Sea Change

If there’s one thing that all extremists have in common, it’s the pretence – or perhaps delusion – that they are not , in fact, extremists. I’m sure vehement Trump fanatics see themselves as part of the great American tradition, rather than members of a movement that is completely alien to that tradition and which threatens to destroy the Republic’s democracy. Likewise, supporters of UK Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn often like to paint themselves as part of mainstream European social democracy. Nothing the Dear Leader proposes would be out of keeping with the policies pursued on the continent or in Scandinavia, they opine. (We’ll leave aside the fact that they’ll also tell you social democracy is dead. Consistency and intellectual coherence have never been Jezuit hallmarks.) They’ll point to the relatively moderate manifesto of 2017, which was cobbled together as a compromise in a fortnight, and pretend that this represents the essence and extent of their guru’s political a...

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....