Mark Forstater's Blog

My ‘vote’ for Jeremy Corbyn

I’m not a member of the Labour Party and I missed the voting Deadline, but I’d like to cast my ‘vote’ for Jeremy Corbyn. Why?

Like many people I’m not happy with the way this country is going. It has lost some of its soul. We are no longer the more caring and compassionate society we once were. Today we are not too concerned that our fellow citizens are going to food banks to feed themselves, or that parents are missing meals so at least their children can eat. If this is the way we treat our neighbours (who are in reality our friends) then how do we treat our enemies? David Cameron says let’s promote British values to the world. What values are we to promote? Inequality, Greed, Indifference? These are not values that will convince anyone, let alone Isis.

And they don’t convince all Brits either. People want change, they believe the current economic and social model is life-negating and not life enhancing. They want change and no politician is offering it – except for Jeremy Corbyn. He terrifies the Labour establishment because they think electing Corbyn will plunge the party back into its 1980s internecine conflicts. They believe he is unelectable. But 1980 was 35 years ago. It is a different world now, and a different world needs a different approach. Only Corbyn is expressing this, and this is why people are flocking to him. This is the first true grassroots movement that the party has seen for many years. The last time people were energized like this was the march against the Iraq war in 2003.Then over a million people took to the streets to say no to the war, but a Labour government went ahead with it anyway, lying to the people. So when Tony Blair gets up to diss Corbyn what do you think those millions will say: if Blair’s against Corbin, then he must be good.

Politicians are like heads of film studios. The studios keep producing versions of whatever movies are successful now. They always miss what is new and upcoming, like sleeper movie hits which the studios would never make. The studios only copy fresh ideas when they are proved successful in the market place. Politicians do the same. They all repeat (with minor variations) the policies that they see as viable in the marketplace of voters. Since Cameron and Osborne were so successful in winning the last election with their austere and damaging policies, politicians from the other big parties believe that surely it would be mad to go too far against these policies, because of their great electoral success. They don’t understand that in the marketplace of voters there are millions of people who want to see a change. These people are appalled at the hidden suffering they see around them, and they (like millions of others) are also suffering reduced living standards. They demand a different approach, and their numbers will grow. The sooner Labour politicians realise this, the better it will be for the Labour Party and for the country. Inequality will kill us unless it is stopped.

This is why I am ‘voting’ for Jeremy Corbyn.

September 10, 2015 at 6:19 pm Leave a comment