Flickr/Scottish Government images.
As Labour's internal divisions worsen, Jon Cruddas, MP for Dagenham and Rainham, has released a new poll suggesting that the British electorate has thoroughly accepted the logic of austerity. According to the results, "56 percent of those surveyed agree, and just 16 percent disagree, with the statement: 'We must live within our means, so cutting the deficit is the top priority.'" The working classes are just as convinced of the need for austerity as their higher-income compatriots, with 54 perecent stressing deficit reduction as the first priority of government (15 percent disagreed). The findings - and especially the selected quotes from the surveyed - seem to whisper the old Thatcherite mantra "TINA": There Is No Alternative.
Does this mean that Jeremy Corbyn is as unelectable as his mainstream Labour opponents - to whose ranks we can now add former home secretary Alan Johnson - claim? Some argue that the survey employed a leading question, among them the Corbyn campaign. But if we accept it, the poll presents a fairly damning case. Corbyn does have ample grassroots support, but that still represents only tens of thousands of activists. Labour is almost two million votes behind the Conservatives. Cruddas' poll is hardly good for Corbyn. But it does not necessarily portend the death of his movement.
