13 reasons to not vote for Jeremy Corbyn to be leader of the Labour Party
By: Labour Pains
Tags: UK Politics, Labour Party

13 reasons to not vote for Jeremy Corbyn to be leader of the Labour Party Labour Pains Aug 16, 2015·7 min read

The vast majority of the people who have joined the Labour Party to vote for Jeremy Corbyn aren’t mendacious Trotskyite infiltrators, but ordinary voters who want an alternative to modern capitalism. But that doesn’t mean they’re not completely, utterly wrong to think that Jeremy Corbyn is the right choice for Labour. Here’s 13 reasons (although there are many more) why people who can vote in Labour’s leadership election should take a step away from the brink.

Corbyn’s economic policies don’t make any sense.

Pretending Government can solve the UK’s problems by creating money with no negative consequences is irresponsible and wrong. As Robert Peston explains here, as soon as a Government printed money to build houses and roads, (like it or loath it) currency markets would dump the pound. That would push inflation up, making goods more expensive and ordinary people poorer. Trying to persuade sceptical voters that all their problems will be solved if the Government just prints more money is going to be impossible. If there was a easy cost free fix to all of the problems of a modern economy, then surely more countries would be using it?

#otherJezwecan

2. Corbyn’s plans to clamp down on tax evasion are a fantasy.

Jeremy Corbyn’s plans to pay for all his spending commitments from a £120bn crackdown on tax evasion. Tha sound great at first. But if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Jolyon Maugham’s clear explanation of why Governments can’t simply just summon £120bn from the tax gap explains this well. The idea that you can fund everything you ever want without any compromises is a fantasy.

3. Corbyn can’t persuade Tory voters to vote Labour.

Imagine you’re in your fifties. You own your own house. You don’t live in London. You voted Tory in 2010 and 2015 but voted Labour under Blair. You thought Ed Miliband was weird and too left wing. You are by all means a typical voter. How likely are you to be persuaded by a beardy London socialist who wants to increase taxes? There is absolutely no way for Labour to win in Nuneaton, Plymouth, Stockton, Bury or Dover without persuading some voters who previously supported the Tories. Do you really, honestly, think it’s likely that Jeremy Corbyn can do that? All the evidence suggests he can’t.

4. Lots of people attending rallies does not mean that Corbyn is popular.

Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign has so far been incredibly successful at creating a mass movement of people who already agree with him. That’s the easy bit. Packing out a hall with 1000 people to listen to political speeches is pretty impressive. But in no way does that mean that the message in the hall is one shared by the country at large. Managing to get the same attendance for a campaign rally as a low ranking non league football team can muster on a rainy Monday night really isn’t a sign you’re about to cruise to electoral victory.

5. Corbyn won’t shift the country leftwards — he’ll give the Tories a free hand.

Governments are, to some extent, restrained by opposition parties. If the Tories see that Labour has a good shot of getting into Government, they’ll be less likely to pursue unpopular policies which will hurt ordinary people. Jeremy Corbyn being elected Labour leader would give George Osborne and friends a free hand. If Labour has a leader who the majority of the public will not under any circumstances elect then there’s no need for the Tories to broaden their appeal. Instead of shifting the country leftwards, Corbyn as Labour leader would give the Government carte blanche to slash the public sector, remove employment rights and attack welfare even further.

6. Corbyn wants to reopen the mines.

This policy announcement is pretty telling. Corbyn isn’t interested in the environmental cost of coal. It doesn’t matter to him that the mines closed in the 1980s have largely been flooded (and so can’t be reopened). It doesn’t matter to Corbyn that cleaner, cheaper fuel is available. It doesn’t matter that mining was a hazardous job and has left a legacy of bronchitis, mesothelioma and blackened lungs.

Instead of looking to future, Corbyn wants to power the UK with nostalgia.

