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1/8 Have finished ‘Left Out’ by @Gabriel_Pogrund and @patrickkmaguire - it was an astonishing, enthralling read.
After the December election, I honestly thought we could move on from Corbyn and Corbynism...
After the December election, I honestly thought we could move on from Corbyn and Corbynism...
2/8 But @UKLabour has been one of the few vehicles in this country that can take progressive ideas and turn them into reality.
That it was captured for five years by this odd group of people is fascinating and demands further analysis. The book offers that in spades...
That it was captured for five years by this odd group of people is fascinating and demands further analysis. The book offers that in spades...
3/8 That it inspired a huge number of young people across the UK cannot be denied.
That can only ever be a good thing, whatever your view on the politics of ‘The Project’ itself.
We may yet see the benefit of that engagement in the years to come...
That can only ever be a good thing, whatever your view on the politics of ‘The Project’ itself.
We may yet see the benefit of that engagement in the years to come...
4/8 But those young people did not drive it. They were the foot soldiers.
At the heart of The Project was an ideologically-driven group of old Bennites who had been largely ignored by the mainstream for four decades...
At the heart of The Project was an ideologically-driven group of old Bennites who had been largely ignored by the mainstream for four decades...
5/8 What was extraordinary, or certainly what I took away from ‘Left Out’, was the complete absence of a vision, a blueprint of an new society.
There were slogans, of course, but few genuine ideas. We knew what they were against but little idea of what they were for...
There were slogans, of course, but few genuine ideas. We knew what they were against but little idea of what they were for...
6/8 At the centre was this stubborn, ill-tempered, intransigent and not very bright individual who recoiled from any type of confrontation or difficult conversation and was unwilling to yield executive power.
It’s clear Corbyn was easily manipulated by those around him...
It’s clear Corbyn was easily manipulated by those around him...
7/8 Notwithstanding the walking disaster that is Boris Johnson, it is difficult to think of a more unsuitable candidate for Prime Minister.
Imagine him in a COBRA meeting in the midst of a security crisis, dithering, mumbling.
Neither use nor ornament.
Imagine him in a COBRA meeting in the midst of a security crisis, dithering, mumbling.
Neither use nor ornament.
8/8 In 2015 the left was offered a once-in-a-generation pathway to real power and transformational change.
And it put this bunch of incompetent, effete old lags in charge of it and offered us the Emperor’s New Clothes, bereft of vision or original ideas.
What a waste.
And it put this bunch of incompetent, effete old lags in charge of it and offered us the Emperor’s New Clothes, bereft of vision or original ideas.
What a waste.
