Quote bren2k="bren2k"The last few posts encapsulate the frustration of the committed Labour supporter; what JC proposes is far from radical, by any measure - it's mostly democratic socialism of the Scandinavian model, and is centred mostly on reversing austerity, and renationalising utilities and services that are essential to the public. All policies that have been very successful in any number of countries. The problem here of course is that so many establishment figures get fat off the profits of providing the basics of life to the general public, many of them Tory MP's and even more of them Tory donors, that it serves them well to whip up a frenzy about JC as being a Marxist Trot, who will take away all privately owned assets and give them to homeless people.
In truth, most people are socialists - in that we believe in free education, free healthcare and people not starving to death or living in a cardboard box; the problem is that the 1% of people in this country who are insulated from the stresses and strains of daily life, by virtue of inherited wealth and privilege, control the narrative and somehow, manage to convince great swathes of the population to vote against their own interests - aided and abetted by a clique of multi-millionaire non-dom media barons, and a public service broadcaster filled with client journalists and courtiers.'"
I agree with you in some ways. I'm not entirely opposed to public ownership of certain services as long as they are run effectively, and certainly nothing like they were prior to privatisation - some people' memories are easily clouded. But let's not forget the absolutely massive cost of privatisation and serious concerns over the willingness of public services to invest versus the need of private companies to invest.
Don't forget Corbyn himself has been pretty insulated from the stresses and strains of daily life. He had a slight sniff of a 'real' job in his youth and has enjoyed the Westminster bubble for decades.
Even if I agreed with *some* of his ideas, there are plenty of other reasons to dislike and distrust Jeremy Corbyn. Firstly (and of course you lot will wrap this up as right-wing hysteria), I abhor his past associations, which tell us more about his true loyalties than the current politician meticulously steered and distilled (and dressed) by his advisors. The outspoken, controversial and (in his favour) genuine politician has been watered down to hopefully maximise his appeal.
This is a man who invited Gerry Adams and two convicted IRA members to Westminster two weeks after the Brighton bombing, who lied about ever meeting members of the IRA, who was arrested for obstruction while protesting against the trial of the (guilty) Brighton bomber Patrick Magee, a man who attended over 70 Republican events while the IRA were active, a man who often expressed sympathy for dead terrorists over British soldiers.
A man who has barely disguised his antisemitic views by his hollow words and inaction over the rife and vicious antisemitism in the Labour party and amongst Labour members. I have no particular love for the policies of Israel and plenty of sympathy with Palestinians, but not to that degree. In that vein, this is a man who campaigned to overturn the convictions of the (guilty) Palestinian bombers of the Israeli Embassy and United Jewish Israel Appeal in 1994 for no real reason other than...well, I think it's probably obvious.
A man who calls Hamas and Hezbollah his friends. A man who will by nature condemn pretty much every single action of the British and Western military yet support violent groups. He called the death of Bin Laden a 'tragedy'. He called the Falklands War a 'Tory plot' and wanted to negotiated a 'joined administration' with Argentina. His views on ISIS were as evasive as ever, as was his response to the Russia novichok poisonings.
BTW I absolutely realise some of those quotes should be taken in context. But in politics words are everything. Either that he is not fit to lead, or he is happy to let his true views leak.
Some of his other policies - abolition of private schools, taking possession of vacant private property, inheritance tax proposals, Trident, etc are highly controversial and I could never vote for them.
He has shown himself as anti-UK, anti-West, anti-Capitalist, pro-Russian and when I put all of this together I find the prospect of Corbyn (and the extremist McDonnell) in power a worrying thing. Not to mention the calibre of those in his shadow cabinet such as Rayner and Long-Bailey and the racists such as Abbott and Lammy.
Oh, and for purely selfish and personal reasons I want to avoid a party of high taxation.
BTW, we already get free education and the NHS isn't free.
