The only people more dangerous than Corbyn are the useful idiots ready to let him seize power
ADANGEROUS delusion is taking hold in Britain. Ignoring Jeremy Corbyn’s reckless economic policies, his proven sympathy for terrorist groups and the part he has played in the rise of anti-Semitism in his party, a worrying number of influential people are prepared to believe that a Corbyn Government would be somehow less damaging than a No Deal Brexit.
They are ready to let Corbyn, a proven extremist, into 10 Downing Street in order to derail or cancel our departure from the EU. It is a profound mistake.
It is all the more disturbing that this credulous view has spread beyond the political class into sections of the City and industry.
Financial markets reflect this complacency. Last Tuesday the Government lost its nominal majority of one when Phillip Lee ostentatiously crossed the Commons chamber to join the Liberal Democrats. Twenty-one Conservative MPs were ejected from the party on the same day. Yet the pound rose against the dollar on the news. Clearly, traders have concluded that a Corbyn government will be preferable to No Deal. There can be little doubt that a number of banks and big companies have come to share this tempting fantasy.
The grizzled Tory grandee Kenneth Clarke spoke for many of them when he opined that he was ready to accept Corbyn as leader of a government of national unity.
That crackpot scheme has now been deservedly forgotten.
But hard-core Remainers, including a cabal of Conservative MPs led by former Chancellor Philip Hammond, have joined forces with Labour to prevent a General Election being held before November.
Why does Hammond believe Corbyn can deliver a solution to Brexit when Labour has committed itself to the absurd policy of supporting negotiations for a new deal and then campaigning against such a deal in a second referendum?
In reality, neither Hammond nor anyone else knows what Labour’s policy on Brexit would be if Corbyn was to take power.
It is true that Corbyn is not himself a formidable figure. Though he prides himself on his abilities as a campaigner, he can no longer command the adulation he did following his unexpectedly good showing in the last Election. His combination of dogmatism and deviousness has alienated many of his former supporters.
It is what he represents that makes the Labour leader so toxic. Standing behind him are disciples of Lenin and Stalin, some of them – like his spin doctor Seumas Milne – extremely astute strategists, guiding him through the hall of mirrors that is politics today.
There is also John McDonnell, more intelligent and personable than Corbyn but no less extreme in his views, who has been leading a charm offensive aimed at reassuring British businesses that what is in store for them is not greatly different from policies introduced by Labour governments in the past. A Corbyn government would be unlike any other in British history. Plans for ‘worker democracy’ would involve confiscating shares worth hundreds of billions of pounds in thousands of companies, while a scheme giving private tenants a ‘right-to-buy’ at below market prices would wipe out countless small buy-to-let investors.
There can be no doubt that the current version of capitalism needs serious reform, but these policies would destroy the wealth of millions. Britain would soon be more like Maduro’s Venezuela than an enlightened social democracy.
The picture grows still darker when you look beyond Labour’s economic programme to its understanding of our place in the world.
Corbyn is hostile to the entire structure of Western defence and security, including Britain’s nuclear deterrent. He is friendly to pretty well every anti-Western power and terrorist group. This bias partly explains the normalisation of antiSemitism in the party. The state of Israel is condemned as a creation of Western imperialism, and – together with the United States – demonised as the fountainhead of all evil in the world.
It is a short step from these views to conspiracy theories that imagine politics being manipulated by sinister interests. Embodied in a Corbyn government, this kind of thinking would end Britain’s long history as a tolerant society.
Corbyn has always held extremist attitudes and he is not going to change them in Downing Street, just because he got there through the machinations of a couple of dozen Tory rebels and their allies in the opposition parties. If Hammond and his fellow plotters believe they can rein him in, they are more delusional than the most deranged Brexiteers.
At present, Corbyn is not the most dangerous force in British politics. Labour remains divided and can be defeated. It is Corbyn’s useful idiots, those prepared to follow him in opposing Brexit, that pose the greatest threat.
HAMMOND and Clarke are joined by the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon and Liberal leader Jo Swinson in aiding and abetting him on his path to power. No doubt they too believe they can curb his excesses. Presumably John Bercow, the bumptious and nakedly partisan Speaker of the House of Commons, thinks the same. But Corbyn’s extremism shapes a view of the world that he will never change, and he will use whatever power he is given to implement it.
Boris Johnson’s Government has not always acted wisely. Though the move can be defended in strategic terms as a way of avoiding the infighting that destroyed Theresa May, stripping Tory rebels of their party membership has incurred a high cost in party morale. Proroguing parliament has caused more problems than it was ever likely to solve. The strategy of sowing chaos among Johnson’s enemies has backfired and left the Government stranded. Johnson himself has been unable to shake off the mistrust that surrounds him.
None of this should distract from the stark choice Britain faces. A No Deal Brexit would be disruptive, and should be avoided if agreement can be reached. But the harmful effects would not last forever. The country could emerge stronger.
The damaging impact of a Corbyn government would be permanent and irreversible. It will be the height of folly if a handful of renegade Tories succeed in setting in motion a chain of events that destroys Britain as a country – however imperfect – that abides by civilised values.
His policies would destroy the wealth of millions If the plotters think they can rein him in, they are delusional