The Saturday List #80 - Ten reasons I hope Jeremy Corbyn wins the Labour Leadership race (or why we need an old beardy)

For the record, I'm not a Labour Party Member. I can't vote. I would quite like to cast a vote, but I can't because I am banned from membership of the party until September. By the time my ban ends, the vote will be done and dusted. I formally resigned from the party in September 2009. This is the first time since I resigned from the Party that I've actually felt any urge to rejoin. It was clear to me in 2009 that Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and their respective acolytes had stripped the party of any semblance of an organisation I would want to be a member of. For me the final straw came one day when I was in the gym at lunchtime on a running machine. The news showed French riot police closing a camp housing "asylum seekers" (I hate that term) in the most brutal fashion, dragging a woman screaming by her hair, as her young child looked on screaming. I was mortified that such brutal treatment could be dished out to such a vulnerable person. I wondered what scars the trauma would have on the child? As I watched, the then home secretary, Alan Johnson came on. He applauded the french for their actions and said they needed to be tougher still. At that moment I realised that I no longer wanted to be a member of such an organisation. I immediately wrote to the local Labour Party and resigned. I received a response from the then local MP, Andrew Dismore asking me to reconsider. Correspondence followed, I explained that whilst I wished Andrew well and hoped he won in Hendon, I couldn't remain in the party.

I then joined the Lib Dems. At the time it never ocurred to me that they may form a coalition with the Tories. I joined as they seemed to represent my politics more than Labour. Under Charles Kennedy, they had opposed the Iraq war. They signed a pledge committing to protecting students from rises in tuition fees (remember that?). They were not in hock to rich billionaires as Labour were. They seemed reasonable, decent and fair. Unbeknown to me, the local Labour Party didn't bother to process my resignation. In September 2010, I got a letter stating that I'd been expelled for standing for a rival politcal party, whilst being a Labour member. I immediately contacted the Labour party, attaching the full email trail and the email confirming that  I'd resigned. The response I got was quite amazing. They said none of this mattered as I was still registered as a member. I'd broken the rules and I was welcome to rejoin in September 2015. As I had zero interest in rejoining, I really couldn't be bothered to argue. Until last week, I hadn't even considered the possibility of rejoining. I had toyed with the concept of rejoining the Lib Dems after the election. I quite like Tim Farron. He seems to be a decent guy and I really think we need some sort of political force in Barnet that isn't Tory or Labour, as both parties are completely useless on a local level.

Then Jeremy Corbyn threw his hat into the leadership race.  I've met him a couple of times as a result of his support for the local Trades Unions in the fight against One Barnet. I've shaken his hand and thanked him for his support. In fact Jeremy and John McDonald are the two biggest supporters of the fight against outsourcing. In Barnet, Labour had a massive opportunity to blow a hard right council out of the water. The policies and competence of the Barnet Tories had been ripped to shreds by scandal after scandal. All Labour had to do was be an effective opposition and One Barnet could have been halted and the failure of outsourcing exposed. Sadly Barnet Labour is run by Blairites who love outsourcing. Even when "Your Choice Barnet", a private company set up by the council, with taxpayers money, suffered financial meltdown, Barry Rawlings, the Labour lead on social services agreed with the Tories and signed up to a paper agreeing that an in house solution was not an option.

Rawlings sold the workers and the users of the service down the line. My disgust and contempt for this cabal that have hijacked the Labour movement had been festering, but this action of betrayal was the final straw. In the 2012 GLA campaign, I threw myself heart and soul into trying to get Andrew Dismore elected for Labour. My work was repaid by a stitch up. That is why I've been a vocal opponent of Barnet Labour ever since. I support the decent individuals, such as Amy Trevethan, Paul Edwards and Sarah Sackman, but for the rest of them are a bunch of snakes, in my opinion.

Which brings us to my little list. Here's the ten reasons why I hope Jeremy Corbyn wins.

1. Jeremy Corbyn opposed the Iraq war. History has proven him right. Jeremy saw through the lies of dodgy dossiers. He also was one of the few Labour MP's who seems to realise that International Law is a good thing and should apply to the UK.

2. Jeremy Corbyn wants to see student loans abolished and a return to grants. The UK needs to have a high quality work force. One that isn't saddled with debt. I have three teenage children, two are starting University in September. Many of my childrens friends are intilligent young people who are shunning University because they don't want to spend their lives in debt.

3. Jeremy Corbyn is not in hock to billionaire businessmen. In todays Times a "wealthy Labour donor (or should that be Donut)" says that if Corbyn wins, the cash from billionaires will dry up. If this means that the country is run for the benefit of the less well off, rather than rich vested interests, this can only be a good thing.

