Corbyn’s Choice: God Save the Queen, or, a fascist regime?

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HARRY PERKINS, the hero of A Very British Coup, would have sung ‘God Save the Queen’ – lustily, and standing ramrod straight. Why? Because, his own republican sympathies notwithstanding, he would have understood that the majority of his fellow countrymen both love and believe in Elizabeth II. Refusing to sing – especially at a memorial service to “The Few” who saved Britain from Hitler’s Luftwaffe in 1940 – would have upset them. Not only that, it would have lent credence to the uniformly negative things the Tory press was saying about him. Chris Mullins, the Labour MP who wrote A Very British Coup, knew that to be at all believable, his left-wing, working-class hero would have to be preternaturally media savvy.

Unless Jeremy Corbyn becomes preternaturally media savvy very quickly there will be no need for a very British coup. The general who told The Daily Mirror that a Corbyn-led Labour Government committed to taking the UK out of Nato and scrapping the Trident nuclear deterrent would be removed “by fair means of foul” will no doubt be disappointed to hear it, but it’s true. The anthem incident marked Corbyn as a man almost entirely lacking in the situational awareness so essential to the practice of politics in our media saturated twenty-first century. Without that awareness Corbyn cannot possibly succeed as a radical Labour leader. He will be replaced – and sooner, rather than later.

Corbyn’s mute performance in Westminster Abbey sent commentators from both the Left and the Right scurrying for their George Orwell. And rightly so, because in his 1941 pamphlet, The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius, there is a passage that could have been written especially for Corbyn.

“England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God save the King’ than of stealing from a poor box.”

That was why, when Mullin created Harry Perkins, way back in 1982, he made him the antithesis of Orwell’s “English intellectual”. He knew that there could never be a radical left-wing British prime minister who sniggered at horse-racing or suet-pudding – because the British people would never vote for such a person.

The other thing Mullin built into his hero was a rock-solid understanding of how crucial the news media has become to the conduct of modern politics. That’s why, when he becomes Prime Minister, Perkins revolutionises the way No. 10 Downing Street interacts with the news media. Rather than, like Corbyn, keeping them at arm’s length and refusing to give them sound-bites for their six o’clock news bulletins, Perkins turns his administration into a more-or-less permanent press conference. He offers political journalists unparalleled access to all his ministers and deluges them with official information. As he suspected, this “love bombing” of the media leaves them feeling uncertain and confused. How do you play “gotcha!” journalism when you’ve already “got” everything you need to write great stories?

Corbyn’s weaknesses as a communicator with the news media were not immediately apparent during the campaign for the Labour leadership. As an essentially internal party process, the political dynamics of that very narrow contest were quite different from those that dominate the politics of Westminster. Those who followed his astonishing rise, and who celebrated his even more astonishing victory, simply assumed that he was equal to the challenge of reformulating his message in a way that rendered it receivable by the Great British Public. To date, it is by no means clear that Corbyn is equal to the challenge.

Indeed, as the weeks pass, it becomes clearer and clearer that the true hero of the Labour leadership contest wasn’t Jeremy Corbyn, but the Labour membership which elected him – ably assisted by the tens-of-thousands who paid Labour three quid to see “a new kind of politics” triumph over business as usual. Looking back over these extraordinary weeks, political and social historians will likely conclude that, far from creating his own following, Corbyn was actually created by it. The MP for Islington North was pressed into the service of a labour movement grown weary of “leaders” who arrived amongst them still shrink-wrapped from the same Blairite factory. Corbyn wasn’t a robot – so Corbyn had to win.

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But if Corbyn is not a robot, neither is he a Harry Perkins. Mullins’ hero was strong from the start and only too aware of what lay in wait for him. As he climbs the stairs to the living quarters of No. 10, he quips to the following pack of journalists that there’s a smell of history about the place – “and just the whiff of betrayal”.

Except, in Corbyn’s case, it’s not so much a whiff, as a sickening stench, of betrayal. Knowing that the parliamentary party was bitterly opposed to just about everything he believed in, the only viable course of action available to Corbyn was to establish a powerful emotional connection with the British people – one that allowed him to speak to them directly, over the heads of his parliamentary colleagues. But, as Mullins understood, that can only be done through the news media.

