Corbyn wasn’t committed to remaining in the EU in the referendum in 2016 “I’d give it 7 out of 10”. He suggested invoking Article 50 the day after the result. He was invisible in the Brexit debate 2016-19, and he blocked cross-party attempts to force a second referendum & made
an election inevitable. It was obvious what would happen once Johnson got his election, but Corbyn thought that he could play King Canute by touring the country shouting at the party faithful. Brexit was the biggest issue of the day, of a generation, and Labour, a party of social
inclusion and internationalism, was on the wrong side of it from the moment they elected Corbyn, a lifelong Brexiter, as leader. Labour failed to make the case against Brexit, that austerity, not the EU, was the cause of people’s ills, and after the referendum they doubled
down and pandered to this act of national self-harm, rather than put all their might behind stoping Brexit. The people in the Labour heartlands who voted Conservative have just signed the death warrant for their communities’ future prosperity. The Tories will get Brexit done
and in so doing they will get their jobs gone. The Tories are laughing behind their hands at the turkeys who voted for Christmas. Taken for mugs. And proud of it. And even at this moment of utter failure by Corbyn and his supporters, Corbyn is talking about staying on to oversee
a “period of reflection”. That would be a first for Corbyn. What he really wants to do is try to hand over power to a like-minded leader. If he succeeds, Labour faces decades in opposition, which is where he has always been most comfortable. It’s time for what remains
of the capable, sensible non-Corbyn cultists in the Labour Party to step up to the mark. If they don’t, if they let the Corbyn rump keep control, the party is finished as a force in UK politics. Corbyn himself is not a bad man; in many ways he is a decent, thoughtful man, but
he was always the wrong man at the wrong time. The wrong policies, the wrong beliefs on Europe, the wrong qualities to be a leader at a time when we desperately needed someone exceptional. A checklist of socially progressive policies was never going to be enough, and that’s what
Corbyn was: a checklist for activists and true believers. I could sign up to 99% of the policies in the list, but I always knew that Corbyn was the wrong person to deliver them. So here we are. I don’t know where we go next, but I’m not optimistic. The progressives will rise
again, but it’s going to be a long, hard road back. Meanwhile, we need to defend our EU and non-white friends and neighbours from the emboldened racists who will see this result as a green light to attack them. We must stand up for underdogs everywhere against knee jerk
reactionaries who will seek to attack our liberties and impose punitive policies that will make us less safe and continue the cycle of poverty and crime. And we must avoid the temptation to set ourselves against the mostly good, well-meaning people who put their faith in Corbyn.
We can’t give up, for our sakes and the sakes of everyone in the country, especially the poor, the disadvantaged and marginalised. For now, and the next few days, it’s ok to grieve, to wallow in it. To do otherwise would be to deny reality. Regroup, gather yourselves & go again
