Erecting a leader

It’s always nice when friends get something that they want, even if it is something that you wouldn’t want yourself, and that is how I feel about the Labour Party leadership erection (the malapropism is deliberate, for my feeling is that there has been a preponderance of posturing pricks, a sort of mini version of the general erection back in May when there were hundreds of them).

I dislike extremism, regardless of left or right, and so I am not a fan of this Corbyn bloke from what little I have seen of him. After the erection results were announced one of his acolytes gushed forth that he was a man who would answer yes or no to straight questions. Well not when Andrew Marr is asking, for when asked “Are you a Marxist?”, a straight enough question, closed and unambiguous, and to which you could answer “yes”, “no” or some form of “partly” good old JC came back with a two minute lecture on how interesting Marx is. I thought that he came over as evasive and patronising, but then Mr Marr doesn’t always bring out the best in people. In any case, whilst JC may be revered by his fans as old school Labour he is also a modern politician so would did I expect?

I suppose that it was inevitable that the Labour Party would move left in the wake of an erection where the country has moved right. Some have said that Tony B Liar’s mob only got in because they had tried to appear more like Tories even if they were rampant Marxists at heart. Of course the Left of today disown Tone now that most folks have got him pegged as the charlatan that he always was. How he got in once is beyond me, let alone three times, but it shows how gullible the floating voters can be and one of the few times that I found myself in agreement with Blair was when he said that the public could not be trusted to vote on important issues.

This week we have seen the left’s new messiah JC emerge onto the national stage in his leader of the party role and again I can’t see why anyone would think that he would make a leader. His TUC conference performance was a shambles, he appears to have no oratory skills whatsoever and I am baffled as to why he got erected (or perhaps in his case propped up might be a better description) let alone how.

So whilst I am happy for those friends who got what they wished for I have to say that I am a bit sad for them because I would not have wished him on my worst enemy as a leader. I think that it is a sad indictment of modern British politics that a person of his calibre even gets erected as an MP led alone to high office.

As someone who takes a centric position politically I suppose that I should be chuffed to bits that Labour have erected someone who is likely to ensure that they do not return to power in the foreseeable future, but I’m not. I like a system that offers a credible opposition and I am embarrassed that this man will have a platform on the world stage as the leader of the opposition in the British parliament. I was wrong about Blair though, for I didn’t think that enough people would be stupid enough to erect him and so perhaps I should start some contingency planning in case Labour do win the next general erection. If they do then I shall scan through these tables of immigration statistics that my lefty pals keep firing around and pick the country that looks like it has lost the most people. Perhaps I might be made welcome there; certainly I shall not feel welcome in a country that could erect Jeremy Corbyn to lead it, even if some of his acolytes are my friends.