Jane Carnall · @EyeEdinburgh
29th Jul 2015 from TwitLonger
#Tories, don't vote for #JeremyCorbyn. It won't end well
#ToriesAgainstCorbyn @OliverCooper, #Conservative Councillor for Hampstead, former chair of the Conservative Party’s youth wing, who thinks cutting benefits is "kind", explains his opposition to Jeremy Corbyn being leader of the Labour Party.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11767152/Tories-dont-vote-for-Jeremy-Corbyn.-It-wont-end-well.html
In full, the article on the Telegraph website contains much standard right-wing kneejerkery against left-wing politics. With this negative language edited out, Cooper has written a surprisingly clear outline why Jeremy Corbyn must win the Labour leadership election.
"With each passing day, the likelihood of Jeremy Corbyn being elected Labour leader becomes yet greater. And with the chance of Corbyn becoming Leader of the Opposition rising, the spirits of Conservatives everywhere have risen too.
"But I’m not one of these #ToriesForCorbyn. Toby Young et al make [the] point [that they think] a Corbyn victory would be a disaster for the Labour Party, and by Jove, who wouldn’t want that? Well, I would, except it would also be a disaster for conservatism. That’s why I coined the hashtag #ToriesAgainstCorbyn, and here’s why [all Tories] should oppose Corbyn becoming Labour leader, too.
"A government led by Jeremy Corbyn would be unthinkably bad for [right-wing policy]. “A-ha, but he could never get into government!” I hear #ToriesForCorbyn say. But an official opposition led by him would hardly be good. No matter how [left-wing], Corbyn would still have six questions at PMQs. His frontbench would still have a representative on Question Time and Newsnight. His party’s policy announcements and press releases would get just as much news coverage as a [right-wing] opposition.
"In short, Labour being Labour, they’ll still have the same platform, no matter how [left-wing] their leader’s views. The only difference is Corbyn’s views will be more left-wing, so will shift the entire political debate to the left. Long-term, so long as Labour and the Conservatives remain the two major parties in the UK, the only way to make progress is to persuade Labour to accept our position. Our ideas don’t win just when our party does, but when the other party advocates our ideas, too.
"Instead, a Corbyn victory would lend credibility to the far-left’s rejection of [cheap-work conservatism]: giving a megaphone to their already [over-loud] politics of [anti-austerity]. Inevitably, this would skew the discourse, letting Corbyn’s ideas become the default alternative to the Conservatives. Corbyn’s brand of socialism would [affect] the groundwater of British politics for a generation: influencing people, particularly young people, across the political spectrum.
"But even if you agreed with that, a Corbyn victory also offers a platform to even [more left-wing] views. His leadership would legitimise tolerance of [Muslims], whom he calls his ‘friends’: as he did to [Irish people] just two weeks after they almost killed Margaret Thatcher. And with a [right-wing] struggle against [Muslim governments in oil-rich countries] the stakes are far too high to have a Leader of the Opposition that considers [Muslims] to be his friends.
"All of the above applies if he loses the general election. Although that’s made more likely by Corbyn’s longing [for a left-wing government], it’s not a foregone conclusion. Indeed, in 1975, Margaret Thatcher was widely portrayed as ‘unelectable’. Her election as party leader was cheered by Labour as playing to the Conservative base and guaranteeing yet another Conservative defeat. Three general election landslides later, nobody was left worrying about her electability.
"Jeremy Corbyn – to say the least – is no Margaret Thatcher. But as Harold Macmillan said, governments can always be undermined by “Events, dear boy, events.” And if he were leader, it would take just one event – from the collapse of the Eurozone to a domestic political scandal – to put Jeremy Corbyn into Number 10. For the sake of the [Conservative Party] and for the innumerable Conservative achievements he’d unwind, it is important that that option be taken off the table.
" don’t think Jeremy Corbyn would win the 2020 election – but then I don’t think Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, or Liz Kendall would either. Their party – divided, in denial, and [funded only by unions and small-time donors] – is no match for a competent Conservative government overseeing [austerity]. But there’s always that risk of the unexpected. So while Corbyn doesn’t reduce the risk of Labour winning, he does raise the stakes. And the [chance] of bringing socialism back to the UK under Jeremy Corbyn is all too real a [possibility] for #ToriesAgainstCorbyn to risk."
Oliver Cooper in 2013, on Tory welfare reform: “I completely reject the accusation that this is in any way brutal, but actually kind in allowing people to get back into jobs.
“We’ve simplified the welfare system with the introduction of ‘universal credit’ and we’ve made it easier for people to get into jobs.”
http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/new_leader_of_tory_youth_wing_oliver_cooper_claims_benefit_reforms_are_kind_1_2003282
Cheap-work conservativism explained: http://sideshow.me.uk/annex/defeattherightin3minutes.htm