PAUL FLYNN
There’s a certain uncertainty to the PM’s words
WORDS: CLIFF JOANNOU
WHEN ED MILIBAND WAS LABOUR’S LEADER in the 2015 general election, no opinion poll convinced me of his popularity. He’s the kind of man who sounds great on paper, but one who’d be flustered talking to his postman.
For critics of 2017’s candidate, Jeremy Corbyn, I suspect the reverse applies. There is about him the scent of someone who’s loitering too long on the doorstep.
After Corbyn was overwhelmingly voted leader of the Labour Party, twice, he promised “a new kind of politics.” When we hear the word new, collectively we revert to childhood: receiving a toy that is shiny, robust, paintwork yet untarnished. His newness turned out to be an infant’s potato painting or knitted scarf. Perhaps he should’ve spelt out better what he meant: a sincere kind of politics.