A manifesto to win the next election
“FIRST he denies. Then he equivocates. Then he obfuscates. Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite who defiles our politics and demeans the country we love.” Former chief rabbi Lord Sacks’s summary of the Labour leader’s weasel words in response to charge after charge of anti-Semitism were succinct and devastating. If only Theresa May could summon up that sort of pin-sharp rhetoric. But, for what it’s worth, here’s a suggested campaign strategy for the Conservatives next time around. I don’t offer it as a Tory, because I’m not a Tory. I’ve always been non-aligned and apolitical (I’ve voted for both main parties).
But the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn moving in to No 10 and his Marxist chancellor-inwaiting simultaneously collecting the keys to No 11 is awful. Fluctuating polls show that we’re within a badger’s breath of a Communist-inspired regime taking over the running of the UK. The outcome of the Brexit tug o’ war is a sideshow by comparison. Try living under the kind of delusional political and economic lunacy that the benighted people of Eastern Europe suffered for decades after the Second World War.
I’d suggest a Tory election campaign of two halves. The first few weeks should be entirely positive, concentrating on the party’s manifesto (and this time let’s hope it doesn’t include such own-goals as a “dementia tax”).
The closing half should be focused attacks on Jeremy Corbyn. Straight punches to the solar plexus, jaw and gut – not the limp-wristed cheek-slapping and feeble shin-kicking of 2016.
The target zones are:
The economy. Corbyn has repeatedly and ecstatically praised the hard-Left socialist regime in Venezuela as a model Britain should aspire to. Venezuela – once the most prosperous country in South America – is in economic freefall; inflation is at almost 500 per cent; nine out of 10 people say they can’t get enough to eat; 2.5 million (of a population of 32 million) have fled the country in despair. Some socialist utopia, eh? Marxism. Corbyn and his shadow chancellor are both Marxists. Marxism has destroyed every economy it has ever controlled, bar none. The ideology has directly led to the violent death and starvation of millions. Corbyn’s would-be chancellor (John McDonnell) says in his own Who’s Who entry that his hobby is “fermenting (sic) the downfall of capitalism”. A Marxist anticapitalist Chancellor of the Exchequer? Black comedy – except no one will be laughing.
Terrorism. The evidence of Corbyn’s love – some might call it an addiction – of hobnobbing with political killers and terrorists in the Middle East has become overwhelming and it’s deeply creepy. He says if only we’d all talk to each other conflict would evaporate. Except he never speaks to both sides, does he? Just the IRA, as was. Not the Unionists. Only to the anti-Israeli terror groups; he has never approached the Israeli government. As the former British consul general in Jerusalem, Sir John Jenkins, said this week: “He (Corbyn) is just another delusional, virtue-signalling, right-on poseur.” SUCCINCT: Lord Sacks
Which brings us to antiSemitism. Corbyn is so obviously anti-Semitic that it is astonishing he hasn’t had the party whip removed. The latest revelation of his charming observations about Jewish people (at the time of going to press) was that English Zionists (by which he means English Jews) don’t understand irony. Imagine if he’d said that about English Asians, or British people of colour. He’d be out on his ear. The fact that he isn’t – despite Labour’s increasingly desperate, semantic hair-splitting every time another Corbyn anti-Semitic remark or action floats like sewage to the surface – shows what a hopeless mess the party is in.
All this should be punched out on TV and across the internet. The footage is all there; the speeches, the platform-sharing with ruthless killers, the banal virtuestatements, the “ain’t Venezuela brilliant” rubbish. It’s an open goal. Or as Corbyn’s “friends” and “brothers” in Middle East terrorist groups might say: “Go for the kill.” Of course, they’d mean it literally.