Yes — closing mines in the 1980s destroyed communities. But you can no more magic those mining jobs back than you can reopen the cotton mills, or re-employ the people who used to wave flags in front of cars on the roads.

#bringbackthemills

7. Jeremy Corbyn wants to pull out of NATO.

NATO, (created by Clement Attlee of 1945 fame) is a club of Western democracies who (broadly) respect their citizens’ human rights. In the other corner is the vile, autocratic Russia, where racists attack gay people and ethnic minorities — all with the blessing of the police. The world isn’t getting any safer, but Corbyn wants to abandon France, Germany, the USA, Denmark, Norway and Poland so he can cozy up to Vladimir Putin. He might have opposed Iraq from the start, but Corbyn does seem mighty relaxed about Russia’s illegal war in the Ukraine. Leaving NATO is madness.

8. Non voters don’t vote. And when they do, they vote rightwing.

Some Corbyn supports claim Jezza will ride to victory on a wave of newly converted apathetic voters. But the awkward thing about non voters is that they very rarely vote. Basing an electoral strategy on making non voters go to the polls is like creating a business plan for a butchers shop reliant on attracting vegetarians. It’s not going to work. Even if non voters did start voting (and turnout did increase in the 2015 election) TUC research shows that non voters have broadly the same politics as those who do vote.

9 . But no candidates can win!

If you’re underwhelmed by Labour’s field of candidates- then fair enough. Maybe you think no candidate can win, so you might as well be happy and vote Corbyn. But that attitude is like letting sensible scepticism of whether dieting could work for you mean that you give up all exercise and sit on the couch eating giant bars of chocolate. Maybe you’re right. Maybe no candidate can win an election outright for Labour. But the Tories have a 16 seat majority in Parliament. With a competent leader, Labour could easily win 20 to 30 seats and remove the Government’s ability to legislate or allow Labour to form a minority Government. That’s a lot better than wallowing in defeatism.

10. What about Syriza and Podemos?

Greece and Spain have youth unemployment over 50%. Greece’s economy has shrunk by 25% since 2007. The majority of people in both countries feel significantly poorer. The UK, meanwhile, has rising wages and low unemployment. The economy has recovered. There are still vulnerable people who need help. But you can’t base an electoral strategy in the UK around only attracting the votes of the very poorest. Even in Spain, as the economy has started to recover, the left-wing Podemos party have been losing support.

11. Isn’t a right-wing Labour Government just as bad a Tory government?

If by a right-wing Labour Government you mean the one between 1997 and 2010 that created Sure Start, lifted millions out of poverty, chucked billions into the NHS and schools, created paid holiday and maternity and paternity leave, invented EMA and tax credits and brought in the Minimum Wage, then I’d say it’s a bit different from a Tory Government. Almost everything that Corbyn opposes Tories cutting was brought in by the last Labour government, so it can’t have been all bad eh?

12. I want a woman leader of the Labour Party.

I’m voting for Yvette Cooper partly (but by no means solely) because I want a woman to lead Labour. The boring retort that parties should pick on the basis of talent not gender is a bit let down by the fact that the people making this argument seem to always think the only people who have any talent are the men. Its almost 40 years since the Tories decided to elect Margaret Thatcher. It’s going to get a bit embarrassing if Labour waste this opportunity to pick a woman and end up 50 years behind.

13. If Corbyn wins, some people have a lot to lose.

If you’ve read all the above and want to take a risk and elect Jeremy Corbyn, then fair enough. But on whose behalf are you taking that risk? If you’re financially secure, you can probably afford to risk Cameron/Osborne/Johnson/May remaining in power until 2030. Personally, I reckon I should be OK. There are, however, lots of people in the UK who won’t be all right if the Tories win and keep winning. They’re going to lose out big when public services and welfare are destroyed. So if you want to take a gamble on Corbyn, have a bit of a think about whose futures you’re gambling with. If you can afford another 15 years of the Tories, do remind yourself that there’s other people who can’t.