by Morak Babajide-Alabi
I cannot say with certainty, but I have a feeling that Jeremy Corbyn, the United Kingdom Labour Party leader, has had the most turbulent reign in the history of political parties leadership. It is no news that since his ascension to the leadership position in 2015, he has been moving from one crisis to the other. Some of these crises he has managed (only managed) to scrape through, while some are still lingering. And to say here again that his misfortunes are internally generated is to state the obvious.
Unfortunately for Corbyn, he is presiding over a divided ‘team’. Yes, I know what you are thinking. A team is supposed to be a ‘team’. But for Corbyn and his co-travellers in the Labour Party, they have got another definition for the word ‘team’. How do you explain a leadership that has little or no support from his parliamentary members?
We can all recall when these parliamentary members, who should be the core of his backing decided to sponsor “themselves” against Corbyn. And in dramatic twists, some of his shadow cabinet members even threw in their towels. They not only threw the towels in, they made sure the towels were thrown so hard to hit Corbyn and cause maximum damage.
But Corbyn is a fighter. He is a warrior. Not once has he shown any sign of giving up. He confirmed his resilience last week when he was asked if he would resign should he lose the June 8 General Elections. He emphatically said no to the question. This is a man with so much energy to fight and he is not going to give up easily.
I have a feeling his opponents have realised this. They might have been rejoicing in the fact that Theresa May, the UK Prime Minister and candidate of the Conservative Party announced a snap election, Corbyn has signalled that he won’t be a pushover, no matter the outcome of the elections. The projection of political observers hitherto was that a defeat at the polls will burst his balloon. They did not put into consideration the political sagacity of this man. Nor have they considered his will of character. I think all these are starring them in the face now.
Mr Corbyn’s misfortunes took a nudge up on Wednesday when his party manifestoes were leaked to the press, ahead of official release. The idea was to portray Corbyn as a leader who will drag the UK back to the seventies. The Tories have been on his case since this leak and surprisingly some members of the Labour Party have also seized the opportunity to dig into Corbyn’s leadership (again).
However, the Labour leader announced that the leaked version of the manifestoes was just a draft and that members have met to discuss and amend some sections of it in order to suit this generation of the United Kingdom. Corbyn has been trying, rather unsuccessfully, since the leak to divert the electorate’s attention to more serious issues. He has refused to comment further on the leak.
To sustain his political campaign, Corbyn has been criticising May for her cringing relationship with Donald Trump, the President of the United States. He said on Thursday, that should he be elected the Prime Minister, he would not dance to, or be in a hurry to hold Trump’s hand as May had done. “Obviously a Labour government would meet with President Trump and would have discussions with him,” he said.
The countdown to the elections has begun. All odds are in favour of May, but going by recent events in the world, Corbyn may (may) the big surprise. This is a long shot, as May is desperate to win over the millions of Labour supporters who are disillusioned with Corbyn’s leadership or lack of.
The Liberal Democratic Party is on the trip once more. They are promising that if voted in, the party will legalise the use of marijuana, so it can be taxed and sold on the high streets. This is sweet music in the ears of some voters, who have been arguing for ages that marijuana should be declassified as a recreational drug. But this is this first time in British politics that marijuana is made an election issue. The thinking of LibDem leaders might have been that they can appeal to the youngsters by this.
For the LibDem, realising the huge income that could be made from marijuana, they are looking at raising the economic profile of UK by its ‘open’ sale. They will argue that the economy suffers a lot from the black market sale of marijuana because crooked people are making loads of money and pocketing all, without remitting any tax to the government.
But the electorates, especially the students’ segment, are far wiser than what the LibDem guys thought of them. They might have forgotten how they broke their electoral promises on the snap of the fingers immediately they went into coalition with the Tories in 2010, but the memories are fresh in the minds of the electorates.
We remember the many times Nick Clegg, the former LibDem leader struggled hard to explain why he had to give up his promises of no tuition fee rise to enjoy his time in government. We remember this singular act led to the total wipeout of the party at the last General Elections. Should we put our votes on LibDem for this health damaging and ill thought out promise? I don’t think many people will say yes.
Many are arguing that the cost of damage of marijuana to health is more than what the government will realise in income. This proposal, definitely, is not strong an argument to put Theresa May in the Old Age Pensioner (OAP) class. The LibDem guys will have to try harder.
PHOTO CREDIT: BBC
