The Tories Are Not Altruists: If They Want Corbyn Gone It’s Because He’s A Threat.

The Tories are always saying they wish Labour would get shot of Corbyn because he makes for a weak opposition. Apparently Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said as much on BBC Question Time last night.

Well frankly that’s a load of old bo***cks! The Tories have never been known for their altruism. If they want Corbyn gone, it’s because they see him as a threat in some way.

Yes Labour are polling badly, which should reassure the Tories, except they can’t shake off the discomfiting memory of those pre-coup polls when Labour were nipping at their heels.

And whilst their neoliberal, economically conservative buddies on the Labour right have done a ‘spectacular’ job of demonising Corbyn and his ‘deluded, trotskyite, anti-semitic, misogyinistic, online bullying supporters’ in the eyes of the electorate, they fear the mud might not stick, especially when it’s based on lies and smear. After all, three years is a very long time in politics.

One of the factors that feeds into that fear is us, the Labour membership. Not because we are arm twisting, socialist revolutionaries, but because we are not. They know the vast majority of members who voted for Corbyn twice over, are ordinary struggling people who represent a broad cross section of the population. They know we are teachers, nurses, shop assistants, police officers, call centre workers, train drivers, single dads and mums, widows and widowers, disabled, sick, young, old and everything in between, gay, straight, trans, bisexual, Black, White, Asian, Mixed, and ‘worse’ of all, inspired. And what do inspired people do? They talk to people.

So there we are, blowing through society like tiny seeds, and those seeds are taking root in work places, social clubs, pubs, day centres, hospitals, toddler groups, all around this country. Yes, it’s a gargantuan task that we are up against; the Tories know that. But politics is ever shifting. Whilst the ground may be rocky now, no one can be certain what political change Brexit will bring. It might even germinate the seeds of democratic socialism we’ve been sowing up and down this land. That’s what terrifies the Tories.

Because they know the tide of public opinion will turn eventually, and when it does they want to be able to pass the batton of government to a ‘safe, neoliberal’ pair of hands; hands attached to someone like Blair, or Liz Kendall for instance. Someone who won’t rock the boat too much. Someone who’ll keep the good ship neoliberalism sailing in the same direction ready for the next inevitable hand over. The last thing they want is for Jeremy Corbyn to still be leader when that tide turns. And whilst it looks like a remote possibility right now thanks to their friends and allies in the media and the Labour party, as long as Corbyn remains leader it’s a possibility nonetheless.

It’s this innate fear that explains the numerous Tory u-turns made since Corbyn became leader.

Public opinion is currently their friend, but its a notoriously fickle beast which must be handled with great care as long as Corbyn is Labour leader. Especially when he has this terribly annoying habit of actually behaving like a real opposition leader, instead of those nice agreeable chappies of the past who were always so obliging thanks to their shared pro-austerity, pro-privatisation, pro-welfare reform, pro-war, pro-big business agenda.

Make no mistake, Jeremy Corbyn is a thorn in the Tory side, even just as an opposition leader. He’s hindering their ‘progress’ and threatening their peace of mind. So much so they want him gone and they want him gone now. And they want us gone too.

They know as long as Jeremy Corbyn has our support he’s not going anywhere. And that means one day, three years from now, he may be moving into number 10. Now that really is the stuff of Tory nightmares!