It must be a very confusing time to be a follower of the bizarre Corbyn
cult.
Dissonance is rife and the reasons are pretty obvious.
Momentum was built out of the leadership campaign for Jez and,
for the first couple of years, things were very simple.
The only thing Momentum members and fellow travellers had
to do was to believe whatever Corbyn believed.
If Jez claimed that Blair was a ‘neo-liberal’, so did they.
When the veteran leftist argued that you can borrow and spend your way to
economic prosperity, all you had to do was nod in agreement.
Marrows are easier to grow on an allotment than turnips? If
the Gardener of the People says so, it must be true.
But what happens when the pronouncements of the guru start conflict
with common sense or deep-seated belief systems?
The Russians should decide on whether the nerve agent used
in Salisbury was theirs.
Err… yes, Jez. Of course.
Membership of the single market? Completely impossible
outside the EU.
Hmm… you absolutely sure about that, oh wise one?
And, critically, how do you react when some of your fellow
members of the ‘movement’ start saying and doing things that leave you
profoundly uncomfortable?
What if you’re becoming increasingly aware that comrades
are posting some very nasty anti-semitic comments online? And that others –
sometimes in position of authority – are covering this stuff up or apologising
for it?
It’s the kind of thing that is pretty much guaranteed to
put the cat among the Pidcocks.
That’s because the vast majority of decent people
understand anti-Jewish prejudice to be completely wrong and profoundly
dangerous, due to its direct link to historical genocide.
And here, there’s a major culture clash.
Corbyn has long been associated with Palestinian rights and
notoriously referred to his ‘friends’ in Hamas – the hardline Islamist group
which controls the Gaza Strip.
Many of the older generation of Corbynistas are well versed
in the narrative about the evils of Israel. They would take the view that it is
an ‘apartheid’ state and instinctively support pretty much anyone that opposes
it.
Often their rhetoric about Israel teeters on the brink of
anti-semitism, but many of these old-school left-wingers do actually recognise
there’s probably a boundary they shouldn’t cross.
But there’s another group of people who have come into the
Labour Party and its periphery in the past three years, who wouldn’t recognise
a boundary even if it were policed by the Israeli Defense Forces.
These folk are cranks, conspiracists, misfits, wackos and weirdos.
They are people who share fake news about the Red Cross denying the Holocaust
and like to post links from David Icke. They fulminate about the Rothschilds
and, for all I know, believe that lizard people are poisoning the air with
chemtrails.
So you have the traditional hard left, with all its
ideological baggage about Israel, and you stir their policy agenda into a world
of alt-news and flaky websites and awakening sheeple.
The result is a poisonous cocktail and it’s leaving some of
the more genuine members of Momentum and Labour bemused.
Savvier social media gurus of the Jezuit left – and probably
a few of the fixers around the Leader’s Office – recognise the dangers. They
know that younger, brighter supporters of Corbyn will feel extremely worried
about the direction in which events have turned.
The protest by the Jewish community, which I was proud to
join earlier in the week, signalled a turning point, because it showed
categorically that people were prepared to make a stand.
It has led to the most extraordinary backtracking by Corbyn
and McDonnell, who seem determined to demonstrate that they are taking action. Remember,
these are the people who elevated Baroness Chakrabarti to the House of Lords
after a report which supposedly gave Labour a clean bill of health.
But the Orwellian quality to their 180-degree turn and
admission of a problem with anti-semitism creates a real crisis for the
faithful.
There’s a parallel to the news this week that the Pope has declared hell doesn’t exist. Catholics who grew up with the certainty of
eternal damnation have two choices: they either admit that they were wrong in the past or they start claiming that their
Pontiff is wrong now. Or that he's been lent on.
Christine Shawcroft - the Momentum Director who was forced to resign as head of Labour's Disputes Committee - has posted that the whole anti-semitism debate has been whipped up to undermine Corbyn. This seems to be the default position of the more ideological activists too, some of whom are plotting to unseat MPs, such as David Lammy, who attended the #EnoughisEnough protest.
But what of the less ideological and more decent people, who really believed in Jez? It’s enough to keep therapists busy for months to come.
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