Corbyn

Political party conferences have, in recent years, felt like an empty ritual. They used to be convened in seaside towns, so grassroots activists could find affordable accommodation. Now they are usually held in cities, so lobbyists can find better restaurants. Activists have been supplanted by members of the political class who are charged £500 a ticket. In the fringe debates, speakers face a volley of questions from people paid to ask them — on pensions, subsidies for green energy and the like. Politicians spend all day talking to journalists, and real politics vanishes. This year, however, politics has returned. The protesters who shrieked and spat at anyone entering the Tory

Contrary to the sneers of what he calls the commentariat, Jeremy Corbyn has already acquired brilliant spin doctors. In advance, the media was full of how his party conference speech would be all about his patriotism. Actually, this was barely mentioned. This technique of spinning the speech beforehand is pure Mandelson/Campbell. The emphasis on ‘free debate’ is also spin. In fact, the subtext of the speech was what communists call ‘the leading role of the party’ — control by activists. It was cunningly done, apparently sweet, actually tough. Mr Corbyn also followed the proud tradition of the Bush family. He accidentally read out the instruction, ‘Strong message here.’ President Bush

Jeremy Corbyn has come under increased scrutiny today after Mr S’s colleague Alex Massie revealed that parts of his conference speech were taken from a four-year old reject speech by the writer Richard Heller. The Labour press office claim that their straight talking leader approached Heller ‘because JC thought some of his material captured what he wanted to say’. However, given that Heller suggested Ed Miliband use the speech four years ago, it hardly epitomises Corbyn’s so-called ‘new kind of politics’. With the party playing the incident down, one Labour member is at least feeling more forthcoming. Speaking at the Fabian Society’s ‘week in review’ event, John McTernan — Tony Blair’s former director of political