Thread by @shaunjlawson

I'm a big Corbyn fan and want Labour to win desperately. But anyone who thinks he did even passably OK in that interview with Andrew Neil needs their head read.

I expect, genuinely, Neil to give Johnson a similar going over. He's the master of this sort of thing.

And those cases Neil mentioned? Should've been dealt with. No two ways about it. There's no point in me and many others highlighting the rank hypocrisy in all this when Labour's processes move like a snail.

Gotta do better. Have to do better. Period.

On another note: the manifesto says the Back to 60 campaigners will be recompensed, but doesn't set out any detail beyond that. Here's a revelation for you: I've never supported that campaign. Labour have only committed to it because of its problem with the grey vote.

It's not that I've not supported it because I'm mean or heartless. It's because I believe in equality. And at a time the young are suffering ever more, I've always found the campaign tone deaf and (absolutely NOT in all cases, but definitely some) kinda entitled.

See? I can criticise Labour! I can criticise Corbyn! I don't agree with 100% of everything he or the party stands for. But I sure as heck agree with more of it than I've ever agreed with any party's platform at any election before... and believe me, it ain't close.

And as a final aside... in that hypothetical scenario Neil mentioned, I think Corbyn would give the orders to take the Daesh leader or equivalent out.

My biggest criticism of Neil? 11 years to save humanity... and not a single mention of climate change. Extraordinary.

Beyond that, I thought his questions were extremely tough... but there was no bias in him asking them. It's up to any prospective PM to deal with and answer them. He only interrupted so often because Corbyn kept bobbing and weaving.

Other than a couple of things - Neil constantly going on about the 60bn reserves when Corbyn said it'd be done over a decade - and him wrongly suggesting Corbyn hadn't answered "is that antisemitic?" when he'd already said "it is" - I had no real issue with his approach.

But the crucial point is this. Labour's approach requires the whole economy to be reimagined. It's about value over cost; prioritising the long over the short term; rebuilding, restructuring and growing the economy so everyone benefits.

That's Keynesianism adapted to the twenty-first century - with, I hope, Modern Monetary Theory thrown in too. The problem is that having lived through 40 years of "sound money" (while the debt's just kept rising and rising), almost all commentators are still kinda brainwashed.

Which brings me back to the leap of faith thing I mentioned last week. The point is: the current system doesn't work. At all. And if we don't do something radical, something akin to post-fascism will take over instead.

This is the great crossroads of our time. One way leads to ever more entrenched misery for most; ever greater profits and disaster capitalism for a few, combined with the UK likely becoming a borderline police state within a decade, because that's the only way it'd hold together.

The other way is certainly a risk - but by a million miles, the greater risk lies in doing nothing. That's why commentators saying "if Corbyn wasn't leader, Labour would be walking this" have missed the point as ever.

1. Centrism has no answers and no clue and is in denial about pretty much everything.

2. You can't build a radical movement of change without someone who inspires that movement.

3. The real divide in the UK is a social one: between social conservatives and social liberals.

Their world views could hardly be further apart. And there's only one man who could ever have bridged that divide between these two tribes. Corbyn. Which is why his Brexit policy is spot on and so is his economic programme.

Those social conservatives - who make up about half the electorate - cannot be won back with New Labour triangulation & especially not with fanatical Remainism. The only way we keep them from the hard and far right's clutches is by transforming their lives through huge investment

Which, incidentally, is exactly what the Green New Deal sets out in fantastic detail.

Change the environment and attitudes change. Double down on it, and the divide gets even worse... to everyone's cost.

The number one reason I voted for Corbyn in 2015 was because it was blindingly obvious to me that only he had a snowball in hell's chance of uniting working class Kippers, slowly bringing back some Scots AND Labour's liberal, metropolitan, multi-ethnic base.

That commentators STILL think it's all about 'move to the centre! That'll sort it!' boggles my mind... but hey ho. It's been boggled plenty of times over the last 4 years, after all.

Those commentators chronically, almost unforgivably underestimate:

1. The extent to which the system has failed

2. The extent of the divide

3. The sense of betrayal so so many people feel

Well - if the Tories win, all those three things above will get much much worse, especially when people wake up to the reality of No Deal at the end of 2020. We cannot go on like this. The level of polarisation which awaits if we do is terrifying.

So no: Corbyn's not perfect (very far from it) and Labour are far from perfect too. But by light years, they're the best hope Britain has. In fact, they're its only hope.