Interesting Times

The Labour party's election of a new leader after their underwhelming display at the last general election was, even for disinterested observers like myself, interesting, intriguing and dare I say, not a little entertaining. Even I, as someone whose interest in politics could best be described as distant, could see that as soon as Jeremy Corbyn threw his hat in the ring, Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall might as well have packed up their tents and gone home. It was less an election more a procession, followed by something akin to a coronation.

With many staunch left wingers being considered a little too left of centre once they applied for membership of the party, while those so far on the right that they were actually fully paid up Tories appeared to be accepted, it seemed that there were as many staunch Conservatives who wanted Corbyn elected as there were Socialists, their expectation being that Corbyn's particularly left wing views and policies would make unelectable as Prime Minister come 2020. So, is he unelectable? Who knows; he may not even be Labour leader the next time Britain goes to the polls, and no one knows what sort of fist the Conservatives will make of the next five years after having some of their excesses reined in by the Lib-Dems during the last Parliament. With David Cameron having already announced that he will not stand again, Corbyn's opponent in 2020 could be as unpalatable to the electorate as Ed Miliband was this year. Mind you, the allegations made in Lord Ashcroft's unauthorised biography of David Cameron may sink Cameron before the end of this Parliament anyway.

The early days of Corbyn's tenure as Labour leader have seen a lot of emphasis placed on image and style rather than policy, particularly over his failure to sing the National Anthem, with the Daily Telegraph suggesting that he should appoint a spin doctor tout de suite. All things considered, given that Corbyn is supposedly differentiated from most other politicians by his lack of superficiality, that is probably the last thing he wants.  With the somewhat alarmist and at times bizarre criticisms that have been levelled him however, perhaps Jeremy could do with a spinner to refute some of the more extreme stories. On the other hand, despite his beard and initials he is far from being the new messiah despite what some Labour supporters, who feel that criticism of JC in the press is unjustified and disproportionate, may think. Given the well known right wing leanings of most of the print media the criticism is scarcely surprising. Besides, a forensic examination of any new leader of any party is only to be expected. Labour supporters have also accused the BBC of bias, going so far as to start a petition to call upon the BBC to describe David Cameron as "the right wing Prime Minister" in retaliation for the Beeb's frequent reference to Jeremy Corbyn as the "left wing Labour leader." The difference of course is that Jeremy is left wing in comparison with some of his party whereas Cameron is no more right wing than many in the Tory party. In fact accusations of an anti-Labour stance at the BBC are somewhat off the mark, since the organisation is frequently charged with being too left leaning. If anything I would say it does have a tendency to favour the left, even in light entertainment. The News Quiz for example features Jeremy Hardy and Mark Steel, both staunchly left wing,  as regular panellists and in recordings I have seen these two have launched into vitriolic anti-Tory, anti-Cameron diatribes at every opportunity,  even when the question has relates to the mundane, like a poisonous spider found in a bunch of Waitrose bananas. At one recording one panellist described Cameron as "a nonce" which I am sure was not broadcast, but if ever there was an instance when those who live in glass houses should not throw stones...The fact that the BBC is accused of bias by both sides of the political spectrum tends to suggest that on the whole it is pretty even handed.

But what of Jeremy Corbyn's policies? A well publicised goal is to take the railways back into public ownership, line by line as each franchise expires. Given his stated aim of fairer fares and proper integration, this is not such a bad idea, especially given the current over complicated fare structure. But since British Rail wasn't exactly synonymous with reliability, efficiency or punctuality I'm not entirely sanguine about a "People's Railway" being any better than our current set up.  The name alone evokes images of a Soviet style network, bloated and bureaucratic.  UKIP leader Nigel Farage claims it  would be illegal under EU law to renationalise the railways due to European Union directive 2012/34/EU, but there again Mr Corbyn aims to renegotiate Britain's deal with Europe...which has worked well in the past, hasn't it?

Then there are the energy companies. Currently the focus of much criticism for their complex tariffs, their poor customer services and the difficulty in switching from one supplier to another, a return to public ownership might be a good thing except for the complexity and cost of such an undertaking. The fact that some, like eDF, are foreign owned is perhaps as good a reason as any to bring them back into British ownership, public or not. Perhaps Mr Corbyn would seek to fund such a purchase, and other projects, by returning to the days when Labour sought to "squeeze the rich until the pips squeak" with his plan for a national maximum wage and higher taxes for the rich.  Mind you I can't fault his idea to crack down on tax avoidance and evasion. After the years of a Tony Blair led Labour administration that was in many ways so indistinguishable from a Tory government that I often wondered if Blair was actually a Conservative Central Office plant, it is perhaps refreshing to see a Labour leader returning to the party's roots. Certainly  a strong opposition is important to keep government from excess, but as we have seen in the past, opposition parties often find that they have to compromise on a lot of their beliefs once they discover the realities of being in power, and JC would be no exception if he became Prime Minister.

One interesting outcome, should Jeremy Corbyn ever reach 10 Downing Street, could be that we all have the opportunity to enjoy a lot more romantic, candle lit dinners. I appreciate that it isn't one of his stated goals, but renationalising the energy companies and in all probability reducing the constraints placed on the trade unions by the Tories could make them a thing of the future, just like they were in the literally dark days of the 1970's.

However Jeremy Corbyn's term as leader of the Labour Party, and possibly as Prime Minister one day, turn out, I can't help but be reminded of the curse, "may you live in interesting times," because I have a feeling we may be experiencing a very interesting few years one way or another.