4. Jeremy Corbyn has been a steadfast supporter of public sector workers in Barnet. When local Union rep John Burgess had his car vandalised and a homophobic note stuck on his windscreen, Jeremy Corbyn signed the letter of support. Sadly none of the local Labour Party bigwigs could be bothered to follow suit.

5. Jeremy Corbyn is capable of effectively arguing his case. The other three contenders seem incapable of stringing two sentences together without contradicting themselves. Take Andy Burnham. Does anyone know whether he actually agreed with Harriet Harman on supporting the governments welfare bill? No one can say we don't know what Jeremy's position is.

6. Jeremy Corbyn is the only leadership contender who seems to understand that the reason for the economic issues in the UK is not because the weakest and most vulnerable members of society are getting too much in benefits. We are in a mess because under the Tories and Blairites, we had too much banking deregulation. The global economy crashed and the cost of the bale out crippled the UK economy. Sadly it is not the bank executives who had a paycut, it is people on invalidity benefit and victims of the bedroom tax.

7. Jeremy Corbyn doesn't need a spin doctor or focus group to decide what is wrong and what is right. Under the Blairite regime, every policy was tested by focus groups and every statement spun by spin doctors. The Blairites believe that this is the way you win elections. Many people disagree. In 1997 when Blair won, many people expected great things. Sadly most of those hopes turned to dust. Things change and I believe that the electors have grown tired of bland leaders who believe in nothing and stand for nothing. It will be a very tough ask for Corbyn to win an election, but I believe he has a better chance than any of his opponents. This is because all they stand for is a Tory Lite manifesto. By 2020 people may well be heartily sick of there harsh policies. A party with a coherent and attractive alternative will, I beleive, stand a far better chance. Blairites and Tories are desperate,ly trying to commission opinion polls that show voters think Corbyn is Satans Spawn. My view is that he has five years to build a program and so these mean nothing.

8.  Jeremy Corbyn will pose a real challenge to David Cameron at question time. For too long Cameron has had an easy ride. Corbyn knows his subject and doesn't need spin doctors to brief him. He's spent decades forming his views and he is an intelligent man who can put them across. Cameron got away with murder at the despatch box against Miliband. As Miliband lacked the gravity to repel these attacks, Cameron used this to his advantage mercilessly. This simply won't work against Corbyn as it is clear that he isn't stupid and he will not be bullied.

9. Jeremy Corbyn will force the Tories to be more honest about the effects of theiir policies. Miliband never was able to demonstrate just how damaging the attacks on social welfare budgets were. Corbyn knows his facts and cares about the people who are affected. Cameron will try and paint Corbyn as a deluded ideologue who hasn't a clue what he's talking about. This will fail, because Corbyn has spent his life talking to people who are at the sharp end of the Cameron cuts. As Cameron clearly has a compassion defecit, we could find that suddenly "cuddly Cameron" is a thing of the past. As for Osborne, he seems to fancy himself as an intellectual. It will be interesting to see how he copes when he is actually up against one.

10. This is a purely personal reason. At the start of this blog I detailed how I fell out of love with the Labour Party. If Jeremy Corbyn is elected, it will wipe the smug grin off the face of everyone one of the two faced, deceitful and dishionest scumbags who poisoned the Labour Party.

I don't think Corbyn is the answer to all our ills. There are many issues I don't agree with him on, some I srongly disagree on. He is however the only one of the four contenders who I feel has any credibility. I heard someone say "How on earth can we have an old beardy as a Prime Minister?" In my experience, we don't have enough old beardies in politics. During the course of my life, I've tended to find that if I have a real problem or dilemma and "old beardy" will offer far better advice and counsel than a used car salesman type in a sharp suit.

Can Jeremy Corbyn win? Ask Margaret Thatcher

Firstly, let me start by saying I'm not a Labour Party member, so I won't be voting in the forthcoming leadership election. That said, I do have an opinion on the outcome. Personally, I see the only twwo credible candidates as Liz Kendall and Jeremy Corbyn. Cooper and Burnham lost any shred of credibility by going along with collective "head in the sand" strategy to the clear fact that Ed Miliband was taking the bus off the edge of the cliff. Unlike Cooper and Burnham, Kendall at least appears to have some understanding of the fact that you don't win elections if the voters haven't got a clue what you stand for.