So, rather than shunning the major television platforms, Corbyn should have pitched a tent on them; telling anyone and everyone who asked what they wanted to know. Everything from his favourite brand of breakfast cereal to the alternative purposes to which the billions of pounds currently spent on Trident could be applied. When, inevitably, his colleagues cried foul (and anonymous generals threatened wholesale military revolt) Corbyn should have doubled down: intimating that he would be seeking the party’s endorsement for the policies he was promoting. If they wanted the policies; if they wanted him; then they would have to show the parliamentary wing of the party (and the UK armed forces!) who was boss.

Is there still hope for Jeremy Corbyn? Yes, but it is fast running out. From the moment the results of the leadership election were announced, Corbyn’s allies in the trade unions made it clear that his political survival would depend on replicating in the wider electorate the same radical democratic movement that had carried him to victory within the Labour Party. That could not be done by selecting a shadow cabinet that was three fifths parliamentary enemies and two fifths political crackpots. (Like his Environment Secretary, Kerry McCarthy, who is on record as wanting to mount a campaign against the consumption of meat along the lines of the current campaign against smoking!)

If Corbyn fails to build that radical democratic movement, upon which the success of his leadership depends, he will be gone in 18 months. If he would survive, he needs to re-read Mullins novel and absorb its political lessons. Most crucially, he needs to begin again with the British news media – without whose assistance his messages to the British people cannot be delivered.

One of the most moving moments in the television version of A Very British Coup takes place in a little news-agent’s shop. Harry Perkins ducks in for a box of matches. From the shop counter the right-wing tabloids bellow out the message that Perkins and his government are “Red Scum!” The news-agent hands over the matches, but then, locking eyes with the beleaguered PM, he whispers hoarsely: “You are not red scum!” In spite of the tabloids, Harry’s message has got through. It is the moment when a very British revolution, and its inevitable corollary, a very British coup, both become inevitable.

 

23 COMMENTS

  1. Chris, always enjoy your thought provoking writing. I would just say that I don’t think the idea of the banning of eating meat should be dismissed so easily. I certainly enjoy my meat but it is also possible that in future we may need to reduce or cut its consumption due to health and/or environmental impacts. Indeed while meat in NZ appears to be healthy in moderation the industrial farming of it in other parts of the world renders it a significant health risk.

    Today the effects of smoking and burning fossil fuels are well accepted but when first raised they would’ve also brought similar responses.

  2. There is a precedent for Corbyn: Clement Richard Attlee.” In 2004 he was voted the greatest British Prime Minister of the 20th Century by a poll of 139 academics. In public, Attlee appeared modest and unassuming; he was ineffective at public relations and lacked charisma. His strengths emerged behind the scenes, especially in committees where his depth of knowledge, quiet demeanour, objectivity and pragmatism proved decisive. He saw himself as spokesman on behalf of his entire party, and successfully kept its multiple factions in harness.”

    Scotland has rejected Toryism and ordinary UK people are suffering and appalled by the Pig baiting tories with the privatisations and persecution of the poor. All know the msm are just a bunch of prestitutes. The Monarchy sits on top this pile. There’s a sea change happening and being the msm’s bum boy and clown isn’t part of it!

  3. WHEN Jeremy Corbyn was nominated by 35 of his fellow MPs to join the leadership contest, I was still in mourning for Labour’s loss in the May 2015 general election. You see, the Labour Party’s defeat had left me low because I felt this would probably be the last time I would have the opportunity to vote in a general election and see much-needed social change come to Britain, because I am in my nineties.

    For me, this year’s general election was about taking a stand against austerity but it also made me feel nostalgic for a time when my generation did its best to change Britain for the betterment of everyone. So over the course of that election I revisited many of the emotions that I experienced when, at the age of 22, I still wore an RAF uniform and voted for the first time.

    In 1945, when I made my mark for a Clement Attlee Labour government, I believed with my head and my heart that I was voting for my future and my children’s. Seventy years on, as I live among the wreckage of a pillaged welfare state, I know that my trust in that Labour government was correct. Unfortunately it was the governments that succeeded Attlee who broke their bond with the ordinary voter.

