Congratulations to Jeremy Corbyn. For the second time in
a year he has won an impressive victory in a leadership contest, and he has
managed to improve his vote share. Let's hope that unity and comradeship can
now descend on the Labour Party.
I think the contest was ill-timed. However, I did support
Owen Smith who I think would have made a fine leader. I do have reservations
about Mr Corbyn, which revolve less around policy and more about his style of
leadership. He has to change - we cannot continue as we have done. We have to
be electable and win elections. We also have to be seen as a credible
Government-in-waiting.
To make change we have to be in power; this involves
compromise. We cannot just please ourselves and expect that the majority of the
electorate will fall in line. We have to understand what Middle England wants,
and find the policies that deliver that. Anything else and we are irrelevant.
I will continue to support Labour and campaign for the
issues that are important to me. I will continue to do my best to see that Labour
represents the wishes and aspirations of working people. I will continue to try
and be an effective Labour councillor for Milton ward and for the Borough of
Southend-on-Sea.
I will also continue to voice my opinion. We have to be a
party that allows room for differences.
Sorry, Julian, that piece demonstrates cluelessness. "We have to understand what Middle England wants, and find the policies that deliver that. Anything else and we are irrelevant."
ReplyDeleteMiddle England demonstrated in June that it wants the moon on a stick - leaving the EU in a simple, straightforward way, which anyone who understands the issues knows cannot be done. Politics isn't about waving in the wind just to try to be elected. It's about adopting a set of values about how our society should develop, based on understanding of society's problems, both present and future - educating the electorate and making them more sophisticated. It's a big problem, I would agree, when the right-wing press is doing everything it can to make them more ignorant and selfish and less sophisticated.
Here is an example: the majority of voters own cars. Yet the car is the root of many of society's biggest problems - deaths through air pollution, massive congestion, climate change, obesity through lack of exercise. The politician's problem is not to cave in to the car lobby, which makes life hell for so many people. It is to explain these problems to the electorate and to offer solutions to them. Provide more money for walking and cycling, give cyclists and pedestrians priority at junctions (instant green man on the press of the button), proper segregated cycle lanes, even where it means that parking needs to be prohibited on certain roads. It is going to be a long-term solution to a long-term problem, but as everyone who has thought about the problem for a few minutes will understand, just building more roads and encouraging more cars into the town is a recipe for more pollution, death and disease, and for the whole town to grind to a halt.