Peter Hitchens writes:
It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at the obvious rage and discontent among political journalists (who have spent the last five years and lots of money taking Blairites to lunch, all now wasted) who are appalled at the cheek of the Labour Party in picking a candidate they don’t know and don’t like.
This isn’t much to do with politics. In my experience few political journalists have any interest in politics or any interesting views on the subject.
They’re all ‘modernisers’ or ‘centrists’, meaningless expressions which (being interpreted) mean that they unthinkingly accept whatever conventional wisdom is until it changes, whereupon they accept the new conventional wisdom.
First Corbyn wouldn’t win. Then he did. Then there would be a putsch against him. Then his majority made that rather difficult. Then he wouldn’t be able to form a Shadow Cabinet. Then he did.
Then there weren’t enough women in the new Shadow Cabinet (fat lot I care, not believing that someone’s sex is, by itself, either a qualification or a disqualification for political office). Then there were more women in it than men.
Then none of them was Shadow Chancellor. Well, there aren’t that many women in great offices of state (so-called) in the real Cabinet, and I don’t recall Mr Cameron being quizzed very hard on this, or anything else much.
The reporters have seldom been so out of the loop.
Perhaps that’s why, on the BBC at lunchtime, Mr Corbyn was interviewed with the camera practically shoved up his right nostril, an angle that could reasonably be described as unflattering.
Gosh, how one wishes that all this suspicion and hostility had been unleashed on the Blair creature when he was first elected, amid much adulation and almost no questioning, back in 1994.
I still think those who dismiss Corbynism as a purely leftist upsurge need to explain the very large public meetings which took place wherever he spoke.
My own solitary experience of one of these did not suggest that those attending were solely battle-hardened old Bennites yearning for their lost youth.
Many were simply curious, and indeed enthused by a feeling that they were being asked their opinion, and doing something that they had been told not to do.
What is so great about the other politicians, exactly? Can someone tell me? What are they good at? What do they stand for? What do they know? What are their great qualifications?
I agree that Mr Corbyn is undistinguished, academically or in life. But that would be a more powerful argument if he weren't up against the veterans of various Bullingdon club offensives in the restaurants of Oxfordshire, heading a Cabinet of forgettable nonentities whose names and deeds few can recall.
It's not as if the Cameron Cabinet is full of decorated warriors, brilliant businessmen, academic giants or anything else much.
There is a malaise abroad in this country and it is not confined to left-wingers. Anyone with any memory knows that this is a worrying and uncertain time, full of signs and portents.
The glass is falling, hour by hour, if you care to look.
It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at the obvious rage and discontent among political journalists (who have spent the last five years and lots of money taking Blairites to lunch, all now wasted) who are appalled at the cheek of the Labour Party in picking a candidate they don’t know and don’t like.
This isn’t much to do with politics. In my experience few political journalists have any interest in politics or any interesting views on the subject.
They’re all ‘modernisers’ or ‘centrists’, meaningless expressions which (being interpreted) mean that they unthinkingly accept whatever conventional wisdom is until it changes, whereupon they accept the new conventional wisdom.
First Corbyn wouldn’t win. Then he did. Then there would be a putsch against him. Then his majority made that rather difficult. Then he wouldn’t be able to form a Shadow Cabinet. Then he did.
Then there weren’t enough women in the new Shadow Cabinet (fat lot I care, not believing that someone’s sex is, by itself, either a qualification or a disqualification for political office). Then there were more women in it than men.
Then none of them was Shadow Chancellor. Well, there aren’t that many women in great offices of state (so-called) in the real Cabinet, and I don’t recall Mr Cameron being quizzed very hard on this, or anything else much.
The reporters have seldom been so out of the loop.
Perhaps that’s why, on the BBC at lunchtime, Mr Corbyn was interviewed with the camera practically shoved up his right nostril, an angle that could reasonably be described as unflattering.
Gosh, how one wishes that all this suspicion and hostility had been unleashed on the Blair creature when he was first elected, amid much adulation and almost no questioning, back in 1994.
I still think those who dismiss Corbynism as a purely leftist upsurge need to explain the very large public meetings which took place wherever he spoke.
My own solitary experience of one of these did not suggest that those attending were solely battle-hardened old Bennites yearning for their lost youth.
Many were simply curious, and indeed enthused by a feeling that they were being asked their opinion, and doing something that they had been told not to do.
What is so great about the other politicians, exactly? Can someone tell me? What are they good at? What do they stand for? What do they know? What are their great qualifications?
I agree that Mr Corbyn is undistinguished, academically or in life. But that would be a more powerful argument if he weren't up against the veterans of various Bullingdon club offensives in the restaurants of Oxfordshire, heading a Cabinet of forgettable nonentities whose names and deeds few can recall.
It's not as if the Cameron Cabinet is full of decorated warriors, brilliant businessmen, academic giants or anything else much.
There is a malaise abroad in this country and it is not confined to left-wingers. Anyone with any memory knows that this is a worrying and uncertain time, full of signs and portents.
The glass is falling, hour by hour, if you care to look.
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