    Still, after having the opportunity to meet and talk with Ed Miliband about his vision for the country I gladly agreed to make stump speeches for Labour during the election, through 50 cities, towns, villages and hamlets, because I trusted his sincerity. I also thought I could make a difference in marginal seats by reminding people what we had lost through this Tory-induced austerity. In those diverse community centres, clubs and events, I talked about my past and my generation’s struggles to build institutions that would provide affordable healthcare and housing to every citizen.

    Nevertheless, I was realistic enough to realise that had Miliband beaten David Cameron, it would not have created the social revolution I experienced in the 1940s after WWII. Still, had Labour won on May 7 it would have alleviated some of the pain that so many people have endured because of this present-day Tory-induced austerity. For me, Labour’s answers under Miliband were far from perfect, but I thought perhaps the days of big ideas for the betterment of our citizens had died when our country in the 1980s and ’90s let greed and corporate self-interest metastasise to consume common sense and compassion.

    So even though I wasn’t fully enthused by Labour’s election platform, their defeat cut me deep and I feared for the party’s future. I was fearful that those who hold so much control over Labour’s destiny, like our former leaders, policy wonks and financial benefactors, would out of self-interest tighten their grasp on the levers of power and move Labour far to the right of an already immoderate centre. In short, they would anoint through their influence in the media and the party a leader who would take inspiration from polling companies rather than the needs of everyday Britain.

    My doldrums over Labour’s intent to shift to the right didn’t end until Corbyn’s leadership campaign began. At first I believed he had as much chance of victory as I did of running a four-minute mile at the age of 92. I thought during the campaign he would be treated like a weak contestant in a reality TV show — a chap who the show’s producers expect to be defeated quickly by his opponents but praised for his bravery and true commitment to socialism. In fact, at the beginning of this leadership endeavour I had backed Andy Burnham — but everything changed for me when the shadow cabinet displayed a suicidal hubris and abstained from voting against a Welfare Bill that will ruin and impoverish many lives.

    At that moment Corbyn stood front and centre from all the other candidates because he proved that compassion is also leadership. It was at that moment I switch my allegiance from Burnham to Corbyn. I felt Corbyn had proved why he would be a great opposition leader and eventually prime minister. He did not disappoint me during his campaign because he spoke with earnest directness about the need for Britain to start building prosperity through a new deal that will change everyone life for the better, whether they were the vulnerable underclass or the hard-pressed middle class. Corbyn is a natural leader because has spent years fighting for the rights of the others and enacting legislation that makes our country a more equal and productive state.

    This summer Corbynmania electrified those from our younger generation who are committed to making a real future for themselves, because he provided clear solutions to end student debt, flat wages, unaffordable housing and the burden of living in a zero-hours contracts world. Many in the trade union movement have also been inspired by Corbyn’s commitment to fight against the Tory Trade Union Bill that is not only anti-worker but anti-democratic.

    For so many reasons, it didn’t surprise me when Corbyn was elected as Labour leader with a mandate of 59 per cent of tallied votes. Simply put, Jeremy Corbyn’s message resonated with so many people because it was filled with hope, determination and good common sense. It’s wonderful that, for the first time in a long time, Britain has a politician who doesn’t speak in talking points but instead speaks openly and honestly about the problems Britain faces and also the difficulties the Labour Party must overcome to be an effective opposition and brilliant government in 2020.

    During these next coming months, we will learn that getting Corbyn elected leader was the easiest of tasks. For he will be tested by the fire of a right-wing media that has unlimited resources, dubious ethics and a commitment to preserve the status-quo that favours the rich over everyone else.

    Cameron’s government, in its attempt to drown the progressive voices in this country, will use every cynical device and cruel smear ever employed in attack politics. Moreover Corbyn will have to contend with Labour grandees who, although wounded by his election, still have fangs to draw blood.

    Lastly, if the summer told Corbyn supporters anything, it’s that the media isn’t an ally because many political pundits are still loyal to the ancient regime of Blairism and will to their dying breath champion the cause of New Labour, regardless of how much harm they do to progressive politics.

