‘The Force is strong in this one…’

It’s always the same: just when you think politics couldn’t possibly be more boring than it is today, something happens that turns everything on its head.

Look at the ongoing Labour Party leadership debate in the UK, for instance. I caught the first few episodes by chance, and – initially, at any rate – it was the closest thing I’d ever experienced to a group therapy session in a ward full of acute depressives. 

Doom and gloom was so palpable you could almost reach out and touch it, like a thick dusty curtain coming down on a tale of woe and despair. There wasn’t even any talk of electing a possible future Prime Minister, or anything even half as hopeful. Labour supporters seemed resigned to an inevitable lifetime in opposition, and as for the candidates, I almost mistook them for a bunch of shipwreck survivors on a life-raft, drawing the short straw to decide who among them would be eaten by the others first.

Then, something curious happened. With the entry of a single candidate – Jeremy Corbyn – the entire flavour of the contest suddenly changed. True, there is still no talk of electing a future prime minister… but the Labour Party’s youth membership has since surged by over 50,000, and by all accounts Corbyn’s entry has energised the campaign beyond all previous expectation.

Not, it must be said, that the renewed interest is always of a positive kind. Most of the public reactions have in fact been varying degrees of shock, horror and apocalyptic foreboding. A Corbyn victory, we were told, would precipitate a full-scale backbench revolt ‘from day one’; it would ‘annihilate’ the Labour Party, and render it unelectable for the next four millennia. Even left-wing newspapers such as the Guardian have joined the chorus calling for “anyone but Corbyn”. 

But to be fair, that only happened after polls indicated that this ‘terrifying’ candidate would attract an astonishing 53% of the vote in a four-way contest… leaving the other, more ‘credible’ rivals trailing far, far in the distance. Corbyn’s lead is already so extensive that British bookies are almost calling it a foregone conclusion. And I say ‘almost’, only because it has been accompanied by an unprecedented drive to alter the course of destiny, and somehow prevent this calamity at all costs.

Yet initial indications are that his support levels have only grown since then. Rather than put the brakes on this runaway lead, the concerted and increasingly hysterical attacks on Jeremy Corbyn appear to have actually bolstered his support. 

Personally, I can’t say I’m particularly surprised: either by the panic he has so clearly instilled in his political adversaries (all, it seems, on his own ‘side’); or by the enthusiasm he has clearly inspired among young Labour supporters.

You don’t even need to go into his policies – though I will, in a sec – to understand this phenomenon. All you have to do is look at him.

Look at him closely. Who does he remind you of? 

OK, I’ll give you a hint: place that scrawny, grey-bearded figure in a brown hooded cape, give him a light-sabre and make him say (in his own voice): “These are not the droids you are looking for…” 

And there you have it. Of course his political rivals would be defecating in their undergarments at the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn winning the Labour leadership race. He looks exactly like Obi Wan Kenobi from ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’. [Note: I specify the film not just out of incurable pretentious geekiness, but also to distinguish between Sir Alec Guinness and Ewan MacGregor in the same role]. 

And he sounds like Obi wan Kenobi, too. Consider his reaction to the recent blistering attack by former Prime Minister Tony Blair… who predicted that “if Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader it won’t be a defeat like 1983 or 2015 at the next election. It will mean rout, possibly annihilation...”

Corbyn’s response? “Tony Blair… Tony Blair… Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a lo-o-o-ong time…”

So yes, I can fully understand the sensation of panic at the sudden appearance of a retired Jedi Master in the race. This is in fact where comparison to ‘Star Wars’ becomes unavoidable: like a tractor beam drawing you inexorably towards that ‘small moon’ in the distance.

If Corbyn looks and sounds like Obi wan Kenobi, the reaction to his candidature has been identical to the Empire’s reaction to Luke Skywalker in the same film. You can almost hear the creaking voice of Emperor Palpatine as he solemnly intones: “There is a great disturbance in the Force. We have a new enemy... The torch-bearer of Old Labour must NOT become party leader. He could destroy us…”

The only variation from the script concerns Darth Vader’s classic line, ‘He will join us or die’. Not much chance of turning Jeremy Corbyn to the Dark Side, as I suspect the Empire knows only too well. And this makes sense, when you consider that the ‘enemy’, in this scenario, is not a young, susceptible Paduan upstart who might be swayed... but a former master who is very firmly set in the old ways of the Force.

So (in Star Wars as in real life) that leaves Corbyn’s adversaries with only one available option: build a Death Star and wipe the threat out of existence.