Of the four, she's perhaps the nearest thing to an electoral banker, as she's a Blairite and whatever you think of Blair, he clearly knew how to win elections. She isn't perfect, but I suspect that with five years of practicing and with all the heavyweight support from business and the luvvies a Blairite can come to expect, she'd win. It was clear that Cameron won because he was able to scare the hell out of floaters, who didn't trust Miliband and didn't really know what they'd get. This wouldn't work with Kendall. We all know what we get with a Blairite. It isn't really my idea of Labour politics, but it is a damn sight better than a Cameron/Osborne full frontal attack on the welfare state and the weakest people in the country.

But what about the fourth candidate, Jeremy Corbyn. Labours Blairite flunkies have been queueing up to denounce him. They've been saying he'd make the party unelectable and that voters would run a mile from Labour if ever he became Leader. They say he is an extremist and he'd keep Labour out of power for a generation. The problem, as they explain it is that Corbyn is not in the centre and he is a man of conviction. They say that to win an election in the UK, you have to be in the centre. Corbyn is lodged firmly on the left.

So are these siren voices right? Perhaps the only example we can look at, of a leader who was a conviction politician, far from the centre was Margaret Thatcher. when she took over the Tory party, many of the old Tory Grandees fell into a state of shock. A new term was coined for what we may now consider the likes of Cameron. They were "The Wets". Those who allowed the concept of appealing to the voters to get in the way of hard right ideology. Thatcher had little trck with these, although she had to accomodate them in her cabinet, to ensure that she had the support of the party. The likes of Ken Clark, are the last of the old guard of wets. So how did the populace respond to Thatcher? Well they all knew where she stood. In 1979, she won  a small but workable majority. She embarked on the most radicle program of reforms our society had ever seen. By 1981, the economy was in virtual meltdown and the Tories looked to be heading for the door, at the first go. Then she got lucky. In 1982 General Galtieri in Argentina decided to invade the Falklands, Thatcher rallied and by the following year, the myth of the Iron Lady was secure and she won a landslide. Thatcher won three election. The siren Blairite voices site the failure of Michael Foot as the proof that a lefty can't win. However they overlook several factors. The 1979 crop of Blairite equivalents defected and formed the SDP. This ensured that Foot couldn't win. In the aftermath of the Falklands, Foot was on a hiding to nothing anyway, but the fact that his own party was at war finished his chances off. Had the likes of Williams, Owen and Jenkins stayed and fought and not split the Left vote, who knows what the reslt may have been. The only thing we could be sure of is that Thatchers majority would not have been bigger if the SDP rump hadn't split.

What Thatcher proved was that the British can elect a conviction politician who is not from the centre ground. If the electorate gets fed up with centrist conformity and fudging, then sooner or later they want someone to bring in a fresh approach and to shake things up. Could Corbyn do this? Well his announcement that he'd abolish student loans and go back to the old system of grants is one policy which is a definate vote winner. I don't know of a single parent who likes the system of loans. I hate the concept of my children being burdened for decades with debt. I also wonder how Cameron would deal at the despatch box with someone who actually believes what he says and has spent decades forming his opinions and researching them. I suspect that Cameron would find it a totally different sort of experience, than the current situation, where both leaders are given a short briefing on current issues and affairs.

Corbyn would energise the parts of the Labour movement that work hard, such as the Trades Unions and the local activists. There are many things we can't be sure about, but it is a safe bet that the one potential Labour Leader the SNP fear is Corbyn, as he is the type of Labour Leader who could see their huge victory in Scotland turn into a one parliament aberration.

The right wing press is seemingly licking its lips at the prospect of Corbyn vs Cameron at the despatch box. I am not so sure that this will work out quite how they expect. We've had 25 years of people facing each other off, trying to say what they think voters want to hear. All of a sudden, we'll have someone saying what they believe - something which hasn't happened since Thatcher was in charge. How will this work out? I think two things will happen. Firstly Cameron will start to apper very shallow and weak. Secondly people will start to take an interest, in a way they haven't for a long time.

I am quite taken aback by some of the vitriol and some of the dishonesty poured on the Corbyn campaign. I can give a couple of examples. One comment was that Corbyn would have the same disasterous effect on the UK economy as Syriza has had on Greece. This is completely dishonest. The problems of Greece are nothing to do with Syriza which has been in power only for a matter of months. The country has been mismanaged by governments of the left and right for decades. Syriza is just a desparate outpouring of anger at the fact that billionaires pay no tax, whilst ordinary people are forced into poverty by austerity. I've yet to see anyone suggest anything which could actually help the people in Greece suffering from austerity, so why is everyone saying Syriza has been a disaster. Anything would have been a disaster for Greek voters. The only difference is that Syriza have attempted to share some of the pain with EU financiers.

