Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

At least Corbyn knows what he stands for

On the crucial issue of immigration, 'mainstream' Labour MPs are just as far out of touch

issue 16 July 2016

My favourite comment about Angela Eagle came from some unnamed spiteful Corbynista MP who, with reference to her twin sister Maria, a former cabinet minister, observed that Angela was ‘the lesser of two Eagles’ and ‘not even the best politician in her own family’. Perhaps he was the bloke who chucked a brick through Mrs Eagle’s office window this week, or left the succinct, if politically incorrect, answerphone message for her: ‘fucking bitch’. Although there are two or three hundred thousand semi-house-trained infants in the Momentum movement who might well have behaved likewise, I suppose.

Feelings are running a little high across the political spectrum, aren’t they? This is becoming the Summer of Visceral Loathing. Great news if you’re a journalist, frankly. Less good news if you’re a member of the Labour party. I am not absolutely sure that I still am, as I was suspended a while back for having suggested that some Muslims aren’t too keen on Jews. But my subs are still being deducted, I note.

The point of remaining part of this doubly hijacked rabble (first by the Blairites, now by the nutters) is moot, however. What on earth can be gained? It will surely never win an election again. It does not know who it represents and its vote is evaporating gradually, from the north downwards. It’s part of the general realignment of world politics, for sure, and the retreat and philosophical confusion of social democratic parties. But that is given added hilarity over here by the sheer ineptitude of Labour and its insoluble problem.

The leader, Mr Corbyn, does not have the support of the Parliamentary Labour Party. The Parliamentary Labour Party does not have the support of the activists. The activists do not remotely have the support of Labour voters.

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