Headline in the Independent newspaper website (who buys newspapers anymore?)
"Jeremy Corbyn wins Labour leadership election: Landslide victory over Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall"
Suddenly Conservative Party members are rubbing their hands at the prospect of electoral victories for many years to come and the left wing establishment are collectively facepalming. Tim Farron (who is Tim Farron you might ask? The Lib Dem leader since July in case you hadn't noticed - along with the rest of the country) suddenly sees the prospect of a revival of the centre left in politics and in his dreams.
Why? Because Jeremy Corbyn is a piece of Labour party heritage, a living museum piece. New Labour is no more, Old Labour is back. Just like museums! We are currently trying to make the past relevant to modern audiences, we are trying to get objects out of glass cases and putting them into the hands of the general public. Why shouldn't political parties do the same?
"...objects are able to take the visitor back in time to discover the people involved."*Jeremy Corbyn is such an object. Let him take you back to a world where:
- railways are state run
- there's a 75% top rate of tax on the wealthy
- no nuclear weapons
- strong rent controls
- no tuition fees
- no wars in the east
That is enough to bring a nostalgic tear to citizens of a certain age. It is not the mythical past that UKIP are trying to recreate, but to a recognisably pre-Thatcherite age. Will it happen?
What commentators seem to have forgotten is that all the above policies have widespread support from the British general public. Indeed, it seems we are all closet old labour socialists. But will we come out of the closet and begin going on protest marches and vote Labour ever again?
Another way of putting it, are we as likely to vote Labour as to think going to a museum is a good thing to do on a weekend? We all know museums are important. We all know that they play an important part in preserving our culture. We know where they are, but do we go there? Or does the IKEA sale, the round of golf or just festering quietly in front of 'Murder She Wrote' seem more attractive?
Sadly I fear Jeremy Corbyn, will go the way of publicly funded museums. He is a good idea, even necessary perhaps, and although we implicitly support his ideology we won't vote for him. His inevitable crushing defeat at the next General Election and subsequent resignation will leave the posh boys** in charge for another term.
Do we get the politician's we deserve? Sometimes we do, but we don't always vote for them.
Do we get the museum's we deserve? Sometimes we do, but we don't always visit them.
What is Jeremy Corbyn's favourite museum? I would put my meagre salary on it being the People's History Museum in Manchester. A truly amazing museum, with truly amazing staff - but have you visited it recently?
Sadly it is a possibility that neither Mr. Corbyn or the People's History Museum will be around in 2020, and who's fault is that?
You have been warned.
All together now!
It shrouded oft our martyred dead,
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
Their hearts' blood dyed its ev'ry fold.
etc.
*D.Lynn McTierney, Smithsonian Institute, http://museumstudies.si.edu/McRainey.htm
** posh boys - a technical term roughly defined as 'an arrogantly entitled male elite'. Google the term and a pictures of our present Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer feature prominently. I will of course be voting for them in the next election to keep UKIP out.
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