But what is it about this man that inspires so much enthusiasm among (mostly young) voters, while simultaneously striking instant fear into the hearts of his enemies? OK, obviously it’s not his prowess with a light-sabre… though it might be partly because, like Obi Wan Kenobi, it seems Corbyn really can perform ‘mind tricks’ which bend the masses to his will. 

So let’s take a small peek at where Jeremy Corbyn actually stands on a number of issues facing Britain today. I’ve lifted these details from a Guardian article comparing all four candidates:

On Austerity: “Austerity is a government decision, not an economic necessity,” he said; and unlike any of the other candidates, his economic plans involve “growing the economy and taxing the wealthy”. (More controversially, they also involve ‘quantitative easing’ – the equivalent of printing new money – to finance social projects.)

On Immigration: Corbyn has consistently argued that immigration is “not a drain on the economy, but a phenomenon that has been going on for hundreds of years.” He has campaigned on behalf of asylum seekers, and criticised the UK’s decision to pull out of rescue missions in the Mediterranean.

On Defence: he opposes the Trident nuclear programme, advocates withdrawal from NATO and (funnily enough) argues that Tony Blair should stand trial for war crimes over Iraq. 

On Welfare: Corbyn voted against his own government’s welfare bill last July. “We are one of the richest countries in the world and there is absolutely no reason why anybody should have to live in poverty”, he said at the time.

On the EU: He is the only Labour leadership candidate who has not publicly committed to opposing ‘Brexit’ in next year’s referendum. 

I’ll stop there, because it’s already enough to get an idea where this is all heading. With the possible exceptions of his EU stance and the ‘quantitative’ easing proposal – which, incidentally, he probably got from the same EU he is clearly ambivalent about – nearly all Corbyn’s terrifying proposals amount to a return to that forgotten galaxy called ‘Socialism’, far, far away. In a nutshell, he represents prioritising the fight against poverty, and taxing the wealthy to finance the social welfare system. Oh, the horror, that the British Socialist party might actually elect a Socialist as its leader. Whatever next, I wonder? A Catholic as the next Pope…? 

But of course, this absurdity alone does not account for the sheer extent of the opposition to his leadership of the Labour Party. There is something else at work behind the scenes: something relevant to politics everywhere, including here in Malta.

Like I said earlier, I’m not at all surprised by the concerted attacks on Corbyn, or the fact that these have so far worked to his advantage. We see this all the time in our own politics. Character assassination rarely achieves its primary aim, and more often generates sympathy – even if unwarranted – for the target. 

You can get a glimpse of exactly why from the comments underneath most of the articles criticising Corbyn. At the time of writing, Tony Blair’s piece has attracted almost 8,000 reactions. Obviously I didn’t read them all; but I did read enough to get the overwhelming impression that a common thread runs through many of them. 

The rationale appears to be: ‘The fact that you are so hell-bent on destroying this man means that he is the opposite of what you represent.. and this alone makes me want to support him more.’

In other words, support for Corbyn equates to rejection of a status quo that has come to represent a sine qua non in the minds of establishment politicians… and it is this rejection, rather than the man who inspired it, that horrifies his critics so much.

It also explains the extent of the panic. If Corbyn represents a threat, it is not so much to the Labour Party itself – which was in any case moribund, regardless of who won the contest – but to the absolutism that has crept into our entire approach to politics: not just in the UK, but throughout the rest of Europe, too.

We saw much the same pattern in the recent Greek bailout negotiations. Questioning ‘austerity’ as a common EU policy (read: dogma) has virtually become anathema. Anyone suggesting it isn’t ‘necessary’ or ‘desirable’ simply has to be a madman… a dangerous, subversive recluse who must be stopped at all costs.

And yet, the same ‘horrifying’ view is shared by millions of left-leaning European citizens, and backed by any number of credible economists worldwide. At which point, you do have to start asking who among us is the more out of touch with reality: those who, like Jeremy Corbyn, recognise the validity of arguments heard all over Europe; or those who simply shut those arguments out of the discussion altogether.

And this is why the leadership contest suddenly got so interesting. It has reminded us all of precisely what politics is supposed to be about, but isn’t any more. In this specific instance, the irony is almost poignant: by resisting a return to Socialist roots, the Labour Party is defending the status quo against reform and change. And what is that, if not the textbook definition of political ‘Conservatism’?

But the same pattern transcends the lefts, rights and centres of the political spectrum. There is a point at which political parties of all hues get so absorbed into their own interests that they simply drift too far from the electorate to actually represent them any longer. They end up representing themselves, and nothing else: so naturally, if anything or anything pops up to threaten their cosy arrangement… out come the big guns to blast the threat to oblivion.

Just like the Empire in Star Wars, in brief: building Death Stars to annihilate any rebel alliance that would dare challenge its right to rule the galaxy forever…