During Ed M.'s regime, there was huge frustration in the Party and the country at the snail-like process of deciding and then announcing policy. When it came, it was girt with caution and lacked a governing vision to inspire the electorate. Jeremy Corbyn has been preferred as Leader by Labour supporters because we already understand his vision, at least in part but we do not need a full portfolio of policies this early in the proceedings, as pundits and opponents seem to be demanding.
It is for Jeremy and his delegated team to come up with policies as and when ready, as other leaders before them and in time for a General Election almost 5 years away. But before then, there is a prior responsibility which has been sorely neglected for the last 5 years, which must take precedence over pleasing the baying and unnecessarily critical media hounds: opposition.
Cameron, Osborne, IDS and the rest have got away with an obscene catalogue of destruction of public services, failure of economic management, vicious injury to people's lives and downright lies, almost unchallenged. Jeremy's appeal is that he posits clear alternatives to the measures claimed as essential by Tories and only mildly criticised by the other Labour leadership candidates. When Labour front-benchers daily challenge Tory dogma and lies with real alternatives and pungent critique, Labour will look electable even before a full programme for governing is unveiled. It will and should take time for the latter, for Party management and even succession planning to take shape. Meanwhile, let us hear it for Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of Opposition.
For the PLP to be an effective opposition, there needs to be a reasonable amount of flesh on the bones of an alternative policy. So it was a little disappointing that conference is not debating something as important as Trident. Even so, Corbyn still has a few aces up his sleeve that most of the PLP will support; renationalization of the railways, ending privatization in the public sector, building council houses, rebuilding the NHS. These seem to be widely supported policies that will win support for Labour if they carry them forward boldly & wholeheartedly.
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