Corbyn’s legacy of failure

“I was denounced as somebody that wanted to spend more money than we could possibly afford.”

It comes as no surprise that Jeremy Corbyn is bowing out as Labour leader so gracelessly, clinging to his delusions and inflated sense of self-righteousness. The far-left movement he leads insisted that they won the argument despite losing the election. Now Corbyn claims that the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is proof he was right all along. I’ve always said he was an old crank of little brain but, my word, he has surpassed himself here.

“I was told I was mad for wanting to nationalise the economy and spend hundreds of billions creating socialism in our time, but the fact that the government is now bailing out the economy and buying million of ventilators because of the pandemic killing tens of thousands of people all over the world proves I was right all along!”

The sheer audacity of this is something to behold. In response to a national emergency, the government is seizing control of vast swathes of the economy to prevent its collapse. Look up the definition of the phrase “clutching at straws” and there will now be a picture of Jeremy Corbyn claiming that a deathly plague has proven him right about a command economy.

There is no doubt that the pandemic will bring about permanent change, but when the crisis is over people will want to return to normal as quickly as possible. The government will re-liberalise the economy and it is a re-activated, re-invigorated capitalist consumer economy that will inspire a quick recovery. Then there will be the matter of future generations footing the bill for this. We are, by no means, all socialists now.

Perhaps he should be forgiven for clinging to the limelight as his star begins to fall. This week he has loftily told us he will continue to fight for social justice for the whole world. We expect nothing less of the man who believes he is significant enough to bring peace in Northern Ireland and the Middle East (usually by meeting militants).

His official Twitter account recently showed Corbyn in the middle of his street ostentatiously applauding NHS staff — once more, he was making himself the centre of attention. If nothing else, we must admire Jeremy for conserving his sense of smugness and shielding his ego so valiantly against the forces of his own inadequacy and manifest failures.

Using the pandemic to glorify his myth is a fitting end to his leadership. His time as Labour leader has been an historic political experiment in whether mass delusion and self-righteousness can sweep a socialist crank into the highest office of the country. The results are in, and most observers agree that it’s clear the experiment was not successful for the left. Then again, it depends who you ask.

For many, the myth still holds. One wonders if this principled, decent man who will shun “lucrative speaking gigs” will therefore have plenty of time to appear on the propaganda organs of tyrannical states like Press TV or Russia Today? Or perhaps attend rallies with Jew-hating Islamists. Why break the habits of a lifetime?

What is his legacy? Failure at two general elections. Failure at European elections. Failure at local elections. What are his tangible achievements? He has put to bed the idea of socialism in Britain for a generation. Aided and abetted by a leadership team of Marxists and communists, and a merry band of sycophantic outriders, he has discredited his movement. We cannot even credit him for the “kinder and gentler” politics he promised to inspire.

He has presided over an upsurge in anti-Semitism and boasts an army of Jew-hating trolls among his supporters. Thanks to him, the Labour Party is being investigated for institutional racism by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The whistle-blowers who exposed the extent of racism and bullying in his party were smeared. When one of his staff was accused of multiple incidents of sexual harassment, he kept them on, and his Chief of Staff blocked any disciplinary action. Corbyn has been an uncritical friend to racists and terrorists, if that represents the best of the far left than let us consign that movement to the dustbin of history — once again.

How will history remember Jeremy Corbyn? Quite simply, as the Labour leader who led his party to the worst defeat since 1935. That’s the headline. He is the man who was leader of Labour when the Tories won their biggest majority since the 1980s. He has enabled the revival of the Conservative Party, which for so many years appeared to be in terminal decline. Little wonder then that the far-left clings to its risible delusions.