise his mind as he sips a rooibos tea of an evening after a storm of oratory, the like of which I haven’t witnessed since Barack Obama similarly failed to convince me.
Be afraid? Erm, yes. Because like Russell Brand, and to some extent Nigel Farage, these are men who have never worked from the inside for change. They accuse the big parties of causing the breakdown of society, but what they suggest in place of existing policy is unworkable, outdated pie in the sky. Somehow still, they convince by default and gather the discontented masses to them with the promise of a brave new world. Bah, humbug!
Skulking in the background is Ken Livingstone, a simmering cauldron of bitter ambition and an ancient anti-Zionist. So Corbyn has behind him the perfect bad cop and one who is supremely happy to do his spinning for him and at the first sign of doubt just mention the demon Blair and light the red touch paper — so yes, be very, very afraid.
Mr Corbyn, it has been reported, has voted 500 times against his own party and has never held office in 30 years. Now that is refreshing. But then neither has George Galloway, so why not elect him as leader? Possibly because he is so blatantly “reasoned in his madness”, whereas Comrade Corbyn is only obliquely so. Galloway’s supporters have flocked to the Corbyn campaign.
Is Jeremy in favour of a two-state solution, I wonder? How does he feel about Khamenei’s latest post-nuclear-deal statement that in 25 years there will be no Israel? Is he equally concerned about the right of return of Palestinians to Jordan. Iraq, Iran and Yemen? Does the Egyptian blockade of Gaza exercise his mind as he sips a rooibos tea of an evening after a storm of oratory, the like of which I haven’t witnessed since Barack Obama similarly failed to convince me.
Be afraid? Erm, yes. Because like Russell Brand, and to some extent Nigel Farage, these are men who have never worked from the inside for change. They accuse the big parties of causing the breakdown of society, but what they suggest in place of existing policy is unworkable, outdated pie in the sky. Somehow still, they convince by default and gather the discontented masses to them with the promise of a brave new world. Bah, humbug!
Skulking in the background is Ken Livingstone, a simmering cauldron of bitter ambition and an ancient anti-Zionist. So Corbyn has behind him the perfect bad cop and one who is supremely happy to do his spinning for him and at the first sign of doubt just mention the demon Blair and light the red touch paper — so yes, be very, very afraid.
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