A deafening silence on key topics
JAMES SLACK looks at the omissions from Jeremy Corbyn’s speech that speak volumes about his politics and priorities:
THE DEFICIT
THERE was the obligatory reference to ‘challenging austerity’ but not a word on the UK’s £90billion annual deficit and £1.6trillion of debt.
No spending cuts were mentioned. He adopted the approach that money grows on trees – making an expensive promise to extend maternity and paternity pay to the self-employed. He pledged to protect the 40,000 jobs at risk from his policy to scrap Trident, with nothing on how it would be paid for.
IMMIGRATION
LISTS of public concerns are consistently topped by immigration and
many Labour MPs are convinced it led to voters deserting to Ukip in May.
Mr Corbyn ignored it altogether – possibly as his views are so out of tune with traditional supporters. When Ed Miliband forgot to mention the deficit and migration in his speech last year, it was by mistake. For Mr Corbyn, it was very deliberate. Neither come close to being a priority for him. HE praised Mr Miliband but ignored the fact his predecessor’s politics – so similar to his own – led the party to its worst defeat for a generation. There was no mention that the Tories won a fresh mandate four months ago.
He did not acknowledge the need to speak to an audience outside the conference hall, with every sound-bite to win cheers from the activists who made him leader – not convert the swing voters who decide elections. MR Corbyn boasted of how he had been ‘standing up for human rights, challenging oppressive regimes for 30 years as a backbench MP’. He urged David Cameron to intervene in the case of a Saudi Arabian protester who is facing execution.
There was no mention, however, of his support for Hamas or how he led calls for the brutal, regime in Iran to be brought in from the cold. Iran – which, incredibly, showed his speech on state TV – executed 6 4 people between January and July 15, more than three a day. HIS call for ‘a kinder politics, a more caring society,’ won a standing ovation. He said: ‘So I say to all activists, whether Labour or not, cut out the personal attacks. The cyberbullying. And especially the misogynistic abuse online.’ It apparently slipped his mind that his closest ally, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, said of ex-Tory employment minister Esther McVey: ‘Why aren’t we lynching the b******?’
Corbyn’s backers are notorious for dishing out abuse to moderate Labour supporters on Twitter.