"Ironically, I don't think Corbyn would have managed to achieve much had he somehow managed to wangle the PM gig.


Maybe not in terms of policy, but what it would have done is awaken the millions in this country who feel indifferent, disillusioned or disgusted with politics and politicians and inspired them to want something better -- and even offer the vague whiff of hope that it might be achievable instead of a foolish pipedream. Look what a remarkable difference Corbyn made in boosting the membership of the Labour party to over half a million and the scenes of joy and enthusiasm which greeted him throughout the country. (see the clip posted yesterday of him arriving in Leeds)

I attended a Corbyn event at the Lowry theatre in Media City, Salford -- packed out, standing room only, on a Saturday afternoon in a sweltering heatwave. Loads of young people, plus mums with prams, toddlers.

Afterwards the crowd moved across the square to stand and chant outside the BBC studios, almost taunting the news hacks standing at the windows. Even then they knew full well the bias of the BBC and its reluctance to give Corbyn his due. I imagined an alternative scenario -- what would have been the BBC's response if a Tory politician received such a tumultuous reaction. Blanket coverage no doubt.

I watched the news that teatime and it never made the national bulletin, though there was a 30-second item low down in the running order on the north-west news -- but get this. The footage was mainly medium shots of Corbyn onstage waving and smiling, with the presenter's spiel on top of the crowd reaction, muted in the background. There wasn't a single shot of the packed auditorium
-- he might have been speaking to any empty theatre for all anyone knew.

But what if Corbyn had managed to harness all that hope and enthusiasm, mainly from young people, and create a real movement of grass-roots working class. Instead they've became even more disillusioned and disgusted than they were before, having to swallow all the crud that Johnson and his mob dish out. So Corbyn could have made a vast difference in public perception, and offered a glimmer of hope for the future, if he hadn't failed so miserably and incompetently at the task.