BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN
When Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn holds his rallies, he not only entices the old, battered diehards of Britain’s far-left – those from Militant to the Socialist Workers Party to Left Unity – he also attracts considerable numbers of youthful political virgins, who have never joined a political party before.
I have concluded that these people are wandering inadvertently into socialism; swallowing assumptions they have neither studied history to understand, nor certainly ever tested. And that the one assumption these gullible innocents swallow more than any other is that security and freedom are mutually exclusive.
They likely look at their parents or the parents of friends and see how they accumulated security over the years – as their property prices increased, their savings accumulated and they built up useful nest eggs in case of sickness, job loss or tough times – such as supporting their offspring during and sometimes well after university. They see such security now as unattainable – the property ladder is too remote a possibility, job security is far less widespread and they are convinced they simply do not have the equivalent financial prospects as had their parents.
Their parents with their nest eggs achieved their security as an offshoot of freedom – freedom from the overpowering state, via free property markets and free market philosophies. Such philosophies were pursued in Britain, as in other countries like the United States (and across the board in Corbyn’s favourite examples of socialist countries such as Sweden & Norway).
Today Corbyn offers these vulnerable youths a fantasy – a falsehood – and they swallow it. He says let’s do away with the freedom and give you the security anyway.
Corbyn says, don’t worry, We will look after you. We will give you homes, secure jobs and incredible public services so you don’t need to worry about yourself because the future Corbyn Government will be there with bags of cash compulsorily collected off the offensive bankers and the avaricious rich.
In the eyes of the innocents, the security that Corbyn offers seems a straight choice between socialism and capitalism; between big state intervention and free markets. When in fact what is being offered is vassalage – become a ward of the authoritarian Big State and sacrifice your self-responsibility and your freedom.
History shows that Corbyn’s socialist guarantees lead to general insecurity. The costs of socialist government rise to a point where it is neither possible nor politically expedient to cover them via tax levies at which point such government resorts to deficit financing and inflation. Therefore, all such guarantees become worthless and general insecurity follows, such as you see in the bedlam in Venezuela today (which is not caused by the drop in oil prices as lazy thinkers would have us believe).
Corbyn’s innocent youths will respond with, “Ah but this time socialism will work because we’ll use AI (Artificial Intelligence) – work humans used to do will be done by droids. Socialism will work then!”. And, of course, like their disappointed “this time” predecessors, they’ll be wrong – mass AI implementation is a couple of generations out and when it comes, the very last thing the tumult it causes will need is an overpowering socialist state.
Corbyn is being disingenuous. If he were not a Pied Piper, he would be offering insecurity or security. Insecurity for those who donate self-responsibility to governments. Security for those who take self-responsibility as their reason for living, basing their existence on the fruits of their daily striving and the freedom to trade.
As it is, Corbyn’s young followers are on the Bernie train to Neverland. They will never have a chance to see their socialist dreams get shredded on the high seas of reality. They have been duped and will likely dream on.
Corbyn is a man of poor judgment. He will never come clean.
We have on the left, Corbyn and co, who want some kind of disruptive socialist agenda, going back to some industrial heavy industry fantasy. On the right we have the brexit crew who want to go back to the days of tariff wars, gunship diplomacy and the East India Trading Company. These sides are very successfully raising support for their own brand of radical disruption. What we lack is a boring middle ground, where politicians get out of the way, don’t break things and provide the infrastructure for a society to function. It is massively unpopular in politics to be dull and competent, and this is becoming a serious problem here and in the USA.
Leaving ideologies aside for a moment, in the run-up to the banking crisis of 2008 banks had doubled the amount of debt in the economy. Given almost a third of that lending ended up in the housing market, house prices rose sufficiently to outstrip wages. This ‘fools paradise’ bubble inevitably burst leaving massive holes in many lenders balance sheets, initiated QE and resulted in tighter lending constraints. The end result is that many first-time buyers are unable to obtain mortgages to buy houses they simply cannot afford. Of course, there are other factors, but any Government intervention in the housing market is likely to be based on borrowing given that tax revenues barely cover current requirements never mind those of the future.
Any such borrowing will inevitably shorten the ‘boom-bust’ cycle. You can make your own judgement under whose reins your best options lie.
I was taken in by some of Corbyn’s promises and admit I was an idiot. Being young is a time to make mistakes. The problem for me is that the Tories are not a party I’d likely ever want to vote for and the rest of the parties are not my cup of tea. Good article. When Corbyn supporters really think they know he’s an impossible dream. They kind of enjoy the aura.
I take your point Dominic that ‘socialist guarantees lead to general insecurity’ when they come from Corbyn. But Blair’s third way and other socialist models can be successful. I disagree with your point that all socialism is wrong.
Every 40 years socialism tries to rear its ugly head in Britain. I think we are getting better at remembering what rot it is. Maybe we are better educated. But these young people are the exception to the rule.