Jedi boro
Well-known member
Brilliant post thanks for being so honest, As you say it wasn’t just the far right that has the nasty streak in them.I might get slayed for this but here goes....
I'm a long-term Labour Party member, though not really active in terms of attending meetings etc. I voted for Corbyn as leader and came to regret it. Though I broadly share his values and aims, he was completely ineffective in terms of leadership skills. I also had a lot of sympathy for him through his disgraceful hounding by the right wing press and their allies, deliberately confusing criticism of Israeli policy with anti-Semitism - he was never anti-Semitic.
However, in the world we live in, they are going to throw this **** at any left-leaning leader and he just didn't handle it. It built and built to such a size that it became fact in the minds of voters and he never really tackled it at all. Similarly, he took an age to make decisions and steer policy, and the public were left to make their own minds up - and when you leave a big gap, people rarely fill it with positive stuff. He was indecisive and anything meaningful took an age.
In addition - and I can't speak for the country as a whole - I did a few gigs for the party, so met a lot of people active in Momentum and they were almost exclusively really hard left. I know some who are paid-up members of the Marxist/Communist Party. They were ramshackle and highly disorganised. I did one gig, looked out and thought, "I'm a member but if you lot knocked on my door I'd tell you to burger off".
These were not credible people to be out campaigning, representing the party but they were the group who backed him and kept him in power. They were absolutely vile to anyone on social media who didn't 100% agree with every single thing they said - and went in en masse. If you think left-leaning posters can get a bit rough on here some days, you've seen nothing. It was just bullying on a grand scale and was awful to watch. I confess, I mostly kept my counsel.
Lastly, I'd love to be an idealist (I still think I mostly am) but the fact is we live in a country whose people are pretty conservative by nature. They don't like radical change, especially towards the left. Now, you can shout at them from stage left that they're wrong all you like and at every election, they'll keep voting tory from now till kingdom come. Or you can moderate slightly and try and win them over. Without their votes, we are sunk.
the dark forces around Corbyn terrifyied me should they hold any power.