Here Comes the New Boss

Clem Thomas

Well done Jeremy Corbyn. At last socialism has returned to the faux Tory Party that for too long has been masquerading as Labour, Welsh Labour (doesn't exist!) and New Labour. I wish him well, but I fear for him since he will have to deal with one of the most fickle electorates in the world: the shallow, cliché driven people of Middle England.

Two things about this recent Labour election are worrying though. One is that according to all the media reports the Labour Party only just managed to pull off a relatively simple internal election. It nearly foundered several times before Corbyn was elected and this does not inspire confidence in a party that wants to govern the UK. Big party in a brewery comes to mind!

Two, for some time I have been concerned about Labour's interpretation of Democracy. I learned first hand when a community councillor that once a majority of Labour voters pass something they then feel totally justified in imposing this decision on the majority at large -- because Labour's majority, not the majority of people, has voted for it. And as I know too well that action can be brutal and cynical.

Labour's Welsh division are only allocated the "fun-sized"
megaphones, lest they start getting ideas about speaking up

But now to Wales. To be realistic there is no point at all in wondering what Corbyn's new 'line up' means for us. If Nia Griffith's example is anything to go by we can expect more of what we are used to: loud and busy campaigning locally, ever so all for the people, but only until there is a vote in Parliament when all Labour MP's from Wales will do exactly as they are told by their slave masters in Labour's London HQ.

Most annoying though is the fact that we in Wales only ever get fifty percent of a voice. That is, Labour gets very hot and bothered, chest beating and all, when there is a Tory Government in London. Hard to find anyone more self righteous. But just wait until there is a Labour Government in Westminster and the whip is cracked. It is then good bye to a voice for Wales as all the Labour MP's from Wales put on a truly dazzling display of forelock knuckling in order to appease their English masters.

For goodness sake, Welsh people, wake up will you and stop voting for a party that puts Party before People. We had a very sinister example of that thinking somewhere around seventy years ago!