#BATTLEFORLABOUR

I didn't have especially high hopes for Sky's Battle for Labour documentary, given that it was Sky and it is very unlikely Jeremy will be out riding with the Chipping Norton set anytime soon.  Jeremy is going to plough £500billion into the economy and the UK's infrastructure - he is going rebuild and breath life into those communities in this country who have been left behind and he knows exactly where he is going to get the money. 

For avaricious old billionaires, a far Left Labour Prime Minister is the stuff of their worst nightmares.  New Labour understood their avaricious desire to hang onto their billions, they became the type of people we should all aspire to be. Anyone of us could win the lottery/Xfactor/Britain's Got Talent, and how would we feel if we had to pay exorbitant tax on our future imaginary winnings/earnings?  Thus we protect the super rich because we all have secret dream that one day we will be just like them. Dreams are easy to sell, nightmares, not so much.   

The first part of Sky's BFL, came across as a parliamentary political broadcast on behalf of the plotters.  Look at what a rotten time we have had, as one overly sensitive male politician gave a heart rendering account of the day Jeremy looked down at the floor nodding his head instead of answering said MP's question.  My guess is, Jeremy was probably muttering something under his breath along the lines of, 'Jeez, is this what I have got to work with'. The same MP complained that his own constituency had risen to 2,500 and he didn't know most of them.  Err, that could be because the NEC suspended meetings and he clearly hasn't made any effort to meet them let alone welcome them and not really something for an MP to be proud of. 

This fear of new members that seems to have spread like a virus amongst those in the 'lets not ever take chances' group.  It's as if they have been forcefed Invasion of the Body Snatchers interspersed with subliminal images of gulags. The old reds under the bed barely fooled a 50's audience, it is laughable in this age of social media.  Who reads Trotsky these days? 

All the usual victims were brought on to retell their 'harrowing' stories, each blaming the number of people who don't like them on Jeremy Corbyn, unaware that they alone are responsible for their words and actions.  I wish just one of those calling on Jeremy to do more with regard to sexism and anti-Semitism, would give at least one example of what it is they want him to do?  Start a purge, encourage MPs and labour party members to rat on each other, maybe consider accusations from friends and family too?  What kind of punishments do they have in mind?

Some people go through life demanding the right to be offended.  They actively go out of their way to find things that will outrage them, Mary Whitehouse was one, Owen Smith is another.  During the entire debate he sounded like one of those whiny kids who keeps running to the teacher to tell tales on his mates (if he had any).  It is as if he has scanned Jeremy's entire career so he could say 'and another thing'.  Picking on Jeremy's activist past wasn't a popular move.  Those same Unions Owen was trying to appeal to last night, carried the meme, 'He had our backs, now we've got his'.  Jeremy's past is one of his greatest assets - everyone knows he is the real deal. 

It was clear Owen was having a struggle appealing to the working classes and those in the Shires (lol) - and this time he appears to have dropped his radical stance altogether.  He was pitching to the tried and trusted Blair demographic.  The aspiring middle classes who won't vote for a party that is soft on benefit claimants and who will protect their property prices and pensions.  He has reclaimed his Centre position, adding Left in the hope of picking up some Jeremy voters.  He should have stuck with what he said at the launch of his campaign.  He isn't Left, Right or Centre, he's a shapeshifter.     

It was clear Owen believed the entire audience were hypnotised or part of a cult.  The whole 'cult' thing seems to be a new form of attack on those who support Jeremy.  They have conjured up the idea that we see Jeremy as some sort of Jehova, that we worship the man himself as a God.  I think Jeremy will always be worshipped as a hero - the first Labour Politician to reject austerity and talk of reviving the economy rather than allowing it to self destruct.  But it is ridiculous and a little insulting to accuse new party members of being an army of zombies. 

Jeremy offers CHANGE, and in that, he is in complete harmony with the public, he has captured the  zeitgeist just as Tony Blair did in 1997.  Why? because the country had endured 18 years of tories and entire working class communities had been destroyed.  Blair was the change the country needed and New Labour were prepared to do whatever it took to get into power. 

Again, we have had a long term of right wing tory politics.  It may only have been 6 years, but this lot have been twice as destructive.  The tories won last time because Labour didn't have anything different to offer, they have been scavenging for another Blair so business can go on as usual.  I don't believe they have a 'big gun' in waiting, because they simply don't have anyone with the same charisma and leadership qualities as Jeremy. 

Watching Owen speak this evening, I had an uncontrollable urge to spank him, and not in a saucy way, more 'stop being such a brat'.  The audience were booing because he kept accusing Jeremy of not wanting Labour to win a General Election.  Having faced not one, but two gruelling campaigns to hang onto his leadership and rebuild the party, Owen's accusations were insulting and blatantly untrue.  Like the poor me Labour politicians that appeared in the preceding program, he whined that he was being bullied, not the sort of thing you want to hear from a potential leader/statesman. 

Jeremy Corbyn outclassed Owen Smith on, well, everything.  It was obvious from he way in which Owen's temper was rising.  He was throwing everything he could at Jeremy in order to taunt him into a headline retaliation, or at the very least, make a dent in Jeremy's calm, confident, demeanour.  There are a zillion things Jeremy could throw back at Owen, but he is too much of a gentleman and a decent human being.  Unfortunately for Owen, his constant snide remarks backfire every time, he comes across as untrustworthy, and deeply unpleasant.

There can be no doubt that Owen Smith is cracking under the pressure, trying to convince the audience and indeed yourself, that you are popular when you're clearly not, can't be good for anyone's nerves.  On top of which, he, like the rest of the plotters, face the prospect of reselection by popular vote.  Jeremy may be all forgiving, but I doubt the voters will be.  The public have spoken loud and clear, they want change and Owen is symbolic of everything they have rejected. New Labour abandoned those areas and those people who needed them the most.  Those areas hardest hit by austerity voted to leave Europe, yet Owen wants to cast their votes aside and go with what he and the middle Englanders want. 

Jeremy is reaching out to all those areas New Labour left behind.  Those in the deprived areas, the undeserving poor and those who drone on about a living wage and those who don't bother to turn up to vote anyway.  Thus they wrote off a huge target demographic, leaving them prey to the proactive, door knocking UKIP.  In their eagerness to embrace big business, New Labour lost the grass roots of the party.  Jeremy is taking the party back to its original aims and traditions, winning back members who left and inspiring a new generation.

Most of us are decent, compassionate people, and the spirit of these times, is our disgust at the way in which we have allowed our once civilised society to be dragged back into the poverty of Victorian times.  The mood of the public has changed, the people of the UK have always been a just and fair society, and we just can't stand by while there are homeless people sleeping on the streets and children going without food.  Zero hour contracts are an abomination, so too is the use of human beings as work units to be loaned to rich donors as punishment for the 'units' and free labour for the employers.     

The anger in the room was tangible said Faisal afterwards, but understandable given the attempted character assassination that preceded the debate.  Neil Kinnock didn't tell us what a great candidate they had in Owen Smith and how he could unite the party, he demanded the right to hold onto his party and his ermine as only a Lord can.  However, having lost two elections himself, he was less than convincing. 

 There was no doubt whatsoever who won last night's hustings, despite what the mainstream media might tell us.  Owen revealed much that was deeply unpleasant about his own character, he was going for cheap shots, recycling the same old jibes over and over again.  Clutching onto a slip of the tongue made by Jeremy, as if it were the key to No.10.  'How many seats do Labour have to win', Owen repeated over and over, just so he could say 'aha, gotcha' if Jeremy wasn't spot on.  Someone ought to tell him, that kind of thing stops being impressive, after Year 4.