Has ever-so ‘umble Jeremy turned into Monsieur Cocky?

JEREMY Corbyn wandered into the City of London yesterday, said he intended to whack up their taxes, Britain was going to the dogs, the economy was shot, there had been a ‘lost decade’ and soon no one would be able to afford to go to university.

With which he added: ‘I’m not one of the doom-mongers.’

Wonderful porkie! For the last few weeks he has done nothing BUT spread gloom.

Before and during the general election campaign the Labour leader benefited from being seen as an unassuming underdog, a modest fellow who avoided some of the usual political faults of swagger and cliche.

Has that changed? At a British Chambers of Commerce conference in the Square Mile yesterday he radiated self-pleasure, boasting about how well he had done in the election, how Labour was now a ‘government in waiting’ and the ‘next Labour government’ would do this and that.

There was going to be ‘a gamechanging industrial strategy’ and ‘ a national education system’ and he, the great leader, was ‘setting out the framework’. ‘It will require the collaboration of everyone here.’

Though the words ‘and you lot in the capitalist system had better get used to it’ went unsaid, they were pretty clearly conveyed.

All this was delivered in a mumbly monotone, as though by an omniscient sage reclining in his hammock at the end of a month’s exhausting proselytising. It’s tough, being a sage. The generous view would be that his snooker commentatortone yesterday was intimate, avoiding declamatory forcefulness.

The more negative view might be that it veered close to sounding conceited and uninterested.

It was as if he could barely be bothered to up his tempo for an audience of 200 ‘policy makers and influencers’ – small- business executives and a handful of teachers who had come to discuss how business could improve education and training.

Things got off to a sticky start when Adam Marshall, director general of the Chambers of Commerce, did a generous introduction, asked the audience to give Mr Corbyn a big hand, turned to the door where he was meant to appear... and nothing happened. Seconds ticked away.

Mr Marshall’s expression of rapture changed to one of faintly sick worry. A minute elapsed. Still no Corbyn. Finally a bearded visage came ambling through the door, blithely unconcerned.

‘Thank you for that introduction,’ he said when he reached the podium. Thank you for the introduction? He hadn’t heard it!

OVERLOOKING the fact that he had not won the election, he proceeded to say that Labour’s manifesto had been strongly endorsed by the voters and that ‘a new settlement with business’ would henceforth be required. He was going to be ‘engaged in a dialogue’ with business to make sure that it comprehended that there needed to be ‘real change’.

He was appalled by the slump in investment in Britain. Er, hang on. Some statistics suggest investment since Brexit is going gangbusters. only yesterday morning the Department for International Trade released data showing 2,200 new foreign investment projects in the Uk, providing 107,000 jobs. Employment has never been higher. How does this square with Mr Corbyn’s glumness?

We also had his spiel about how college fees are deterring teenagers from university because they are going to be lumbered with debt ‘for the rest of their lives’. not true on either count. The Left loves to accuse Right- wingers of ‘ fake news’ but is the Left itself guilty of casual lies?

Asked about corporation tax, Mr Corbyn languidly said he would raise it from its current rate (19 per cent, though he did not seem to know that) to 26 per cent. ‘It’s the right thing to do.’ An audience member suggested this might not be wise at a time when France’s new president was promising to lower corporation tax there.

Mr Corbyn did not believe the French would really drop their rate much. A shrug. Pah. Has Corbyn become Monsieur Cocky?