As Jeremy Corbyn begins to return the Labour Party to it's proud roots, the Murdoch-dominated right wing press is hissing it's predictable vitriol and scorning the chances of a man who espouses fairness and equality.
The problem is not so much with Corbyn as his predecessors who occupied the helm of the Labour Party. In the fortnight leading up to the recent General Election, the Labour hierarchy admitted publicly that it intended to execute the same cuts as the Tories if it were elected. That is rather like going in to a fish and chip shop to be told that they have sold out of cod but can offer you haddock instead. The point being that there is not a great deal to choose between the two. That was the big problem with Brown and Miliband. You have to offer something different to the incumbent party but not just different for the sake of being different.
Even without the benefit of hindsight, Corbyn was a certainty for Leader from the moment he achieved the requisite number of nominations to stand for the Labour leadership. All the other candidates were vestiges of the Blair/Brown years with promises of more of the same. But the critical factor was that the election of the new leader would not ultimately depend on the views of the Westminster Labour MPs. Had it done so, Corbyn wouldn't have stood a chance. No, Corbyn was elected by the only people who ever really matter. He was elected in the end by the members of the party. Ordinary members of the public who didn't go to Oxford or Cambridge but who face the struggles of daily life now being experienced by the majority. Just as the membership on the ground propelled him to the Labour leadership, the same process will determine whether he is given the keys to no.10 in 2020. Whether he wears a jacket or a tie or a beard is utterly irrelevant. It is his ideology which will matter. People have become fed up with the endless conveyor belt of stage managed, polished Oxbridge types whose lack of meaningful life experience renders them incapable of being able to relate to the everyday lives of real people.
The paradox is a very British one. As a rule, only establishment figures attain high office with rebels and radicals being eyed with distrust. Only this week, the death was announced of the finest tactical brain to captain England at cricket yet he only did so for 7 matches principally because he was a straight-talking Yorkshireman whose face didn't fit with the elite at the MCC in Lords. Brian Close was the best leader we ever had for our national cricket team yet he was sidelined by the good old fashioned British class system. It spoke volumes of the man that when his country was in dire straits against the venom of the West Indian fast bowling machine in 1963 and again in 1976, he came out of retirement at the age of 45 to take it on the chin -literally. He would never have won a popularity contest with the establishment but the general public adored him and had the most profound respect for his work ethic and the example he set to others.
Having being elected as Leader with an extraordinary 59.5% of the votes at the first ballot, Corbyn now has the sort of mandate for which any politician would give his right arm. So how does Corbyn relate to Maslow and what exactly is Maslow's triangle. Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who, in 1943, first espoused his thoery of human needs. Seventy years later, it is still adhered to by academics and is recogniosed as a seminal piece of psychological theory.
Briefly, Maslow described a ladder of human needs in which the needs at the bottom of the ladder had to be met first before the next step could be completely negotiated. The five levels he described are as follows in ascending order:-
Only today, I learnt with an unbridled sense of relief that one of the first decisions of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader has been to create a shadow minister of rmental health. At last! It is well documented that all health begins with mental health so I can only wonder what previous governments have been doing to address this national problem. Resources for those with mental health problems have never been more pathetic at a time when we have a government which seems hell bent on making the exisitng levels of mental illness far worse. It all feeds back to Maslow's triangle with relentless simplicity.
We need to remember why Jermey Corbyn was elected. It was not for his slick business suit or his carefully rehearsed sound bites. It was not because he was so photogenic or because he had real presence in front of the camera. He was elected because he was thrown in to a stale race just at the time when people had grown tired of the same old rhetoric. Here was an uncoomplicated man who simply spoke his mind and said the things which the majority evidently wanted to hear. It is no more complicated than that.
Even after his first few days in the job, I am very impressed with his plans. He plans to give a voice to ordinary people. How I wish my local council would do that in Denbighshire! He plans to change his approach to Prime Minister's question time. He wants to use questions put forward by members of the public. That would be far closer to democracy than anything we have seen in the stage managed tedium of recent years. Like the rest of us, he is unimpressed by the current format of the debates which take place. This is the area where Jeremy Corbyn and I have a lot in common. Like me, he attended Adams' Grammar School in Newport, Shropshire. Like me, he spoke at the William Adams Debating Society. Like me, he was often the lone voice travelling in an opposite direction to the majority. To stick to your principles and formulate sound arguments is a valuable gift even if only in the long run. After all those years in the wilderness, Corbyn now needs to grasp this opportunity with both hands and prove to the British people that there remains a more civilised way of doing things. He has already broken new ground by engaging with so many ordinary people during the recent leadership campaign. In particluar, he has connected with the younger generation and therein lies his secret weapon. Seldom has the youth of the UK been more down trodden. Their chances of home ownership are slim. The cost of a decent University generation has seldom been more expensive and of such poor value. They are very disillusioned and have every right to be. Theirs is the generation which will be asked to work until their 70s just to pay for the excesses and profligacy of our recent governments. His real challenge will be to translate those impressive levels of engagement in to votes in 2020. If he does, he will not only be Prime Minister but he will have an enormous mandate to lead.
