Hopeless ... Dear Leader was a slave to his script
... sees the wheels spin off Corbyn’s EU elections launch
Brexit is nothing to do with whether you want to leave or remain in the eU. that was what Jeremy Corbyn claimed yesterday. instead, he said a much more important issue is what sort of society we all want to live in.
From such an arrogant diversion by the Labour leader we can discern two things. First, come the Corby nite putsch, he will only respond to questions he sees fit to answer. Second, he still has zero intention of revealing about how he truly feels about Brexit.
Such tactics are hardly new. Stand back, do nothing and let the other side rip itself to shreds.
this a risky path, of course. Floating voters tend to decide to back an opposition party when it is seen to be passionately standing for something.
Corbyn had dragged himself to Kent University to launch his party’s eU elections. the location was outside rochester, a pro-Leave constituency just beyond the M20. He spoke for less than 30 minutes, reading from an autocue. Comrades, it was cloying stuff.
A friendly, 150-strong audience had braved the rain, the majority seemed to be millennials. Scary tattoos, rinsed red hair. in front of me perched a pimply youth with a well- coiffed Mohican. Haven’t seen one of those in a while.
the Dear Leader appeared some minutes late, as per usual, to a smattering of organised applause. He was introduced by Jayne Maxwell, a Scots MeP candidate, who was no sparkler but considering Corbyn’s own speechifying prowess, this was probably wise.
even when the Beatles were booked for their famous appearance on the ed Sullivan Show, producers had the smarts to put them on after a clunky Dutch
magician called Fred Kaps. Corbyn took his place at the lectern in his familiar uniform. Navy suit, red tie, grandpapa shoes. Like the cartoon characters in the Simpsons, the Leader of the Opposition only seems to own one outfit.
Negotiations with the Government on Brexit, he announced, were going nowhere. He admitted – with a secret smile, surely – that the past several weeks of talks had barely nudged the compass dial.
‘it’s difficult negotiating with a disintegrating Government,’ he complained. Fair enough, though bargaining with a party which doesn’t know what it wants can hardly be a tray of cakes either.
What followed was a monologue which had less to do with Britain’s relationship with the eU than Labour’s proposed election manifesto. Corbyn’s answer to our society’s ills? Oh the usual. redistributive socialism, hang the bankers and hedge funders etc. inevitably, there was the steady stream of familiar phrases. ‘A Britain for the many not the few… Burning injustices… democratic socialism.’
He insisted he did not want these elections to become toxic before toxically dismissing Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage as ‘snake oil salesman’. As ever, Corbyn was slave to his script. But it was noticeable how quickly the wheels spun off when it came to questions.
You can coach pretty much anyone to read from an idiot board. When to pause, when to narrow your eyes and speak softly. Plonk a baboon in front of a typewriter for a while and before long he’ll be churning out clumps of half decent
prose. But off-the- cuff- charm? that you cannot teach. it is one of those natural gifts. And Corbyn is hopeless at this.
When the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg asked him to confirm whether Labour was a Brexit party or a Leave party, he just read something back off his ring binder, eyes fixed on someone on the opposite side of the room.
Meanwhile, back in Westminster, those cerebral tory leadership hopefuls Amber rudd and David Gauke made a brace of wellintended speeches aimed at party moderates. in other words, largely meaningless to anyone outside the environs of the M25.
Judging by the current mood, when the european elections take place in 13 days, our two main political parties know they are in for a very bloody nose and can do very little about it