This festival of hate is a warning to us all
IF there remained any doubt that the hard left’s takeover of labour is complete, there is no longer. For that reason, at least, this week’s conference has been enlightening.
Indeed, Jeremy corbyn and his supporters have served notice in Brighton that labour has ceased to be the decent, law-abiding, patriotic movement set up by its founding fathers to improve working people’s lives.
No, it has been hijacked by ideologues, riddled with anti-semitism and hatred of the West, committed to Karl Marx’s teachings and overthrowing capitalism – by law-breaking and civil unrest if necessary.
true, labour always had extremist elements, as when the Militant tendency seized pockets of influence in the 1980s.
the difference today, after Ed Miliband’s crass change in the leadership rules allowed hard-left students to buy votes for £3 a pop, is that the fanatics are now in charge. as a measure of how low labour has sunk, the Equalities commission yesterday felt impelled to rebuke the leadership for failing to tackle rampant anti-semitism.
the marginalised chairman of the party’s MPs went further, describing a ‘seeping poison’ within labour. chillingly, he added: ‘this stuff is redolent of the 1930s.’ Meanwhile, shadow chancellor John McDonnell (who has called for ‘insurrection’ to topple the elected government) set out a Marxist programme of exorbitant spending and state confiscation of property guaranteed to bankrupt Britain in weeks.
In an all too apt simile, his supporters admit the country would be ‘like stalingrad’ after a labour victory. as for the inevitable collapse in the pound, he reveals he has sought advice from a war gaming organisation that trains ‘militants of the cybernetic communist revolution to come’.
Yes, many families have felt the pinch since the financial crisis. But with near full employment – and living standards, even for Britain’s poorest, vastly higher than under any Marxist regime in history – are voters seriously prepared to trust these people with their livelihoods?
one thing’s for sure. after this conference of the truly nasty party, where Jews and the Royals have been vilified and the BBc’s laura Kuenssberg needs a bodyguard, nobody can say we haven’t been warned.