So, he might not quite be our Aidan Turner – although, given the right lighting we definitely start to wander into GILF territory. However, in an effort to try and talk rather seriously about the very serious business of politics, let’s draw on some slightly less tenuous similarities. Both are principled to the core, socialist by very nature of existing in an unfair world, willing to face the noose (metaphorical or otherwise) for their unwavering belief in truth and both exceptionally dashing … shit, sorry I meant daring… honestly, I meant DARING. But, like in the run up to Ross’s trial, sometimes Jeremy’s most ardent supporters are willing to fight a lot dirtier than he is. This must stop, we must be as good as the principles we ourselves uphold rather than become militants for a man seemingly more able to uphold them. If we are truly to herald in a new kind of Labour party, the ends cannot justify the means.
When I speak of WE I’m talking directly to the 30,000 or so mainly youngish people who have joined the Labour party since Jeremy was practically ‘crowd surfed’ to the position of leader one year ago. I was living in Paris at the time and, as I sat with my fellow Anglaise flatmate, streaming the glitchy footage of his victory, my heart ached a little to be so far from the action… wait what was this? Was I feeling energised by a politician? I emphasise energised … not turned on…
Upon my return to the UK in late December I fought every apathetic bone in my body (of which there are a lot by the way, I belong to the cursed generation) to sign up and become a certified member of the new, new Labour party. For reasons potentially more subliminal than I care to admit, Patti Smiths ‘People have the power’ seemed to have become top of most of my playlists and we bloody well did for a while. Labour, if initially stunned, seemed to have a socialist fire back in its belly. This party was going to put the politics of welfare and morality back on the table, fighting Trident, opposing Syrian air strikes, campaigning to save our beloved NHS which was (and is now even more) bleeding to death from all the cuts and secret privatisation.
But one year on and Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s ‘Two Tribes’ is right up there with Patti Smith. After a vote of no confidence from 172 of his MP’s Owen Smith is now Corbyn’s challenger for leadership in a parliamentary battle that has replaced blue against red for red against darker red. Holy crap, are we young people of Brexit Britain ready for this?? Actually, do you know what, I think we might just be. Because it’s WE, the twenty something accidental pacifists turned socialists, working zero hours contracts for jobs we hate, to pay rent on houses we can never afford to buy, that were allowed an education under Labour but are now being wasted under Tory austerity. And all that wasted energy has to go somewhere. There’s a rumbling movement of young folks who are ready to challenge the establishment and Jezza has heard us, if not personally incited a fair few of us. Poldark principals vs. Warleggan’s thirst for power!
Owen Smith claims that power is the key and that he has arrived to reunite the party but that’s 172 politicians breaking away from thousands of members who are already united and they need to start listening. We want a genuinely new kind of politics even if that results in Labour becoming a forceful opposition party for a number of years before achieving election to government. This kind of policy making takes time and thought and cleverness and awareness. Or … the ability to outlive the current “core” voters. (Although we might also have to become medical marvels in order to preserve Jeremy)
Perhaps, like Corbyn, we are too naive to the realities of real politics to even deserve a place in the discussion. Capitalism has carved a path of no return, stray too far and we risk falling into the abyss but what has Brexit Britain really got to lose that isn’t already at risk? The young know this, with nothing in the bank we aren’t about to rely on big business and private enterprises to save us. We’re going to come together. Perhaps our greatest advantage is our previous lack of engagement, we can see things afresh and, thanks to the Labour of recent past, we’re not altogether that stupid when we put our minds to it. We’re also not the newspaper reading generation so the systematic undermining of Jeremy by the press is kind of passing us by. But, know this, we’re looking at our country’s decision making from our own somewhat different perspective and we don’t like what we see. Until MP’s listen up we’ll choose to stand with the person most willing to communicate with us, fortunately (or apparently unfortunately in my case) minus the topless scything, that is Jeremy Corbyn.
When I speak of WE I’m talking directly to the 30,000 or so mainly youngish people who have joined the Labour party since Jeremy was practically ‘crowd surfed’ to the position of leader one year ago. I was living in Paris at the time and, as I sat with my fellow Anglaise flatmate, streaming the glitchy footage of his victory, my heart ached a little to be so far from the action… wait what was this? Was I feeling energised by a politician? I emphasise energised … not turned on…
Upon my return to the UK in late December I fought every apathetic bone in my body (of which there are a lot by the way, I belong to the cursed generation) to sign up and become a certified member of the new, new Labour party. For reasons potentially more subliminal than I care to admit, Patti Smiths ‘People have the power’ seemed to have become top of most of my playlists and we bloody well did for a while. Labour, if initially stunned, seemed to have a socialist fire back in its belly. This party was going to put the politics of welfare and morality back on the table, fighting Trident, opposing Syrian air strikes, campaigning to save our beloved NHS which was (and is now even more) bleeding to death from all the cuts and secret privatisation.
But one year on and Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s ‘Two Tribes’ is right up there with Patti Smith. After a vote of no confidence from 172 of his MP’s Owen Smith is now Corbyn’s challenger for leadership in a parliamentary battle that has replaced blue against red for red against darker red. Holy crap, are we young people of Brexit Britain ready for this?? Actually, do you know what, I think we might just be. Because it’s WE, the twenty something accidental pacifists turned socialists, working zero hours contracts for jobs we hate, to pay rent on houses we can never afford to buy, that were allowed an education under Labour but are now being wasted under Tory austerity. And all that wasted energy has to go somewhere. There’s a rumbling movement of young folks who are ready to challenge the establishment and Jezza has heard us, if not personally incited a fair few of us. Poldark principals vs. Warleggan’s thirst for power!
Owen Smith claims that power is the key and that he has arrived to reunite the party but that’s 172 politicians breaking away from thousands of members who are already united and they need to start listening. We want a genuinely new kind of politics even if that results in Labour becoming a forceful opposition party for a number of years before achieving election to government. This kind of policy making takes time and thought and cleverness and awareness. Or … the ability to outlive the current “core” voters. (Although we might also have to become medical marvels in order to preserve Jeremy)
Perhaps, like Corbyn, we are too naive to the realities of real politics to even deserve a place in the discussion. Capitalism has carved a path of no return, stray too far and we risk falling into the abyss but what has Brexit Britain really got to lose that isn’t already at risk? The young know this, with nothing in the bank we aren’t about to rely on big business and private enterprises to save us. We’re going to come together. Perhaps our greatest advantage is our previous lack of engagement, we can see things afresh and, thanks to the Labour of recent past, we’re not altogether that stupid when we put our minds to it. We’re also not the newspaper reading generation so the systematic undermining of Jeremy by the press is kind of passing us by. But, know this, we’re looking at our country’s decision making from our own somewhat different perspective and we don’t like what we see. Until MP’s listen up we’ll choose to stand with the person most willing to communicate with us, fortunately (or apparently unfortunately in my case) minus the topless scything, that is Jeremy Corbyn.