There are many people complaining about Jeremy Corbyn’s trip to Glastonbury — from Tories whingeing about the BBC coverage to the disdain of Labour moderates for its middle-class Bolshevism. As if either would turn down the opportunity to address tens of thousands of adoring fans, if only they could find them. Both need to stop complaining and start counteracting.
Although it may not feel like it, the Tories face the easier task. Yes, the election left the party listing and leaderless. In public, Tory MPs profess loyalty to Mrs May; in private, their only conversation is who will replace her. The fact that today Westminster waits on the DUP’s Arlene Foster is a foretaste of what life without a majority looks like. Conservative politics is going to be dominated by the who, where and when of this political psychodrama. But the party would do well to consider also the “what”.
What is the purpose of Conservatism? If it is only Brexit for Brexit’s sake, then the crushing experience of tough EU negotiations will make the country weary of Tory zealotry. If their economic policy amounts to ditching fiscal prudence and attacking business, and their social mission is measured only by the size of state spending, people might well ask: why not have Corbyn, and get the real thing? It is fashionable to say the Conservatives lost seats because Mr Corbyn got the young to vote. The polling analysis tells the truth: the Tories went backwards not only with the young but the middle-aged too; graduates deserted them as well as students; support among ethnic minorities fell; and the party of the “just about managing” found that a majority of working people voted Labour.
Here in London, a few years ago Labour led the Conservatives by just two per cent; today they lead by 26 per cent. The deal with the DUP will prove costly in all senses — and threatens to accentuate the damage that the party’s enthusiastic embrace of hard Brexit has already done. The Tories need to rediscover their purpose and articulate the case for internationalist, compassionate pro-business government that reforms public services to spread opportunity and celebrates modern Britain.
Momentum
If that sounds a daunting challenge, then pity the centre Left.Mr Corbyn apparently told Michael Eavis, the millionaire who runs Glastonbury, that he expects to be prime minister within six months. His actions in the six days that followed the election suggests he is much more interested in strengthening the grip of the far Left. Rather than reach out to what now pass for moderates, he snubbed most of them in the construction of his shadow cabinet. Festival-goer Tom Watson was dumped as party chair and in his place is the ex-leader of the miners’ union. Across the party the momentum, in every sense, is with the Corbynistas. Expect the final coup de grâce against the enfeebled social democrats at this year’s conference.
What are the moderates to do? Forming a new centre party feels like a forlorn dream, conjured up in the New York salon of Mr D Miliband. The barriers to entry are huge and the poor performance of the current centre party, the Lib-Dems, hardly suggests there is room for another one. The only realistic option is to heed the words of Hugh Gaitskell and fight, fight, and fight again to save their party — over every conference resolution, every parliamentary position and in every committee.
Their basic insight is the right one: the fields of Glastonbury are not the streets of Britain. The country does not want the economic ruin, union power, unilateral disarmament and class war that Labour’s leader offers. Instead of complaining about Corbyn, they need a strategy to supplant him.
http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/evening-standard-comment-moderates-must-fight-fight-and-fight-again-a3573106.html
