Proof Labour is unfit to govern
Leadership election is farcical
IF LABOUR cannot run its own leadership contest with a degree of competence, how can the party expect to win back the trust of voters? It is a question which is becoming increasingly pertinent as the voting process descends into farce as a result of the rules of eligibility being relaxed by Ed Miliband.
Following claims that the election had been hijacked by activists recruited by the left-wing firebrand Jeremy Corbyn who is now the odds-on favourite to prevail on September 12 after being the rank outsider at the outset of the contest, and then allegations that mischief-making Tories had been sent voting papers, there is now the embarrassing episode of Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, being told that his vote had, in fact, been blocked.
What next? Tony Blair, the one Labour leader who knew how to win elections, being blackballed because he does not share the “aims and values” of the party? It cannot be ruled out as Labour lurches from one crisis to another while Mr Miliband, the man responsible for this chaos, continues to abdicate all responsibility – his silence has proved, once and for all, that his party will not be fit to govern for a long time.
Yet, while the Conservatives are gleeful at the prospect of Mr Corbyn being elected, his leadership should not be under-estimated. For, unlike so many of the male, middle-aged professional political class who blur into one because of their tendency to look and sound the same, it is striking that many activists have actually been turned away from the front-runner’s public meetings and rallies because they have been so over-subscribed – when was the last time that this happened on a regular basis?
Of course the politics and economics of the past are not the answer to the problems of the present, but it is to Mr Corbyn’s credit that he has found away to engage with the masses. That can only benefit future participation in the democratic process – the question now is how the Tories, and Labour for that matter, respond to the arrival of Corbynomics.