Corbyn’s ‘land grab’ plan is the first step towards tyranny
As the undoubted success of Jeremy Corbyn’s election campaign shows, the Labour leader has an image of principled virtue. Even voters aware of his backing for causes pushed by terrorists and his failure to deal with anti-Semitism in his party seem not to care. They think of Mr Corbyn as a man whose errors are borne of innate decency – as a fundamentally good man who occasionally errs, but only ever out of the best of intentions.
The reality is very different. Mr Corbyn has spent 30 years pushing a brand of hard-Left ideological extremism and, like his fellow revolutionaries, is prepared to push at and break the very limits of decency to further his ends. His behaviour over the Grenfell Tower disaster and, two weeks ago, the London Bridge terrorist attack is revealing.
The Labour leader reacted to London Bridge by attacking “Tory police cuts” in a speech the next day. There is certainly a debate to be had, but Mr Corbyn’s claim that the cuts had any impact on our ability to fight terrorism is entirely bogus, as both the Met Commissioner, Cressida Dick, and Lord Carlile, the former terrorism legislation watchdog, made very clear.
In terms of pure politics, the Labour leader’s speech was a success, as it put Theresa May on the back foot for the rest of the campaign. But in terms of common decency, Mr Corbyn’s politicking was despicable. He exploited the deaths of 30 people in Manchester and London Bridge shamelessly, positing an entirely false linkage to boost his electoral fortunes.
That was, however, as nothing compared to his behaviour this week over the Grenfell Tower. This was an unimaginably horrific disaster and it raises public policy questions that may well change our country forever. In the short term, the victims have to be rehoused and their lives rebuilt. As a decent society this is a role which the state, of course, undertakes.
The day after the fire, entirely appropriately, Mr Corbyn visited the scene and spoke to victims. He went down well. But in his public remarks, he sought to turn the victims’ plight into a form of class war. He noted that Kensington is “incredibly wealthy” and then highlighted the issue of rehousing the victims, a task already under way and fully financed by the government. But instead of backing that plan, Mr Corbyn called for surrounding property to be seized by the state in order to rehouse victims: “Properties must be found – requisitioned if necessary – to make sure those residents do get re-housed locally.”
To describe this as reckless barely comes close. His meaning was crystal clear – those wealthy b------- near you are the cause of all your problems. After that cue, assorted Corbynite and Trotskyite hordes – some wearing Momentum T-shirts – ramped up the local protests, importing their own hard Left rent-a-mob frenzy. There were banners reading “Tories have blood on their hands. Justice for Grenfell”. Yesterday a march on Whitehall organised by the Left agitator Owen Jones made its political hijacking of the fire still more explicit, demanding “May out”. This follows the call earlier in the week by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell for the unions to “get out on the streets”. He went on: “We want a million on the streets of London”.
This is the true face of the revolutionary ideology that has taken control of Labour. But revolting as Mr Corbyn’s purloining of the Grenfell Tower tragedy for political advantage may be, it is revealing on a still deeper level. His suggestion that nearby property should be “requisitioned” shows the Corbynite mindset.
Do not be fooled into thinking this refers to some kind of Compulsory Purchase Order. The reference was in the context of Kensington’s “incredibly wealthy” home owners. It would be financial recklessness of a degree even Mr Corbyn’s Labour has not yet contemplated to compensate owners for this property – some of the most expensive in the world. Not least because it is not needed. This was about land grabs, à la Zimbabwe. In the Corbynite mind the state should be able to simply take over private property when deemed appropriate. It might masquerade as concern for the victims, but it is the first step towards tyranny. You can almost hear the cry of “For the many, not the few” as the Corbynite Commissar smashes down the door to seize ownership. Liberty is our most precious asset. It can disappear in a trice, and no one notices. This is the Corbynite reality.