Some have said the Scotland effect has infected England. This, they say, has propelled Jeremy Corbyn to win the Labour leadership. Now, though, the media monstering has begun. Corbyn isn’t establishment material and, unlike Scots and the Yes movement, he can’t be written off in media diatribes as a cultural aberration. He must be written off some other way. So, here comes his ‘security threat’, the 'national anthem disgrace' and a shabby re-run of the Michael Foot 1981 donkey jacket.
The only examination of Corbyn’s policy portfolio will be in the extreme spins with which it'll be savaged. Few in politics (politics-as-usual) or the media will look particularly carefully at it and every opportunity to brief against, exaggerate and blatantly mis-represent will come cascading out.
But, perhaps the biggest danger is from the party itself. Enemies within are usually behind you, stalking an opportunity to take you down. The PLP have plenty dissenters and conniving mis-calling is a practiced art.
And this in itself is a continuing sadness. Labour, in its twisted wisdom, has shied away from standing on its progressive record (minimum wage, winter fuel payments, 500,000 children lifted out of poverty, free nursery places, apprentices doubled, free bus travel for the elderly, the repeal of Section 28*).
Labour has tried too hard to cast its record in terms of Tory comparisons. It fears making much of anything that would appear too leftish. Little wonder the Red Tory tag has been hung on them.
Corbyn has several circles to square. He must give a voice to left-leaning aspiration, forge a different political style, all in the face of a hostile media and a strident socio-political elite, importantly those in the Labour Party who bought into the establishment dream and refuse to let principle get in the way.
So the calumny. The latest. Corbyn's silence during the national anthem at the Battle of Britain commemoration. His disgrace was widely trumpeted in the media with no mention of his praise for the fallen heroes; no concession of respect for him, a republican, following his conscience and keeping silent so as not to cause offence.
In the establishment arena of public life, convention is made sacrosanct to the point of absurdity. You can’t be a political dignitary and a republican, it seems. Difference is only permitted within strict bounds.
I’d have been inclined to let all this go for the minor pomposity it is but the accompanying outrage caused me outrage in reverse. This is the suit and tie business. Apparently Corbyn’s suit didn’t quite match and his collar was a bit undone - jaw dropping nonsense at a time when the media comes under fire for commenting on female politicians' dress sense (mostly bad), weight (usually excess) and the like. Interesting that, when it’s a man and one not approved of, such a thing is OK. But then, it's the way the great and the good belittle any deemed unworthy of favour (like mad socialists and women).
It all harks back to Foot’s donkey jacket (which was actually a coat). He was described at the time, by a fellow Labour MP, as looking like ‘an out-of-work navvy’. So now, 34 years later, nothing learned, we’re hearing Corbyn criticised in a similar way. It reveals so much, not the least, how unacceptable it still is to look like a poor or unemployed person. Corbyn, looking too much like an ordinary man, is pilloried because he’s ‘not really one of us’. Pompous twaddle.
And in Scotland, almost Labour-Party-less, what of it? While those of us in the continuing YES movement have issues with Corbyn on the Union and Scottish independence, his position on social justice, austerity and Trident is refreshingly progressive. Of course, we would want to argue with his views on Scotland but I’m firmly with those who feel we must show solidarity. All the better that it would come laced with our difference.
The Corbyn show is about to be mauled by an unrelenting UK media. We’ve ridden that particular tiger already but I hae ma doots if Corbyn and the wider Labour Party left are prepared for it. The MSM onslaught will be devastating. Only a strong alternative and social media in opposition can help maintain the progressive perspective. It might, at the same time, be a forum to educate Corbynists in the niceties of Scottish politics. Paradoxically, it could be an opportunity to put a new meaning to ‘Better Together’ and show that solidarity and togetherness needn’t exclude independence and civic nationalism.
*List cribbed from Derek Bateman
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