Labour stronger under Corbyn

Well, she would say that, wouldn`t she (Morning Star, 05/09/15)? Yvette  Cooper, like her Tory-lite comrades in the Labour leadership race, is, in desperation, still trying to suggest that the Labour party will somehow become a weaker opposition to the Tories under Corbyn`s leadership. The idea that Labour will not be a “credible threat” and allow the Tory government to become “more right-wing” is frankly, quite ludicrous.

    The reason Labour has been weak in opposition to Cameron`s coalition, and now Tory, government is because so many of its policies have been too similar to those of the Conservatives to allow downright condemnation of what they have been doing. How can criticism of government cuts be effective when Labour has, in principle at least, been in tacit agreement with the policy? How can Labour have attacked the glaring inequality in this country, which has the government`s support, when it has no positive proposals to reduce it? Does anyone really believe things would not change dramatically with Corbyn at the helm?

 Cameron has had a relatively easy ride, especially at PMQs, because he has been able to counter any attacks Miliband and Harman made, by cashing in on Labour`s indecisiveness and ever-changing stances. With Corbyn, however, Cameron will be unable to achieve any level of ascendancy  because the opposition will have an ideological base which would underpin all policies, and provide the consistency which has been lacking in recent years. Corbyn`s ability to answer all questions in a language, both straightforward and intelligible, has to be bad news for Cameron, whose obfuscation and waffle will be highlighted even more.

      If his leadership does drive the Tories to the right, as Cooper suggests, this can only benefit Labour; every extremely right-wing or biased action by Osborne or the prime minister, such as the recent rewarding of party donors by the awarding of peerages, and adding to the upper house`s lack of relevance and credibility, or selling off RBS shares at ridiculously low prices to friends in the City, can only be electorally beneficial to a united Labour party.

  It`s increasingly clear that the Tories do not agree with Cooper either, as they have already begun to oil the wheels of their propaganda machine, and attack Corbyn, five years before facing him at the 2020 election. Describing him as a "peacenik", and promising to spend £500m on the Trident naval base at Faslane, have revealed their fears of how influential Corbyn has become, and, more importantly, how popular his poliices already are.       

   Tories have clearly seen that the threat posed to them by a Corbyn-led Labour party is far more serious than from an opposition led by one of the other three candidates. The only snag is that many in the Labour party itself cannot see it!