    But we will face these challenges just as my generation met the obstacles which were put in our way while we tried to create the NHS — with grit, solidarity and perseverance. This will not be an easy battle but nothing worth fighting for in this life ever comes without much struggle. But Corbyn’s victory and election as Labour’s new leader tells me that politics for the people and by the people has made a beachhead. It’s therefore the task of anyone committed to social justice to ensure that footing doesn’t get washed away by the truculence of the vanquished or the myopia of certain political experts, who forget that government is about more than self-interest and personal survival.

    It’s about making a British society that works and is beneficial to each one of us. Now that Corbyn is leader I look forward to helping out on the long but progressive march to victory in 2020 and if I can do it at 92, so can you.

    http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-43e2-Im-92,-and-going-to-war-again#.VgeUum74Rkh

    • Good on you Jay. Jeremy Courban isn’t the leader. He is one part of a chain of millions who realise you can’t sell out on the survival of life on this planet.

    • I still can’t forget how Cameron wanted to sell off British forestery as soon as he gained power, (so his rich sponsors could claim for carbon credits?) With a shockingly arrogant disrespect for the people. Almost as if the people were of no consequence whatsoever.

  4. Good on Corbyn for sticking to his principles.

    It’s about time the non-inclusive fairy-tale lyrics of the British national anthem and that of NZ are revised.

    Requiring everyone, whether they believe or not, to appeal to to imaginary magical fairy in the sky to protect privileged individuals and/or exclusively favour an individual nation over others is an anachronism. An anachronism far more worthy of revising than changing the design of a flag. The lyrics are simply offensive to many.

    This sentiment, of course, will fly over the head of faithists, a group to which I strongly suspect Mr Trotter belongs. Predictable but ludicrous squeals of “attack on christianity” arise whenever the faithist hegemony over many ceremonial protocols is challenged.

    Corbyn will have left society in a better place for taking his stand and raising the issue, even if he loses his leadership over it.

    • The sixth verse is a doozy

      6. Lord grant that Marshal Wade
      May by thy mighty aid
      Victory bring.
      May he sedition hush,
      And like a torrent rush,
      Rebellious Scots to crush.
      God save the Queen!

    • It isn’t that Corbyn has to abandon his principles. It is that a politician’s ability to convince, to explain and to beguile must increase in direct proportion to the distance they travel away from the mainstream.

      It is fine to be dogged, determined and authentic, but see above.
      It’s fine to antagonize the complacent, to poke the borax at careerists and act as a scourge on the Old Right Establishment, but see above.

      Jeremy Corbyn could succeed, at least in theory. But so could David Cunliffe, David Shearer or Andrew Little. All that is needed is for them to be someone else.

      Failing that, they are just going to have to be themselves and hope like Hell that’s enough.

  5. Actually, getting people to reduce their meat consumption is essential for reducing greenhouse gases so a very sensible plan. But hard for the British to swallow.

  6. I’d say yes and no, Jeremy Corbyn must learn to deal with and use the media, but we must also be mindful, that the MSM, or many players in it, are not playing fair game very often.

    We can see how it works in New Zealand, where we have the likes of Gower use every opportunity to get at opposition politicians, and less so at National Party politicians.

    When there is no chance of fair play, how can you deal with and use the media? But nevertheless, it is impossible to ignore the media, so a clear, firm strategy will need to be followed by Corbyn and his party and supporters. Otherwise he will indeed be mincemeat before he realises it.

  7. Jeez Chris.
    Sounds like your terrified of Corbyn and his Socialist views before he has even been elected Prime Minister and had an oppurtunity to implement any policy, a right given to him by those who may democratically elect him and Labour to power.
    What really should of concerned you is some inconspicuous General threatening a possible coup if he is elected. This shows the contempt that the establishment hold true democracy and the citizens they are meant to serve actually in. “How dare you elect someone we dont agree with”
    Get a grip. If the English electorate want him to lead their country then so be it. Gotta be better than the pompous Etonites and War Criminals that have come before him.

