Brexit has taken our minds off new Old Labour
Mrs May looks like she has left the dash for a wee just 30 seconds too late
My favourite stat of the week comes courtesy of Yougov. The polling company asked voters who they thought would be the best prime minister. The clear winner was Not Sure on 39per cent
Theresa May, still hanging in at No10 after her Salzburg humiliation, got 36per cent followed by Jeremy Corbyn on 23per cent. Let me be clear, as the PM always says before delivering another fish-tank-murky statement. The fact that more people prefer that promising unknown, Not Sure, to either of our main party leaders is a bad sign for Britain.
For all we know, Not Sure or their running mate, Neither of the Above, could be a huge hit at the Ministry of Zilch. Certainly, you have to admit, Not Sure would struggle to be less impressive than May or Corbyn. Quick recap, folks. Theresa campaigned for Remain and is leading (well, sort of) Brexit. Jeremy, a lifelong opponent of the EU, is indicating he might want to stay in. And they wonder why so many of us feel politically homeless.
Mrs May rebuked EU leaders last week for not treating her Chequers plan with respect. Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, had posted a picture on Instagram of him offering Theresa a plate of treats with the caption, “A piece of cake, perhaps? Sorry, no cherries.” How old are you, Donald – 12?
The fact that Tusk felt he could get away with such a juvenile jibe at our PM spoke volumes. Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, accused him of “insulting the British people”. He hadn’t. Confident of the fact that the PM lacks authority and support at home, he had insulted Theresa May and her ridiculous, obstinate plan.
Ask yourself this: would Margaret Thatcher allow herself to be in a position where other leaders could humiliate her? Of course not. They wouldn’t have dared.
Mrs May always looks like she has left the dash for a wee just 30 seconds too late. This is not the image Britain wishes to project on the world stage at a crucial time. For the Conservative Party to have a leader who most members privately admit isn’t suited to the job, is not only demoralising – it’s downright dangerous. With a person of genuine stature and broad popular appeal at the helm, the Tories could and should have obliterated Corbyn and his discredited socialist philosophy by now. Instead, Labour is neck and neck in the polls; nostrils twitching, it starts to scent victory.
Broadcasters conduct respectful interviews with the emollient John Mcdonnell who hopes to become chancellor in order to carry out his hobby, which is listed in Who’s Who as “overthrow capitalism”.
Chaotic mismanagement of Brexit, and an embattled Prime Minister, have acted as cover for an Opposition that grows more sinister by the week. Jewish MPS attended this week’s Labour conference with police protection against frothing anti-zionists. Moderates are either silent or under threat of being deselected. (Anybody seen Yvette Cooper recently?)
Decent Blairites such as Liz Kendall, for whom many centrist Tories could and would vote, are sidelined into irrelevance.
Yesterday, Sir Keir Starmer, shadow Brexit secretary, told his party conference that “nobody is ruling out Remain as an option” – which was clearly news to his superiors.
On Monday, the party agreed sweeping changes making it far easier for members to deselect their MPS, stopping short of mandatory reselection. Even this did not go far enough for Momentum delegates who had to be asked to refrain from booing and jeering. It’s scary.
Look at Sion Rickard, a Welsh teaching assistant and “cover supervisor”, who was cheered when he told conference: “If we give [children] a proper education, we’ll probably not have any Tories because we’ll have brought up our kids properly.” If that classroom Trot (how had he got time off school?) isn’t open-minded enough for you, then consider Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, who promised to “immediately end” the Tories’ academy and free schools, which “neither improve standards nor empower staff or parents”. Would those be the same schools of which a third are rated outstanding by Ofsted? Because she doesn’t approve of an “ideology” that has given poorer children access to a more rigorous, traditional education, Rayner plans to enforce her own ideology, which returns them to local authority control and the failures of the past. Yes, but so much fairer! Forget equality of opportunity, comrades; bring on equality of ignorance!
“I’ll tell you what happens with impossible promises. You start with far-fetched resolutions. They are then pickled into a rigid dogma, a code, and you go through years sticking to that, outdated, misplaced, irrelevant to real needs, and you end in the grotesque chaos of a Labour council – A LABOUR COUNCIL – hiring taxis to scuttle around a city handing redundancy notices to its own workers.”
Those of us old enough to remember that Neil Kinnock speech, delivered exactly 33 years ago at the Labour conference in Bournemouth, will be aghast to see the militant tendency not only rise again, but take control with the self-same dogmatic creed. Kinnock’s blistering words helped to kill off a blind zealotry then, but it has now been reborn as Corbynism.
Don’t let Brexit distract us from this clear and present danger. At our own conference in Birmingham next week, Conservatives will face a stark choice. Do we want a leader who has a chance of seeing off the appalling threat posed to our country, its finances, security and free Press, by a far-left government? Or do we stick with a leader so poor she comes second to Not Sure? I’m sure. How about you?