30 May 2019

Diary of a Corbynista

Nothing has Changed

by Don Urquhart

23 May

It’s nice that people read Diary of a Corbynista.  There have been a few outraged letters to our editor, some scathing tweets and emails.  Today’s main bone of contention has been Corbynista’s defence of our glorious leader’s Brexit utterances.  My insistence that he is simply regurgitating the Labour Party’s long agreed policy apparently cuts no ice.

Here’s an example:

On the one hand they are definitely pro Brexit, on the other hand they may decide to put the decision on a deal they haven’t decided on yet back to the people to vote on,  but haven’t decided on what the question is yet. As agreed by the Labour Party Conference! We’ve been saying the same thing for 2 years now and can’t understand why the media are so aggressive – ha! 

What it comes down to is that the author does not want Jeremy Corbyn to become Prime Minister.  When I look at the other options on offer I have to disagree.

24 May

On Politics Live Owen Jones put Theresa May’s tearful resignation in context:

I have less than no sympathy.  I think of the people that she has cruelly treated.  If any sympathy is to be expended today it should be for the Windrush Britons who because of her were kicked out of their homes, denied medical care, deported from their own country.  It should be for the children who have been driven into poverty at the fastest rate since 1988.  It should be the disabled people having their benefits stripped away.  It should be the victims of Universal Credit whose lives have been destroyed.  It should be the people who have been driven to food banks because of her policies and I wish we would spend far more time in the media discussing, talking of sympathy rather than expending it on the powerful who will live affluent and comfortable lives until the day they die, rather than people driven into hardship, insecurity and misery because of their policies and that is the root of the turmoil of this country.  The only leeway I give her is that she is just one of many architects.  It was a team effort by a Conservative Party that over the last decade has plunged Britain into the worst turmoil in peacetime and for that I think that she and her colleagues will be damned by history.

25 May

It is unsettling to discover that we will be without a Prime Minister for 2 months.  Theresa May’s ministers know that their chauffeur-driven days are numbered.  There will be no initiatives, no legislation, just posturing by leadership candidates and acolytes.  Time for the Labour Party to play at home – ignore the smears of which there will be many and focus on the exceptional reasons to put Corbyn in power.  For example:

Everyone needs somewhere decent to live;

All children deserve a good education;

Vulnerable people need to be helped;

We should all have enough to eat;

People should feel safe from violence;

The health services need to be properly resourced;

We need a realistic long term economic plan;

We have to have a climate change strategy that will work.

There is no point in attacking the Tories – they will delight their supporters and disgust everyone else.

26 May

Schools Week reports that the next Labour Government will amend the National Curriculum to include Climate Change as a primary school subject.

Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner says: 

We need to equip people with the knowledge to understand the enormous changes we face, and skills to work with the new green technologies that we must develop to deal with them.

27 May

Theresa May still has a few jobs to complete before she can disappear into the hills with her husband.  Pre-eminent is her Resignation Honours List.  One of her cleaners has sneaked out an extract of the work in progress:

Knights Bachelor

• Ian Austin MP, for slagging off the Labour leadership
• Alastair Campbell, for voting LibDem
• Christopher Leslie MP, for slagging off the Labour leadership
• John Mann MP, for slagging off the Labour leadership
• Thomas Watson MP, for services to Thomas Watson
• John Woodcock MP, for slagging off the Labour leadership.

Dame Commander (DBE)

• Luciana Berger MP, for being Luciana
• Louise Ellman MP, for criticising the leadership of her party
• Siobhan McDonagh MP, for criticising the leadership of her party
• Jess Phillips MP, for being wonderful
• Joan Ryan MP, for serving some government or other
• Ruth Smeeth MP, for being brave in the face of her evil party leadership.

Of course it’s only a draft and there could be a few amendments.

28 May

Sandra is a close friend of the family.  We met for a country walk and lunch today.  We talked of many things – mainly our families and I was surprised when she launched into politics which we had never bothered with before.  She revealed that if Jeremy Corbyn were to become Prime Minister she would emigrate along with Lord Sugar.  It is awkward when you find yourself at odds with someone important to you.  I remembered having similar problems with her late and much-loved parents who were English nationalists and racists when such views put you in the mainstream in some areas.  Sandra has always voted Conservative and I would drop her if we didn’t remember each other and party at birthdays and Christmas.

29 May

In its academic way the Institute for Fiscal Studies reports that Local Authority services are well on their way down the toilet.

The cuts since 2010 had been larger in poorer parts of the country, echoing existing research that has shown northern councils and urban areas have been hardest hit. It said spending per head in the most deprived fifth of councils had fallen from 1.52 times that of the least deprived areas in 2009-10 to 1.25 times in 2017-18.

However, for the BBC, Channel 4 News and the Tory press the big news is anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.  This, plus Hezbollah, Hamas, Venezuela and Trotsky will be recurring news items until the next General Election is over.