The election of Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of the Labour Party is an event that has been discussed with great vigor, absolute conflict and massive opposition. The reason why I use the term ‘massive opposition’ is purely predicated on the status-quo. Tony Blair, arguably the best Labor leader despite the Iraqi blunder of the highest order, claimed that Corbyn would be a disaster for the party. David Cameroon marked the Labour as threat to national security after his election to the leadership. The opposition transcended borders when Italian minister Matteo Renzi was of the same opinion. The general public has claimed he won’t be able to take Labour ahead of Tories while he has been labelled as an ‘old’ version of the Labor who will take the ‘modern’ one back to the days of Michael Foot.
To argue that he won’t be able to take his party to a victory in elections is more or less a baseless claim for much can happen in 5 years just like it happened when he unexpectedly won the leadership and what happened to Labor after the glorious days of Blair. So which is why, instead of giving an analysis on whether he will win the next election it is more important to understand what he really means to British politics and the party that has hit rock bottom in in the last 5 years; the Labour Party. It will also quash the claims of high profile figures mentioned above.
To begin with, the labor need someone who reignites the idea of what the Labour party is and stands for. The labor has lost its charisma and appeal for it has become too centrist and so have its members. It has lost the core principles and values it took pride in. Take the example of the new bill which reduces child benefits and tax credits for poverty struck people. Most labor members voted in favor with the exception of a few which included Corbyn. The likes of Kendall who stood for the leadership election is credited to be a centrist and almost a conservative which is why the concept of new labor and modern labor has made the party lose its leftist approach and brought it very far closer to the sphere of the right. The labor centrists continue to differ with the Conservatives but it seems more on the face of it rather than purely. Unfortunately, the Labor policies of better child benefits, higher taxation of the rich, lesser tax relief for the rich and corporate sectors, tackling inequality have all taken a severe hit because of the centrism that exists in the party. The party no longer takes a hardcore stance on unaffordable houses, expensive public utilities or an end to austerity. However, the idea here is not that all these policies which are to be associated with the left are the only way out for Britain but they definitely provide a stepping stone for the Labour to seem as the viable alternative to the Conservatives which is an image they have struggled to achieve for almost a decade now. How so?
This is where Jeremy Corbyn comes in. Corbyn supports a pound ten minimum wage to alleviate more people from poverty and an avid supporter of reducing the 93 billion pounds given in tax relief. It reinvents the Labor ideology of being a true representative of the lower, lower middle and middle classes. As clichéd as that sounds, it is true and it is what might potentially bring a challenge to the Tories and lead to the rise of the Labour. On the educational front, Corbyn envisions free higher education funded by higher corporate taxes to lay the foundation for the less privileged to move up the social ladder and a National Education Service based on the same principles as NHS. He, furthermore, believes in classic stimulus as an alternative to Conservative’s austerity oriented policies and is in favor of people’s quantitative easing to allow the Bank of England to print money to create jobs and large scale housing schemes. His policy of nationalization is aimed at bringing energy prices down. The Britain economy is still three percent smaller than 2008 and unemployment has reduced at a meagre rate despite Conservative’s claims of huge successes. 30 percent of the unemployed have been unable to find a job for a year and the levels of economic productivity are low whereas the UK recorded one of the largest trade deficits last year due to falling exports.
Policies of large scale apprenticeship that Corbyn vies for and stimulus based economy that he wants to bring about can certainly tackle unemployment as well as low growth. The likes of SSE, Centrica RWE power and a couple others who control UK’s electricity generation market have led to a lack of competitive pricing in the energy sector which is why nationalization doesn’t seem an implausible idea at all. The problem of housing is significant right now and Conservatives have lacked solutions to it. George Osborne’s policy of 1 percent rent cut is viewed as a disincentive for landlords in investing to create more rent houses despite the affordability it creates for low income groups. Therefore, ‘Corbynism’ can be instrumental since it advocates people’s quantitative easing. Corbyn’s campaign for nuclear disarmament is clearly ideal too which everyone would like to be accomplished.
In a nutshell, it is fair to argue that Corbyn is a vital and pivotal change for British politics. He brings to the table a set of ideas and principles which he has stood by since 1983, a set of ideas and principles that might eradicate the growing disenfranchisement of people who are losing out under the current political system. In other words with the revival of the real left, the Labour has a chance to improve the political arena by being true opposition to the Tories and on the other hand galvanizing support for its policies, ideology and aims. It is up on those Brits now who gave up on the Labour to decide whether they favor Corbyn but it seems they certainly will welcome such an entry as it, in one way or other, reestablishes what the working class, low income groups and many Brits were so fond of at one point of time; the Labour party.