Corbyn wants compassion as cornerstone of politics

Double Vision with Charlie Adley

Over the decades, my hopes for a fairer society in England have relied upon a rag tag bunch of Labour Party leaders. After Jim Callaghan’s brusque bank manager posing as Ronnie Barker, we had Michael Foot’s unwashed hair and the indignity of watching Neil Kinnock address a rally with his nauseating mid-Atlantic cry of “Well alriiighhhht…weeell aaaalllriiiight!”

After John Smith’s tragic and untimely death, Tony Blair created New Labour, and such was the joy we felt to finally be rid of the Tories after four successive governments, we scarcely stopped to notice how Labour’s leader was suffering from megalomaniacal tendencies.

Blair had the Labour Party’s heart ripped out, pumping its last on the floor between the left and right benches of the House of Commons.

As Thatcher had shown so terrifyingly, by their third term, Prime Ministers lose the plot altogether. Blair was praying with Dubya, believing he was on a mission from God.

Then, just as in Ireland with Brian Cowen and Bertie Ahern, Gordon Brown replaced Tony Blair when the boom was over. Both charismatic leaders had milked the Boom and now handed over the Bust to loyal, less media-savvy men.

Having lost two General Elections in a row, I hoped that the parliamentary cohorts of the Labour Party might cop on to the fact that offering the electorate a mish-mash of Blairite liberalism and Tory-lite economics doesn’t work.

Yet three of the four candidates in Labour’s current leadership race offer nothing new nor different.

A lily-livered bunch of hypocrites and narcissists in smart casual clothing, Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall are living proof of madness, given Albert Einstein’s assertion that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”.

Why do they imagine they might one day succeed where Ed Miliband failed?

Then, as if paying patronising homage to the soul of Old Labour, they decided to offer a place on the podium to a left wing candidate.

Enter Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington. As a proud Socialist, he was meant to look conveniently Red and lose, but instead people have flocked to his cause. Despite those who believe him to be unelectable, Corbyn now looks almost certain to become the next Labour leader.

Hundreds of Conservative Party voters have now registered online to vote for Corbyn’s leadership campaign. Indeed, he’s even got the registered support of a herd of llamas on a Tory farm.

To read Charlie’s column in full, see this week’s Galway City Tribune.