When will people wake up and realise JC has it right?

I am a 23-year-old socialist, activist and freelance writer born and raised in south Birmingham and I have also just walked out of university in £30,000 of debt and if I wasn’t so privileged to come from a single-parent-low-income household, no doubt I would also be knee deep in my overdraft. I also work part-time in the service industry, although lucky to evade a zero-hour contract.

In terms of the demographic for Labour’s new membership I tick nearly all the boxes, but why do I?

I don’t remember the British Leyland era of manufacturing at Longbridge but I was present for the loss of Rover and over the years the subsequent dismantling of the business, the buildings, and for many, B31.

Names like Red Robbo, Harold Musgrove and the Austin Metro continue to be heard today and their absences are still being felt ; in part they are all responsible for a new Britain, one that was crafted by Thatcher and refined by Blair.

This last decade, with its backdrop of terrorism, war, economic crisis and uncertainty can be attributed to the craft and refinement of these two people and it is for these reasons that I, like many, reject anything that sounds or feels like the status quo.

Owen Smith claims he is not a Blairite yet he spent years working for big business and defends cuts to services; it’s in the way he speaks, it’s in his rolled-up sleeves, it’s even in his hair-cut.

For Owen Smith to suggest that he is anything but a product of New Labour is even more disingenuous than Theresa May’s vision for a “country that works for everyone” – it is even a little bit sad. Can he not be proud of their accomplishments? The new membership don’t want a replica of Blair or Brown, Cameron, Osborne or even Sadiq Khan; we want what we signed up for. We want a principled democratic socialist with years of experience in trade unions and the Labour party, who will steer it in a new direction. The polls are in, and the results are a reflection of that.

Boom and bust capitalism hasn’t suited anyone but big business; CEO and banker’s bonuses have continued to rise whilst hundreds of thousands of working Brits have become reliant on foodbanks. We all know that this particularly odious strain of capitalism labeled neoliberalism has run rampant and we need to rein it in, but where are the reins? We all know that our environment, housing, education, transport and healthcare is in crisis, yet where are the remedies?

Jeremy Corbyn outlines a society driven on goodwill and hard work, one that is also fair and inclusive. Why do I believe him? You only have to look at his voting record to realise he is a man of great principle.

Following the fallout over Chilcott’s Iraq inquiry and the admittance that Jeremy Hunt forcing seven-day working weeks on junior doctors really is indefensible, when will people finally start admitting that JC’s been getting it right? Some seem to think that a Corbyn premiership will be like dragging us back in time and, whilst many in the trade union and socialist movement may still envisage an economy run on manufacturing, I don’t and I don’t expect one. History will tell the tale of us facing a new world, one that requires balance and progression.

I don’t see us emerging into that new era with Theresa May buffering migrants, repealing the human rights act and also presiding over a realm that is the second biggest in arms trading. Austerity is a myth, now outed as completely ideological and Brexit has the establishment on the backfoot. We now deserve a new kind of politics, one based on truth and hope.

I think we deserve Jeremy Corbyn. James Morris-Knight is a freelance journalist, activist and writer from

the West Midlands