SUPPORTING LEFT WING POLITICS OVER THERE...BUT NOT HERE

While commentators like Chris Trotter and Martyn Bradbury apparently support the left wing politics of Jeremy Corbyn in Britain, they don't demonstrate the same kind of approval for similar politics in this country.

THE SEEMINGLY UNSTOPPABLE RISE OF LEFT WINGER Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of the British Labour Party has put into sharp relief how politically moribund the Labour Party is in this country, and the remarkable political gymnastics of its supporters.

While, thanks to the Corbyn campaign, there is a new found of enthusiasm for Labour In Britain, the Labour Party here continues to drift in the polls. Led by someone who is as supportive of  the 'free market' as John Key, Labour has nothing to offer but the threadbare argument that it would manage the market economy better than National. That argument was resoundingly rejected by those who voted at the last election. Unless there is a significant change in political direction by Labour, its only hope of election victory might just boil down to a jaded electorate, after nine years of National, deciding that it might as well give Labour a go. How inspiring. Perhaps that could be Labour's election slogan: 'NO NEW POLICIES. NO NEW VISION. IT'S JUST OUR TURN.'

Whatever happens, its unlikely that the 'missing million' who don't vote will be returning to the poling booths anytime soon, giving the lack of real political choice on offer.

At the last election commentator Chris Trotter declared that people who didn't support Labour were, like me, 'ultraleftists'. Apparently there are a million of us 'ultraleftists'. Who knew?

 Having attacked Andrew Little in the past, Trotter has since come out in fulsome support of the conservative former trade union official. Trotter is nothing if not inconsistent.

Earlier this month he wrote in a column that the 'simple answer is that the Corbyn Campaign is offering people hope." This is undoubtedly true but the problem is that while Trotter is supporting Corbyn's left wing policies over there, his stance on the Labour Party here is something else altogether.

On Radio Live recently he was asked by Ali Mau whether there was a Jeremy Corbyn-like figure in the Labour Party. Trotter baldly stated that there wasn't. This is hardly a ringing endorsement of Andrew Little's leadership.

In the same column Trotter took a swipe at Britain's left wing commentators. He wrote : "The so-called “left-wing” British commentariat are, for the most part, marching in lock-step with the Blairite Right. Their argument against Corbyn boils down to: He’s going to win, therefore he must not win.'

He's not entirely correct with his observation. Certainly commentators like Paul Mason and George Monbiot cannot be dumped into the Blairite camp. Similarly the New Statesman's Laurie Penny has been fighting the good socialist fight for years. Her latest column on Jeremy Corbyn is well worth a read.

Putting this inaccuracy aside, Trotter is guilty of not practicing what he preaches. His continual defence of the Labour Party, his continual justifications for Labour's right wing politics, his approval of Andrew Little and his attacks on people who have the temerity not to support Labour, demonstrate that , when the chips down, he will continue to defend a Labour Party that has more in common with the Blairite Right in Britain than with any notion of traditional social democratic politics, never mind socialism.

Trotter is certainly not contributing to a 'contagion of hope' in this country. Anything but.

But Trotter is not alone in his political 'inconsistency'. His old mate Martyn Bradbury, the Daily Blog editor, is supportive of Jeremy Corbyn but just can't manage to be supportive of similar politics in this country. At the last election he attacked left wingers who opposed Mana's opportunistic deal with the Internet Party. According to Bradbury, socialists were just 'unhappy people' who didn't know what was good for them.

His latest absurdity has been to suggest that former Labour leader David Cunliffe is similar to Jeremy Corbyn. Really? Corbyn is advocating the nationalisation of strategic industries without compensation. I never heard Cunliffe advocating such policies. In fact he wanted it to be known socialism was not a word he used. I guess, like dear old Chris Trotter, Cunliffe would describe such a policy as 'ultraleftist'.