Owen Jones, Wikimedia
In a long, beautifully written, painfully honest post, Owen Jones lays out his anguish with the present situation. Why is the left descending into an appalling fight? Why can’t it find the arguments to oppose the historic shift to the right that Brexit represents? Why does it not have a leader who will amplify and focus the energies of those opposed to what is being done to Britain? A lamentable Tory government under David Cameron called the Brexit referendum in bad faith. It then lost it to band of cavalier free-market ‘cosmopolitans’ demanding 'control', who play fast and loose with racism, permitting them to garner over 17 million votes. In the face of this, the country’s dominant left party should be rounding on the lot of them, seeking as a matter of urgency the creation of a pro-European, pro-migration, pro-free-movement campaign, preparing for the fight-back while respecting the people’s decision – striking the notes of coherent grief and inspiring defiance shown by Caroline Lucas for the Greens.
Instead, a civil war has engulfed the Labour party and the candidate around whom a popular wave created a golden opportunity. A man who Owen Jones campaigned for, defended, advised and did everything he could to support: Jeremy Corbyn. In his final paragraphs Jones comes as close to admitting a sleepless political breakdown in as cogent, frank and personal prose as I have read on politics. He can't see how project Corbyn can be replaced by anything better. He rightly fears the absurdity of some “Blairite redux” who will make matters worse. But it is undeniable that the Corbyn project is not working for the country as a whole and will fail.
