Howard Jacobson’s speech in a debate about Corbyn has been doing the rounds. It is witty and has Corbs bang to rights but there’s a line in there which made it clear to me why Corbyn is likely to become Prime Minister and also why he has found broad appeal.
Note this paragraph (emphasis mine):
To persist in a small erroneousness is the mark of a fool. To persist in a great erroneousness is the mark of a dangerous fool. The ideology in which Corbyn has been pickled for half a century was outworn by the time it reached him. It oversaw the death of millions. That the ideologies he opposes have scarcely done any better is not an argument for his. You don’t have to love the West to refuse the embraces of those whose sole ambition is to blow the West apart … especially if you want to call yourself a pacifist.
Even when attacking Corbyn Jacobson still argues Corbyn’s vision is only as bad as the ideology that currently defines us and no one even noticed.
If we can’t make a rigorous defence of who we are and what we believe in and crucially why freedom and democracy is better than the Corbyn’s communism then we’re doomed to lose to him!