  8. Corbyn’s appeal is his strong moral compass and authenticity.
    Dumbing his image and therefore himself down by formulaic faking and faux , just to appease the mainstream media format would just turn him into another cloned puppet.
    No matter what he does the media are not going to cut him any slack so he is best being true to himself.
    It is then impossible to be tripped.
    Stacey Herbert on a recent episode of the Keiser Report showed what a thin warped ideological veneer the m.s.m and Tory Party operate under and graphically demonstrated how easily it is to expose it some basic facts and analysis.
    Interviewing a journalist from the right wing Daily Telegraph , she broached one of Corbyn’s policies of re-nationalising the railways.
    His sneering and stuttering response about privatizing being more efficient was haltered in its tracks when she pointed out that British Rail was still owned by governments.
    They just happen to be the French and German who were raking off the profits.
    She then pointed out that both France and Germany were 32% more productive than Britain because they hadn’t given away their industrial base to China forcing it to becoming largely a low paying service industry country.
    He had no coherent reply.
    Corbyn has ammunition like this to expose the failed neo liberal experiment for what it is.
    He is not a happy accident , he is not your looney or accentric type uncle.
    He is the real deal with a genuine point of difference.
    Expecting Corbyn to modify his behaviour and beliefs to ‘win over’ I don’t know who, is akin to asking Neil Young to become more like Justin Bieber.
    I know what Young’s response would be!

  9. Stay the course. Stick to principles. Corbyn should have a mortgage on the position for at least a few election cycles. Record turnout should mean that it would take nuclear bombs to dislodge him.The unions here and in the uk should support them not those who provide just lip service.
    After a few weeks… so many doubts… leave Corbyn and Little where they are. Say no to rotating leadership of the Labour party.

  10. Yes, the are a lot of Brits who are still very fond of the royal family, but there are also a significant number who despise the whole lot of the. Don’t forget there was an English revolution (short lived, admittedly), that got rid of a king. I have ancestors on both sides of my family that were regicides (including Oliver Cromwell, and Daniel Axtell, the latter was hung,drawn and quartered for his actions) and this ex-pat Pom is immensely proud of them. So to suggest the JC should have bitten the bullet and sung the national anthem, just to appease the media, would show him to be just another mealy mouthed politician. that is not what attracts people to what he stands for. I cheered when I saw him mutely standing there, it was a powerful statement.

  11. So tired of PC correctness ,it usually favours the Tories in UK
    Why does a army man get to dictate what people should vote, he is paid by the taxpayers but seems to think he has an entitlement to cause trouble , the army is supposed to protect Britain not cause a revolution because he does not like the person the public voted for.
    In a lot of peoples mind the Queen is part of the illuminartie,she is imensly rich but still want the public to pay for what she wants.
    If a person isn’t a monarchist why should that person pay homage.
    I am not against the monarchy its a good tourist earner,but they do not have a devine right to rule.
    The problem Tories have in Britain is not what Corbyn dosnt do but what he might do,which is bring Britain to a fair society ,that wouldn’t suit wealthy 1%.
    Corbyn dosnt pay lip service to undeserving people,for that he will do well for the deserving people of which is the multitude in UK.

  12. A less optimistic view of Corbyn’s potential then some but very well reasoned. I’d like to take issue with the following “and two fifths political crackpots. (Like his Environment Secretary, Kerry McCarthy, who is on record as wanting to mount a campaign against the consumption of meat along the lines of the current campaign against smoking!)”
    Several weeks ago I would have agreed with Chris that her views are those of a crackpot but having recently watched the documentary “Cowspiracy” I think she is, in fact, spot on but way ahead of her time. Live stock agriculture is the single biggest contributor to environmental damage (much worse then carbon emissions) and one of the most inefficient methods for producing food that there is. As the film explains these facts are not widely known or acknowledged by any environmental group. The film makers failed attempts to discuss the issue with Greenpeace are very revealing. As is the recording of a phone call during which the films producers withdraw funding shortly after the attempts to engage with Greenpeace.
    One of the key facts highlighted in the film is this – “a single beef burger patty requires 660 gallons of water to produce”. Think about that for a moment and then watch Cowspiracy. Kerry McCarthy will not appear crackpot after that.

    • Maybe Corbyn should advocate that everyone should be forced to watch Cowspiracy along the lines of what happened in ‘A Clockwork Orange’.

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