Sunday 22 November 2015

Why Jeremy Corbyn is a majority of one.

Whatever you think of his politics, Jeremy Corbyn is clearly under assault from his own parliamentary membership, who, typically, present him and his ideas as being in the minority, a crackpot who should be side-lined at the earliest opportunity because he doesn't represent the people.

They're wrong.

The 230 Labour MPs (in addition to Mr Corbyn) feel that they somehow outnumber him.

They're wrong.

Of all the Labour MPs, Corbyn is the one with the strongest mandate from the electorate to represent them.  In fact, he is probably the only MP with a mandate to personally be in Parliament.

Every other MP was selected over competing candidates from other parties, voters who would rather have this one of ours over that one of theirs.  In each case, a small proportion of Labour supporters were effectively choosing the lesser of two or three evils.

In Corbyn's case, though, the entire Labour membership were given their opportunity to have a say.

That's 270,000 people, four times as many as any full constituency, voted to appoint their leader.  60% of them chose Corbyn.

No other MP or party leader has a mandate of that size, either in absolute numbers or in proportion.

That makes Jeremy Corbyn, reviled, isolated, assaulted Jeremy Corbyn, a majority.

A majority of one.


1 comment:

  1. Well said. Most of the elected representatives of the Labour Party are now so divorced from those who elect them as to leave the constituents without an effective voice.

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