As anyone who has trekked in mountainous country will tell you, when disorientated, stand still and take stock.
As anyone who has trekked in mountainous country will tell you, when disorientated, stand still and take stock.
Panicked rushing is likely to send you towards – even over – precipitous drops. Or at least into boggy and thoroughly undignified mishaps. “Treat the fells with respect”, I was told as soon as I was old enough for a tiny pair of boots and my own compass.
It’s also good advice for a political and media establishment left floundering without charts in the aftermath of Jeremy Corbyn’s overwhelming leadership election victory. This wasn’t supposed to happen and a great many politicians and pundits are looking as daft and dangerously ill-prepared as a group of day-trippers dressed in shorts and flip-flops, caught in cloud on Swirral Edge.
From the distressingly ill-timed resignation of Jamie Reed, Shadow Health minister and MP for Copeland, tweeted seconds after the announcement of Corbyn’s victory and the copy of his letter of resignation, also tweeted a couple of hours later, (distressing because I like Jamie) to the indignation of Sky News’ Kay Burley at Corbyn declining to answer questions in the street as he was still considering his cabinet, wrong-footed and uncomprehending casualties are strewn everywhere.
Many of the manifestations of disorientation go beyond the individually tragi-comic. The email sent out from Conservative Campaign HQ on 12 September contained misleading (and in one instance outright mendacious) statements and scaremongering. It should not need saying that this kind of knee-jerky, frightened response is not only demeaning to its originators, it devalues the common currency of political discourse.
And then there are the panic-stricken reactions of a good number of Labour MPs and supporters. It’s important to recognise that many of these – most, in fact – are driven by a genuine fear that such a radical departure from the consensus of the last 20 years or so will render Labour unelectable. It’s as hard for them to deal with the new situation as it is for their opponents.
But given the scale of Jeremy Corbyn’s victory, his indisputable mandate and the immense energy which he has let loose, maybe a little humility and patience could be in order. I apply this admonition to myself because I am not convinced by the appointment of John McDonnell as Shadow Chancellor. But I am willing to accept that he may – in the new dispensation of responsibilty which goes with social democratic government – be able to rise above past braggadocio and hyperbole to show himself an able and rational finance minister.
The number of Labour Party members and registered supporters is now close to half a million. Over 28,000 people have joined the Labour Party in the two days since Corbyn was elected. He has packed out halls around the country and spoken to overflow meetings. Of course, some of this immediate enthusiasm will die away, but it does speak of the scale of the hunger for a different kind of politics – unspun, communicating in a direct manner which inspires trust and refusing to hedge all possibilities for fear of giving hostages to fortune.
The people who have responded to this are not part of the Westminster bubble or the political establishment. They are the people Labour has to win, keep and inspire if it is to win the extra 106 seats it will need for a parliamentary majority in 2020.
The other three candidates in this election have struggled to deal with the manner in which Jeremy Corbyn has exposed their bland, lookalike and rather mechanical politics. They and their supporters have to deal with the fact that an overwhelming majority of those entitled to vote for a new leader have rejected what they stand for. This may take some time. But an electorate which has been given hope that they’re not “all the same” is not going to forget what it has seen. A good number of MPs are going to have to step up and meet a challenge which they had not anticipated.
In the coming months, Corbyn will need to deal with a vitriolic press and a Tory party who have already shown themselves eager to misrepresent almost anything he says and to interpret his actions in the most negative way possible. There are signs that the hysteric quality of this response is already beginning to arouse derision. But if this level of injustice is to be ridden and survived, it demands of us a respect for the new and largely unmapped environment. A popular movement, galvanised by the 200-1 ‘outsider’ has already made a huge dent in the hostility and contempt of the commentariat, the Westminster establishment and the mainstream media.
If a week is long time in politics, five years is an eternity. Let’s allow a little time, a small gracious space, to take stock. The promise of the view from the top of the mountain is surely worth that.
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© Jill Segger is an Associate Director of Ekklesia with particular involvement in editorial issues. She is a freelance writer who contributes to the Church Times, Catholic Herald, Tribune, Reform and The Friend, among other publications. Jill is an active Quaker. See: http://www.journalistdirectory.com/journalist/TQig/Jill-Segger You can follow Jill on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/quakerpen