If Jeremy Corbyn is 'out of touch' why are his views so popular with the UK public?

[blacksunday]

If anyone is out of touch with public opinion, says Ian Sinclair, it is not Jeremy Corbyn but the three other Labour leadership contenders.

“I don’t bother writing about Fox News. It is too easy”, American dissident Noam Chomsky explained in 2010.

“What I talk about are the liberal intellectuals, the ones who portray themselves and perceive themselves as challenging power, as courageous, as standing up for truth and justice. They are basically the guardians of the faith. They set the limits. They tell us how far we can go. They say, ‘Look how courageous I am.’ But do not go one millimeter beyond that.”

The recent column about the Labour leadership contest from the Guardian’s highly influential Labour-supporting commentator Polly Toynbee provides a perfect example of Chomsky’s truism.

According to Toynbee, of the four hopefuls the Labour left candidate Jeremy Corbyn “is the free spirit, the outsider not playing by the usual political rules.” And that, apparently, is precisely the problem with the Member of Parliament for Islington North: “Unfettered by what a majority of voters beyond Islington might support in a real election, he’s a romantic, saying what no doubt many Labour members believe”.

Smearing by association, Toynbee dismisses Corbyn as “a 1983 man” and “a relic”. Voting for Corbyn “is ignoring the electorate”, according to Toynbee.

Having finished her demolition, Toynbee then literally erases Corbyn from the race, arrogantly debating the prospects of “the three main contenders” before settling on the shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper as the most promising candidate.

Toynbee’s argument echoes the feelings of a large section of the so-called progressive, liberal intelligentsia. “I could probably live with any of the other candidates”, noted Labour MP and BBC commentator Alan Johnson about Corbyn, likening his politics to electoral “suicide”.

Ditto the Guardian’s Martin Kettle (“Corbyn offers a programme of prelapsarian socialist purity”), the Telegraph’s Dan Hodges, (Corbyn is proof “crazy Labour is alive and well”) and Blairite foot soldier David Aaronovitch.

As Chomsky said: do not go “one millimetre beyond” the limits of acceptable debate.

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Corbyn's positions and the public

But how valid is Toynbee’s central criticism – that Corbyn is out of touch with public opinion? Let’s look at the polling data on some of Corbyn’s key political stances:

He supports a publicly run NHS, a position supported by 84 per cent of the public, according to a November 2013 YouGov poll.

He supports the nationalisation of the railways, a position backed by 66 percent of the public, including a majority of Conservative voters, according to the same poll.

He supports the nationalisation of the energy companies, a position supported by 68 percent of the public, including a majority of Conservative voters, according to the same poll.

He believes the Royal Mail should be publicly owned, a position supported by 67 percent of the public, according to the same poll.
He supports rent controls, a position supported by 60% of the public, including 42% of Conservatives, according to an April 2015 YouGov poll.

He opposes the retention of Trident nuclear weapons, a position John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University, notes is supported by a "smallish plurality" in "the majority of polls".

He strongly opposed the 2003 Iraq War, which was also opposed by the more than one million people who marched through London on 15 February 2003.

He has long pushed for the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan, a position favoured by 82 per cent of the public, according to a May 2014 YouGov poll.

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Who's out of touch?

So, contrary to Toynbee’s assertions, Corbyn’s key political positions are in actual fact supported by a majority of the British public. (And arguably the issues that Corbyn is out of step with public opinion on, such as immigration and welfare, are those that have been engulfed in huge amounts of media-driven ignorance).

In short, if anyone is out of touch with public opinion, it is not Corbyn but Toynbee, most of the liberal intelligentsia and the three other Labour leadership contenders.

www.stopwar.org.uk/news/is-jeremy-corbyn-the-unacceptable-romantic-face-of-british-politics

The majority of the country may like socialist policies but socialism is expensive and like it or not the majority of people in this country do not want to pay for socialism .

Corbyn is offering the moon in a stick , his policies are like a wish list . The Tories don't fear Corbyn because he might win an election they fear him because he will give the Labout party two or three years to sort themselves out before ditching him in favour of Dan Jarvis ( or someone else more electable) before the next election .

There is a real place for people like Corbyn in politics , he is the fist shaking campaigner on the sidelines , but does he have the skills to manage the Labour Party machine and the PLP ;I don't think so .Plus whilst not wanting to be ageist he will be 71 by the next election and were he to be elected 76 by the next one . It's a big job for someone of that age.

Yes, not radical. Radical in the context of the narrow political consensus of Westminster, perhaps, but not radical in a political ideology sense.

What he is proposing is to better regulate Capitalism and nationalise industries which are 'natural monopolies'.

Other policies like scrapping tuition fees, rent controls, and an increase in the top rate of income tax are not only already in place in many countries, but have the support of the majority of the public in the UK.

These are hardly 'radical' policies. They're social-democratic policies, which are already in place in many economies in Western europe.

Don't get me wrong: he's miles more progressive than anything else that's on offer, just don't pretend like he's some kind of Commie radical when he isn't.

I don't hink you understand what radical means.

Radical means going against the billionaires who are the puppetmasters of the Oxbridge set. the billionaires don't care about rent controls or student tuition fees. They will allow changes in those areas.

What they care about is TTIP, NATO, GM crops and GM food, fracking and isolation of Russia. Corbyn has thrown everything into doubt. He has questioned them all. That is why there is panic to 'Stop Corbyn'. With Corbyn, there is a danger of peace and prosperity for ordinary people breaking out.

The billionaires don't like what they are hearing from Corbyn. Their promoted puppets started off laughing at Corbyn and assured their masters that he was a joke, but now the masters are giving the puppets a right bollocking as they realise he is no joke.

'Labour leadership: Jeremy Corbyn hints that he wants warmer relations with Russia '

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-leadership-jeremy-corbyn-hints-at-warmer-relations-with-russia-10449856.html

Corbyn has torn up their rule book and is writing his own. That is not allowed. That is radical.

What all the spinners like Alastair Campbell, who interrupted his holiday to come on the news today to urge Labour members not to vote for Corbyn, saying that Labour members haven't learned from their defeats when Labour goes left wing under Foot or Miliband, fail to understand is that Foot was at a different time, when the unions were too strong, and was against Thatcher not against today's moderniser, Cameron, who is almost indistinguishable from politically correct spinner and moderniser, Blair.

Also, the public didn't believe Miliband was left wing. His policies were mere tinkering, a sop to socialism, but keeping the billionaires happy.

What is different about Corbyn is that he has real courage and writes his own rules. No billionaire tells him what to do, no millionaire tells him which charidee to spend public taxpayer money on. He makes his own decisions. The whole country knows he is for real and that is why many Tory and UKIP voters will support his polcies that are for the people and not for the elites.

The end result is that the billionaires are fuming and they are taking it out on their political class of puppets who are receiving daily bollockings.

'www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-leadership-jeremy-corbyn-hints-at-warmer-relations-with-russia-10449856.html'

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/05/jeremy-corbyn-political-stitch-up-anti-austerity-labour

Incredible stuff. It has taken a Labour loss for this to happen. If Labour had won, then we would have had years of soinners, liars and politicallly correct puppets on our TV screens tinkering around the edges, implementing pointless policies etc. But Corbyn has changed the game and spinners like Alastair Campbell and all his mates haven't caught up with the people.

Sorry article was

"Win or lose, Jeremy Corbyn has already changed the rules of the game"

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/05/jeremy-corbyn-political-stitch-up-anti-austerity-labour

There is no turning back. Blair, Campbell and all the rest can't put the people back in their box ever again. They are history, and 66 year old Corbyn is the future.