29 June 2017
Corbyn’s Glastonbury Triumph
And how this could back-fire.
By R D Shackleton
For the Many (not the Few as Labour’s slogan assures us), the Party leader’s appearance on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury last weekend looks like an astounding success. With his ears ringing to a massed chorus of “Ooh Jer-e-my Cor-byn”, he held an audience of tens of thousands (all paying a minimum £243 weekend entry ticket) with his pledges of equality and fairness and a better life for all. It must have been the longest and most widely publicised election broadcast in British parliamentary history, with blanket coverage on all BBC channels and the digital media.
Except we’re not scheduled to have another election – at least not yet. And even if we were, there are clear signs that even the Labour establishment is beginning to recognise that Corbyn’s grandstanding may yet prove a step too far.
This was not a Neil Kinnock-in-Sheffield moment when the over-exuberant former Labour leader forfeited any chance to be taken seriously with his triumphal whooping at a memorable Party rally just before his surprise defeat in the 1992 election. By contrast, last weekend we heard a bravura speech by a 68-year old messianic figure bent on crushing everything from inequality, homophobia, racism, ruin of the planet, peace not war. There were no wrongs which were not to be righted. There was nothing not to like. When fully revved up, Corbyn approaches a border-line charisma – he even quotes Shelley. In its way, his message resonated completely with the festival vibe and only the unenlightened, surely, could believe that this was not a Prime Minister in waiting. And not waiting very long, if the next days newspapers are to be believed.
Labour’s spin doctors were not slow to see the distant parallels with Kinnock’s self-defeating hubris, with the headlines trumpeting Corbyn’s conviction that he would be Prime Minister within six months. Not to mention his private plans for the scrapping of the Trident nuclear submarine programme – something rather overlooked in his recent election manifesto and something which will come as a surprise to the strong all Party majority of MPs who voted for Trident renewal in a free Parliamentary vote in nearly a year ago. That included a majority of the Labour MPs at that time who broke ranks with Corbyn to support the motion. For all the recent seat changes, there remains a strong silent support for the nuclear deterrent across the Labour ranks. And Corbyn’s remarks will not go down well.
All this wasn’t what he said in his speech, of course. It was what Corbyn is reported to have said afterwards in a frank conversation with his new best friend Michael Eavis, the right-on landowner and founder of Glastonbury. Flushed with the success of his speech, Corbyn seems to have let his guard down, believing himself to be having a private conversation with a committed and influential supporter who, moreover, shared his nuclear disarmament beliefs.
The Labour love-in with Glastonbury went rapidly off piste when Eavis decided to share Corbyn’s private views with a Fringe Meeting attended by the media. It’s largely immaterial from the media’s perspective that this material was not included in Corbyn’s public speech. For it to seep out in this indirect manner, made it, in a sense, hotter news. It was striking that Labour’s media machine did not issue any definitive rebuttal beyond claiming that his comments were taken “out of context,” and any attempts at media fire-fighting were certainly not helped by the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s own ill-advised claim that the victims of the Grenfell Tower tragedy were “murdered by political decisions”, only succeeding to galvanise yet more critical scrutiny of the Labour top brass.
The political sensitivity of the story split the media across party lines after the initial excitement of the on-line coverage died down. In sharp contrast to their blanket Corbyn-reporting during the election, it was striking how the left-leaning press, in particular, played down the story. There was instinctive recognition that Corbyn was in danger of over-extending himself. In Monday’s print edition, The Guardian, for example, saw fit to combine Corbyn’s predictions of Labour victory and plans to scrap Trident in exactly 90 words on page seven. The Daily Mirror dispatched the story in a crisp six paragraphs on page five. By contrast it was on the front page of The Sun with meaningful coverage in the rest of the broadsheets. Corbyn and McDonnell together commanded, unsurprisingly, nearly three whole pages in the Daily Mail.
And what of Momentum – Labour’s grass-roots support movement which unceasingly pumps out the Corbyn message? As with the rest of Labour, the response was uncharacteristically mooted. Corbyn came so close to a stunning PR coup. He had kept so closely on message throughout his the election. But now, with this one indiscretion, he had dropped his guard. Sure, the Millenials won’t care – this appearance will only turbo-charge the youth vote. But the wider electorate will not like what they saw. Corbyn’s attempts to preach equality at a £243-a-head pop festival invite ridicule and parody – and in the media this has already begun. He has touched a sensitive fault-line in his own party with his comments on Trident. But above all, he risks being seen to over-reach himself. And, as we remember in Sheffield, triumphalism has a tendency to back-fire in the polls. Corbyn was widely criticised for snubbing the Armed Forces Day in Liverpool to attend Glastonbury. That was an unwise decision. And it may very well come back to haunt him.
If you enjoyed this article please share it using the buttons above.
Please click here if you would like a weekly email on publication of the ShawSheet
