janan.ganesh@ft.com exhumes the political ghosts of 14 years of Tory rule, via A History Made to Measure.
Political Cynic comments.
It’s always a revelation, of a kind, to read Mr. Ganesh History Made to Measure that places the 14 year Tory Rule as preferable, to the New Labour of ‘Corbyn Slayer’, and Labour Friends of Israel apologist Kier Starmer, as somehow not a bad copy of the Tories? After all Mrs. Thatcher proclaimed Tony Blair , the actual Leader of New Labour, as her greatest accomplishment!
The rhetorical prestidigitations, of the Ganesh of remembrance, is now long gone. These almost gems deserve to be quoted, apart for the the rest of the rhetorical dross:
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For all Starmer’s underrated toughness, this is still a party that twice offered Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister.
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If not — if progressives, with their Marxian weakness for narrative, have read a big dialectical shift into the messiness of real life — expect a very unpopular Labour government, very soon…
Yet The Reader confronts this dubious declaration about ‘middle age’ as the end point of Mr. Ganesh’s endorsement of Tory incompetence, wedded to its mendacity!
Among the consolations of middle age is seeing things from one’s prime years come around again. After the financial crash in 2008, Labour was confident that the hour of the state had arrived. It entertained talk of a post-liberal world. It elected leaders in that image. It hasn’t governed since.
Political Cynic
Reader recall this essay from 2019?
Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour cannot be trusted to govern
This week’s conference showcased a divided and paranoid party
https://www.ft.com/content/f605e55c-df7e-11e9-b112-9624ec9edc59
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Jeremy Corbyn, a leader who fails to inspire the confidence of many of his own MPs, is behind many of the problems. His attitude to foreign affairs and a visceral anti-American stance are a threat to national security. Whether it is the EU or Nato, he has made clear his mistrust of and opposition to organisations involving Britain’s closest allies that have underpinned peace and prosperity in Europe for decades.
Yet much of the party remains in thrall to Mr Corbyn. Many delegates feared his refusal to embrace a Remain stance could cost the party dearly in a coming election. Even so, Corbyn loyalists treated a vote on Mr Corbyn’s Brexit policy as an issue of confidence in the leader, urging delegates to back him to avoid a defeat that could be exploited by a hostile media and a disloyal parliamentary party.
Devoted Corbynites support an approach to the economy that sees a powerful interventionist state as the solution to every problem. The party this week escalated its attacks on the foundations of British prosperity. Not only does Mr Corbyn see the free market economy as a conspiracy to exploit workers, he has singled out two sectors in which the UK excels — finance and life sciences — for special attention. In addition to his existing plans for the City of London, he announced new plans for compulsory licenses for pharma patents for a new state-owned generic drugmaker. Such policies could have a chilling effect on Britain’s status as a research and development hub.
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Here is political hysteric Jonathan Freedland in The New York Review of Books, of November 2020, reciting the crimes of Jeremy Corbyn:
To Labour’s Anti-Semitism Saga, a Bitter Denouement
https://www.nybooks.com/online/2020/11/03/to-labours-anti-semitism-saga-a-bitter-denouement/
Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension after defying a report’s damning conclusions about his leadership was the last twist in a shameful chapter of the party’s history.
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Corbyn didn’t see it that way. Thirty-five minutes after publication, before Starmer had even delivered Labour’s official response to the report, Corbyn issued his own statement on Facebook making it clear that he did not accept all of the EHRC’s findings; indeed, he believed that the problem of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party had been “dramatically overstated.” That clashed with Starmer’s insistence that anyone who sought to minimize Labour’s anti-Semitism problem belonged “nowhere near the Labour Party.” (Indeed, I’m reliably informed that Corbyn knew in advance that this was precisely where Starmer would draw the line, but he chose to cross it anyway.) By lunchtime that day, Labour officials had suspended Corbyn’s party membership. He remains a member of Parliament, but will no longer count as part of the Labour group in the House of Commons. Considering that Corbyn was the leader of the Labour Party as recently as April, it’s a remarkably swift fall.
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Al Jazeera provides the antidote to both The Financial Times and Freedland’s defamation of Corbyn!
The Labour Files – Episode 1 – The Purge I Al Jazeera Investigations
The Labour Files – Episode 2 – The Crisis I Al Jazeera Investigations
Political Cynic