Jez they could. And Corbyn’s new broom to sweep @UKLabour clean…

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Screen Shot 2015-09-12 at 12.32.25I think Jeff is hardening something small into something unfeasibly big re Jeremy Corbyn. He’s not an Irish Republican, he’s a leftist leader of the British Labour party. Yet it does show how easy it is going to be to raid his personal cuttings and turn them against him.

Two quick thoughts.

One, I’m with Brian in thinking he makes Labour less electable. (Although it’s highly questionable if any of the others would have turned it round either). Yet Labour has ‘captured’ an selectorate of 1/2 Million. And these three guys (and they are all guys) are there because they have an appeal outside the elites of the party.

Two, there are issues that have been bubbling under unbidden and unrecognised by those elites. Corbyn breaks the post Thatcherite consensus of where the middle ground is. References to ‘social cleansing’ in London may not appeal directly to the middle class, but it breaks out of a mannered and managerialist handbook.

For now, here’s some good Twitter responses already…

My doubts lie in his inexperience, his capture by the big unions (who are a fading force) and with just 6.5% support of the parliamentary party, and lack of resource.

Their real problem is not just how to bring in the wider public, but the party itself. One of many delegates storming out after the result was announced was heard to say “this is sending us into oblivion.”

The emotion behind that is well reflected in this best read of the campaign:

I’ve been waiting most of my life for the Left to make its glorious return. This is not what I’ve been waiting for. I’ve not changed my principles, and have only changed my views to fit the facts. I’m the one who feels abandoned – everything has moved around me. I lay down in a big tent, and I woke up in the rain.

Corbyn has a big mandate. It won’t be easy to get rid of him. But he also has two very big challenges coming up: the Scottish Parliamentary Elections (in which damage limitation is probably the best he can hope for); and the London Mayoral election (which will be a very direct test of #Corbynism).

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