There really was no need for the government to reduce the threshold at which high blood pressure gets treated. Corbyn’s supporters are
registering 160/100 right now, as their project starts its inexorable – and inevitable
– downward spiral.
Long gone are the days when the hard left used to dine out
on Jez’s improbable 40% showing in the 2017 general election. The latest YouGov
poll has the Tories on 40, while the remodelled Momentum-run Labour Party languishes
on 31.
Even the faithful are beginning to realise the game is up.
If there ever were an opportunity for the veteran socialist to slip into
Downing Street, the window has now closed. And as the decline continues, you
can expect recrimination, denunciation and howling exasperation.
How did the Corbynites find themselves in this position?
Of course, there’s no one answer.
Like many movements, they are divided between
purists and pragmatists. Although Corbyn and McDonnell share much the same
ideology, the former is incapable of modifying his pronouncements and actions
to suit the prevailing mood. The Shadow Chancellor is cleverer and more
tactical, knowing very well that revealing the full extent of their leftist agenda
is political poison.
This has led to reports of a deterioration and distance in the relationship, with some Blairite wags cuttingly describing the pair as ‘shits
that pass in the night’.
There’s no issue which divides the purist ideologues and
the pragmatic realpolitikers more decisively than the anti-semitism debacle.
While Momentum and its founder Jon Lansman join McDonnell in wringing their hands
over the anti-Jewish hostility, many loyalists rebel. They continue to post
obnoxious sentiments online, target MPs perceived to be ‘Zionists’ and defend
the likes of Derby MP Chris Williamson, who was recently suspended over his
conduct.
Brexit is the other major fault line. Here, it’s possible
to have more sympathy with the Labour leadership, as it is difficult to arrive
at a policy which holds Corbyn’s fragile 2017 coalition together. Nevertheless, the impact of their vacillation
and confusion has clearly dented Labour’s credibility and – along with the anti-semitism issue – helped provoke the departure of several MPs to the
newly-founded Independent Group.
Recent polling is particularly hard for the Jezuit faithful
to swallow, as they have been fed a line that ‘centrism’ is dead and that no
one wants a return to the sensible middle ground. Now they know it to be
completely untrue. Cue cognitive dissonance and disarray.
A few weeks ago, the idea of a breakaway group was ridiculed. Now, the rebel lawmakers are the subject of fierce condemnation and opprobrium – accused of ruining Corbyn’s chances of making it to No 10. It would be funny, if it weren’t so tragic.
Well, actually, it is just quite funny.
So where do we go from here?
When religious adherents are confronted with evidence that
their mantras are false, the usual response is to retreat into defence,
defiance and denial. Sometimes complete volte-faces are essential to keep the
ideological show on the road.
If you’re told the end of the world is in Feburary 2019 and
the calendar stubbornly insists that it’s March, it’s never the original prediction
that was wrong. You insist the world is still
going to end, but you explain you’ve re-read the runes and it’s now
scheduled for September instead. Technical error, rather than ideological bankruptcy.
Outsiders and heretics will be feared and condemned more
loudly and vigorously than ever before. And I predict that, increasingly,
heresy will be identified within the
movement itself, as it begins to split and fragment under external pressure.
The final stages of the Brexit showdown will, I’m sure,
produce more shockwaves. The interest of the Equality and Human Rights
Commission in the anti-semitism issue is another ratcheting of the pressure.
I suspect we are in for turbulent times. They will be disastrous
for Labour, but very healthy for British democracy.
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