Another highly dishonest charge made against Corbyn is that Labour will go into meltdown and collapse. This is a myth Tory bloggers at the Spectator are keen to circulate. We can only speculate as to why.  Corbyn as Leader would pose a huge challenge to the Blairite faction of the Labour Party, but there are two reasons they will not immediately jump ship. The first is that they will think a Corbyn Leadership is likely to implode and leave the floor clear for a Blairite. If Corbyn doesn't work out, they will surely have won the argument for years as to the future direction of the party. As soon as Corbyn takes the keys to the bus, they will be in the back seat plotting. Whilst many recognise that at the moment a Blairite manifesto is a bridge too far for man, a Corbyn disaster may open the gates in a matter of months or years for a full scale coup. The second is that if Corbyn doesn't collapse and does catch the public imagination, they may get the old ministerial limo's back if they play ball. They will also at least get some sort of opportunity to shape the manifesto of a party of government.

Living in the London Borough of Barnet, there is one issue that cannot be ignored. Corbyn stated that he views Hizbollah and Hamas as friend and this has caused uproar in the local Jewish community. There is a feeling that a Corbyn leadership would destroy Labour locally. My view is that unless they elect a full on Blairite, this damage is already done. I personally find such statements to be ridiculous. I would have thought  that appeasement of such extremists would have long ago been discredited as a strategy for dealing with such organisations. Whatever you may think of Israel, I cannot see how fundamental Islam can be viewed as a positive force in finding a apeace settlement. Hamas and Hizbollah are commited by constitution to the complete annihiliation of Israel and its Jewish residents. I can't see how such a stance can be anything other than destructive.

However The London Borough of Barnet is not the UK and whilst such statements play badly with the local electors, in 99% of seats it will have no effect at all. Had Labour had Corbyn as Leader, I am certain Labour would have more seats than it has now, even if only because they would not have faced Scottish wipeout. I cannot see any circumstances Labour will win a majority in 2020 without a radical rethinl of what they are, who they appeal to and how they conduct their campaigns. In the election in May, most people saw them as irrelevant. They failed to connect with even their core voters. No one knew what Miliband really stood for and he made no case for any policies. At least Corbyn with his policy of abolition of Student loans has shown that he understands that you can't all sing from the same song sheet. It seems we only get a leader who is unafraid to break with a failing consensus once in a blue moon. Will Corbyn be the next Thatcher, a conviction politician, loved and loathed in equal part? I have no idea, but I for one think that any Tories who celebrate should Corbyn win, will live to bitterly regret it, just as all of the Labour Mp's who saw the election of Thatcher as Tory leader in the 70's saw here as "Keith Josephs puppet" and an abberation bitterly lived to regret the fact that they didn't realise people actually trust people who speak their mind and stand up for what they believe.

A message to Labour supporters - Vote for Diane Abbott

I was asked today who I wanted to be the next Labour leader. I replied Diane Abbott. The question was re asked "Who do you want out of the serious candidates". Now the correct response to this rephrased question would have been a punch in the face, but I'm a pacifist. Diane Abbott is a Cambridge graduate. She was the first black female MP. When she first became an MP, she was regularly asked if she was a cleaner. My guess is that to have got to Cambridge and become the first black female MP, she'd probably have to have been about 20 times as good as many white male mp's. She hasn't played the game, which is why she's a backbencher and she hasn't sold out. She got pilloried for sending her kids to private schools, but her response was one I respect - "Yes it may be hypocritical, but I want the best for my children".

Diane has all of the attributes I want in a politician, clever, honest, decent, witty, principled and pragmatic. She tells it how it is. Some may say "Labour could never win with Diane Abbott. Why? because she's black, because she's female? Well they said Thatcher couldn't win because she was female and Obama couldn't win because he was black. They won. Diane would be the perfect antidote to the Cleggerons. I don't want to live in a racist or a sexist country. I want to take pride in the fact that we as a nation rise above such things. John McDonnell aside, all of the contenders are, shall we say cut from a similar sort of block. They offer no choice and no hope. They won't take the Labour party forward and they won't take the country forward either. The Conservatives had twelve years under Thatcher where they actually had someone who was committed to Conservative policies, had  the balls to challenge the status quo and had no care for who she upset. I couldn't stand the woman, but I admire her drive and conviction. I believe that only Diane Abbott will offer the Labour party such drive, honesty and passion. If they really believe in their principles they will choose her. If she wins she'll do for Labour what Thatcher do for the Tories.