George Osborne had a bit of a field day yesterday with his parliamentary gimmick which has wound Labour up in knots. Corbyn looked subdued as his Shadow Chancellor put a brave face on what had been something of a disaster. Underlying all of it is the fact that the parliamentary party is way out of step with the Labour membership, represented by Corbyn and McDonnell. Add to this the fact that Corbyn and McDonnell have little experience of leading (though lots at rebelling) and events are unlikely to run smoothly. Two things must now happen.
Labour MPs must recognise, as many do, that whatever their own preference, because they themselves had lost touch with their party’s natural roots, it has chosen a leader far to the left, because that is where the new engine and of change is developing, not just in Britain , but across Europe and even to a degree in the US, where Bernie Sanders is pulling surprising crowds. The time has come to fall in line and help. Or join the Tories.
Next the new Labour leadership must now sharpen up its act on the economy. It did well in the leadership election, even coming up with the promising, though slightly flawed but easily modified, people’s quantitative easing. At least this was a new idea to offer a real way through the stranglehold of debt and shortage of real money in the ordinary economy. We need to start hearing more about a new economic agenda that challenges almost all the verities of Thatcherism which are now beginning to look frayed and counter productive. And there is something else. Yes there is a certain refreshing appeal about being not too slick and bit unprepared in a hated (by the public) over spun, too slick, deeply distrusted political culture. But they face Osborne. He is the slickest, craftiest, sharpest tool in the political box. That is why yesterday was his. His weakness is that politics is also about tomorrow.
