Tuesday 11 August 2015

The Rising Star

Jeremy Corbyn has drawn more than 500 people to a rally on a Tuesday afternoon in Llandudno, which is a fairly out-of-the-way seaside town of only 20,000 inhabitants, and which forms the centre of the Aberconwy constituency, a Conservative seat. One in 40 people in Llandudno was at Corbyn's rally.

The airy entitlement of the "I Would Not Serve" brigade is very funny to watch. But at least as amusing will be the sight of the hacks trying to acquire contacts with the Labour Left and the unions, after decades of scornfully pretending that they did not exist. They should be so lucky. The Cuban sparkling wine is on ice at the Morning Star.

Tomorrow, even Liz Kendall is writing for the Morning Star. She has some front, I do have to give her that. But within a year of Corbyn's victory, the Morning Star will have more readers than The Guardian, at least in terms of paper copies sold in this country.

The Guardian's sales will go through the floor for various reasons, and that will happen right when large numbers of people were taking an inquisitive look at the paper on which the Leader of the Opposition was a longstanding columnist.

That paper's daily book reviews, its unique and very telling inclusion of BBC Parliament in its television listings, its highly distinctive arts coverage, its attention to countries that no other British media outlet considers worth mentioning, and its unrivalled expertise in newly popular women's football, will all cause various categories of people to stick with it.

As, of course, will its sole access to the people who are about to be running the political party with the second-most members of the House of Commons, and with far and away the most members in the country at large.

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