Mick Hartley

Nick Cohen, on the cult of the Corbynistas:

Sarah Ditum of the New Statesman addressed Labour supporters  who like her, found Corbyn a morally unconscionable man. She gave the sensible advice that, if they could not bring themselves to campaign for him and his allies, they should not give up on politics or support another party, but go to Labour seats where moderate MPs need all the help they could get in these ominous times

J.K. Rowling tweeted a link to the piece, which merely repeated its headline, ‘Election 2017: what should you do if you support Labour but can’t stand Jeremy Corbyn? That was all.

The abuse which followed showed not only why Labour will go down in a historic defeat, but why Labour’s problems may not end afterwards. Unless hundreds of thousands of Corbyn supporters show a capacity for self-criticism that has been entirely absent from their lives, there will be no conclusive break with the disastrous experiment with pseudo-leftism.

You would think that, as they wait to be crushed by a Tory landslide they have brought down on themselves (and their country) Corbyn’s supporters would be grateful for anyone lining up to back Labour, however half-heartedly.

It’s not as if there is much of a queue.

Instead, they ran Twitter polls in which they listed the ways in which they hated Rowling. ‘What’s worse about J.K. Rowling,’ asked one guffawing oaf. ‘Using an audience of millions to attack Corbyn or Harry Potter politics?’ In other words, she writes children’s books so she must be politically stupid. And, millions follow her, so by implication, they must be stupid too.

He was joined by the to my mind sinister American journalist Glenn Greenwald.  Sinister because he and the Corbyn/Mélenchon left  indulge Russia and Iran and have little beyond mealy words about Trump, Farage and Le Pen. As the French left has shown, when faced with a choice between neo-liberalism and neo-fascism they denounce the former and brush aside the latter.

Remember that Corbyn has voted against the Labour whip hundreds of times. Remember that he welcomed the victory of George Galloway, an opponent of the Labour party and an admirer of and apologist for some of the greatest monsters of our age. Remember, too, that Ditum and Rowling were not saying do not vote Labour. They merely said that disillusioned Labour supporters should campaign for Labour candidates who shared their views….

Do not think that religious ways of thinking died with the death of formal religion. There was always a historical link between non-conformity and left-wing British politics, and we are now witnessing a modern variant of Calvinist theology.

There are the elect and the damned. The elect see the light and dwell in righteousness. The damned are cursed.  In political as in Protestant sects, adherents are comfortable with the idea that the vast majority of their fellow citizens can never be saved. They rather enjoy it, indeed, for it makes them seem special.

Corbyn’s supporters do not want to convert the heathen or ally with heretics. Their standard reply to their critics of ‘you’re a Tory’ makes no sense politically because it encourages doubters to go over to the Conservative party. As theology, it makes perfect sense, however. You cannot be a grudging ally of Corbyn’s Labour party just as you cannot accept a part of the way and the truth and the light. You must believe the whole creed or you are a Tory….

Finally, as I have said before, Corbyn and the far left will not willingly relinquish their grip on the Labour party after they lead it to defeat. They will continue to purge Labour until it becomes a true church. This is religion not politics, and Corbyn’s supporters are the elect. Why should they respect the judgement of a damned electorate?

See also, Nick's piece on Muslim activist Sara Khan, who set up her own organisation, Inspire, to help Muslim women in their fight against extremism:

For this she is hated. Naz Shah, whom gullible Labour supporters accept as a repentant Islamist, says that Inspire is one of “the most loathed organisations amongst Muslim communities”, and should face questions from parliament about its role in supporting the government’s counter-extremism strategy. Obscurantist websites such as 5Pillars devote vast energy to attacking her. She has been vilified, threatened and, most ominously, given the death sentence-provoking label of “apostate”.

But, for her, the most telling moment came when she appeared on Woman’s Hour to hear a presenter ask her, “Are you a government stooge?” Supposed feminists, who cried to high heaven about the oppression of women with white skins, were neutral about the oppression of women with brown skins.

Which brings us neatly back to where we started today.