UK Parliament / Flickr. Some rights reserved.This series of columns occasionally strays from its remit of discussing issues of peace and conflict around the world. Such a thing happened three times in 2015, with a focus on the wholly unexpected rise of the outsider candidate Jeremy Corbyn to the head of Britain's Labour Party. Almost eight months after his overwhelming victory against the three other candidates in the leadership election, it seems timely to offer a fresh assessment of his prospects.
The first column on Corbyn was written six weeks before the ballot at a time when the surge in his support was exceeding all expectations. It pointed out that the London-centred commentariat saw this as “part of a protest born of a childish refusal to face up to the reality of Labour’s surprise electoral defeat and Britain’s move to the right” (see "What's behind the Corbyn surge?", 26 July 2015).
Whatever the truth of that judgment, the surge continued. When his win seemed assured, but just before the actual vote, the second column fantasised on his first hundred days in power. This made the point that for many in the Labour Party, especially the tens of thousands of new members, Corbyn's appeal stemmed from opposing what was seen as the cavalier way the Conservatives were reversing previous coalition policies in pursuit of ideological certitude:
