Skip to main content

Social democracy in Europe and Corbyn's conjuring trick


A constant refrain from Corbynistas is that their new model Labour Party is thriving, while other social democratic parties in Europe are in terminal decline. This argument was wheeled out once again after the recent elections in Italy, which saw a big boost for the eccentric Five Star movement in the south and the right-wing Lega in the north.

As with all Jezuit ideology, the thought process is pretty muddled.

Corbyn achieved a 40% share of the vote in the general election last June, having scored a much lower percentage in the local government polls just weeks beforehand. It was certainly unexpected and I would be the first to admit that I was badly caught out. But does it really signal that left-wing parties would do better at the polls across the EU?

The first thing to point out is that in many European countries, there are electoral systems which are far more proportional than the one in the UK. Of course, they vary considerably and Italy has changed its model recently, but most of them are structured in such a way that people aren’t penalised for voting for a party of their choice. Many EU states have a strong history of multi-party politics.

In the German elections, more voters could have chosen to support the Left and Green parties, but elected not to. These two groupings in fact finished with around 8% apiece. Citizens of Rome, Milan and Naples might have opted for Liberi e Uguali, but didn’t seem to be clamouring for their left-wing programme.

Of course, there is a lot of evidence that people are fed up with traditional, business-as-usual politics. They may well be frustrated with the slow pace of change in a world of economic disruption, unsettling migration patterns, environmental degradation and falling living standards.

But are they really looking to the far left? Podemos of Spain and Syriza in Greece have, of course, put in strong showings in recent years. But there is just as much evidence that people will back the far right. Or mavericks such Five Star. Or even energetic centrists like Macron when he leads a movement of supposed ‘outsiders’.

Corbyn pulled off a marvellous conjuring trick last year. He not only brought in his natural constituency of public-sector workers, old-style leftists and young idealists, but also persuaded large numbers of traditional heartland voters to give him a chance. Many of them had toyed with the idea of backing Theresa May, as they lacked confidence in the Labour Leader. During the course of the campaign, the Prime Minister lost them with her poor performance and provocative manifesto. They gave Jez the benefit of the doubt.

No sleight-of-hand artist likes to have his tricks explained, but I’m afraid I don’t feel constrained by the conventions of the Political Magic Circle. Corbyn convinced traditional Labour voters that he was still following in the social democratic traditions of the party, while simultaneously convincing his left-wing faithful that he represented a break from those traditions. And, of course, he persuaded many Remain voters that he would provide a bulwark against hard Brexit, while simultaneously reassuring anti-European voters that he was on their side too.

Clever stuff, but a complete deception and very unlikely to be sustainable.

Increasingly people realise that Corbyn’s Momentum Party is very different from the old Labour Party and it makes many profoundly uneasy. Remainers, meanwhile, worry that Corbyn has been dragged kicking and screaming towards his modest endorsement of a customs union with the EU, while heartland Labour supporters fret that he is selling them out.

Imagine a PR system in the UK. Would Chuka Umunna and Liz Kendall really be in the same party as Diane Abbott and John McDonnell? Of course not. They would compete under their own separate banners. The centrists might be bringing in, say, 25% of the vote, while Momentum would scrape together 15%. And suddenly Jez’s claims about Labour doing better than social democratic parties in Europe would start to ring rather hollow, wouldn’t it?

There is a more troubling philosophical issue at the heart of the misplaced Corbynite boasting though. 

Many supporters of the hard-left Labour leadership actually relish the decline of their sister social democratic parties. They believe that strident right-wing politics can only be successfully countered with full-blooded socialism.

If it is true that voters are indeed turning away permanently from moderate, centre-left reformism (and the jury is very much still out on that point), it’s a phenomenon that we should lament. It’s a sign that reasoned, pragmatic politics reflecting the complexities of the modern world is giving way to sloganising, opportunism, charlatanism and extremism.

It may well be too late to stop the slide, but any responsible politician’s aim should be to stand against the tide of populism engulfing Europe and North America, rather than to encourage it. The alternative will be demagoguery, authoritarianism, oppression and conflict. The story has played out before.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

After more than 30 years, I leave Labour at 11.46am tomorrow.

Barring some kind of minor miracle - on a par perhaps with CETI announcing first contact with the Vulcans or the Great British Bake Off returning to the BBC – Jeremy Corbyn will be re-elected on Saturday as Leader of the Labour Party. The announcement is due at around 11.45 am. So after three decades or so of membership, my association with the party will end at 11.46. Yes, that’s all folks.  I’m afraid I really do mean it this time.  Party card in the shredder.  Standing order cancelled.  It’s goodnight from me. And it’s goodnight Vienna from Labour.  I threatened to quit when the Jezster was first elected, but people persuaded me to stay on in the hope that the situation could be rescued.  I wanted to go when Angela Eagle was unceremoniously dumped in favour of Owen Smith, but was told I couldn’t desert at such a critical moment and should rally behind the PLP’s chosen challenger. Stay and fight, my friends say.  But over what?  The burnt-out shell o

Use your vote wisely. And then pray.

There’s only one desirable outcome to any general election at the end of 2019, but unfortunately it’s not something that any of us can vote for. We need another hung parliament. Preferably one that allows a little more room for mathematical manoeuvre and – critically - one in which both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn have both suffered a severe setback. Never in modern history have both the major parties been simultaneously so unfit to govern.  Johnson has transformed the Conservative Party into radical right-wing movement, intent on delivering Brexit come what may and winning back the votes lost to Nigel Farage’s movement. Dominic Cummings serves as a Rasputin-like figure in the court of Tsar Boris, seemingly responsible for devious plotting and manipulation. But he is just one figure in a coterie of hardline advisers and ministers that the Prime Minister has gathered around him. The Tories break with constitutional norms and even threaten to defy the law. The

Time for Red Ken to head into the sunset

Voice for 2012: Oona best represents modern Londoners Pin there, done that: Livingstone's campaign is a throwback to the 1980s Ken Livingstone may have lost his grip on power, but he hasn’t lost his chutzpah. The former London mayor was full of chirpy bluster a week ago in Southall, west London, when I popped over to listen to him debate with his rival for the current Labour nomination, Oona King. The contrast between two candidates couldn’t be more striking. Oona is chic, whereas Ken is pure cheek. She talks passionately about the threat posed by gang warfare which currently divides kids in her East London neighbourhood, while he waxes nostalgically about his working-class childhood in post-war council housing. It’s clear that Livingstone has been cryogenically preserved and then defrosted. The only question is when exactly the wily old geezer was put in the freezer. The mid-1980s would be a fair bet, which is when I remember him on a stage in Jubilee Gardens on the south bank