Corbyn's plans to re-nationalise are a step in the right direction provided he can rein in a public sector in the UK which has increasinlgy lost sight of it's core obligations. His biggest enemy though will undoubtedly be the Murdoch-dominated right wing press which continues to dominate in the UK. Having a couple of daily newspapers on side is no good when the other eight are all baying for your blood. He has already shown his strength of character though. He has placed his flag firmly on the left lest there be any doubt. The next election will be one of ideology rather than politcal posturing.
So will the UK opt for a tee-total, tea drinking, cyclist who doesn't own a car in 2020? Will they elect a man with a beard who doesn't wear a tie? Is it important to people in the UK to have a man who sings the national anthem? Watch the next England football match and see how many players actually sing the national anthem - we seldom hear a word said about that because Murdoch is not that interested in them. These are very interesting times and refreshing at that.
Of all his achievements in this first week of his leadership, it was an announcement at the TUC yesterday which has really announced him. His decision to seriously consider backing the UK leaving the EU in 2017 was a masterstroke. He has now set himself apart from the rest and created common ground with those on the far right of the party who despises him the most. More imprtantly though, he has sent out a clear message to the people. He wants to put the UK first for the workers who sustain the economy and the quality of their everyday lives. In private, I suspect that Cameron's conservatives are ruing the day that Margaret Beckett decided to back the quietly spoken man of conviction.
The problem is not so much with Corbyn as his predecessors who occupied the helm of the Labour Party. In the fortnight leading up to the recent General Election, the Labour hierarchy admitted publicly that it intended to execute the same cuts as the Tories if it were elected. That is rather like going in to a fish and chip shop to be told that they have sold out of cod but can offer you haddock instead. The point being that there is not a great deal to choose between the two. That was the big problem with Brown and Miliband. You have to offer something different to the incumbent party but not just different for the sake of being different.
Even without the benefit of hindsight, Corbyn was a certainty for Leader from the moment he achieved the requisite number of nominations to stand for the Labour leadership. All the other candidates were vestiges of the Blair/Brown years with promises of more of the same. But the critical factor was that the election of the new leader would not ultimately depend on the views of the Westminster Labour MPs. Had it done so, Corbyn wouldn't have stood a chance. No, Corbyn was elected by the only people who ever really matter. He was elected in the end by the members of the party. Ordinary members of the public who didn't go to Oxford or Cambridge but who face the struggles of daily life now being experienced by the majority. Just as the membership on the ground propelled him to the Labour leadership, the same process will determine whether he is given the keys to no.10 in 2020. Whether he wears a jacket or a tie or a beard is utterly irrelevant. It is his ideology which will matter. People have become fed up with the endless conveyor belt of stage managed, polished Oxbridge types whose lack of meaningful life experience renders them incapable of being able to relate to the everyday lives of real people.
The paradox is a very British one. As a rule, only establishment figures attain high office with rebels and radicals being eyed with distrust. Only this week, the death was announced of the finest tactical brain to captain England at cricket yet he only did so for 7 matches principally because he was a straight-talking Yorkshireman whose face didn't fit with the elite at the MCC in Lords. Brian Close was the best leader we ever had for our national cricket team yet he was sidelined by the good old fashioned British class system. It spoke volumes of the man that when his country was in dire straits against the venom of the West Indian fast bowling machine in 1963 and again in 1976, he came out of retirement at the age of 45 to take it on the chin -literally. He would never have won a popularity contest with the establishment but the general public adored him and had the most profound respect for his work ethic and the example he set to others.
Having being elected as Leader with an extraordinary 59.5% of the votes at the first ballot, Corbyn now has the sort of mandate for which any politician would give his right arm. So how does Corbyn relate to Maslow and what exactly is Maslow's triangle. Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who, in 1943, first espoused his thoery of human needs. Seventy years later, it is still adhered to by academics and is recogniosed as a seminal piece of psychological theory.
Briefly, Maslow described a ladder of human needs in which the needs at the bottom of the ladder had to be met first before the next step could be completely negotiated. The five levels he described are as follows in ascending order:-
- Physiological needs: Food, water, sleep and sex.
- Safety needs: Security of body, employment, resources, morality, family, health and property.
- Love and Belonging needs: Friendship, family and sexual intimacy.
- Esteem: This is achieved when individuals feel comfortable with what they have accomplished. This is the level where people can respect others and respect themselves.
- Self Actualisation: This is achieved when people have reached a state of harmony and understanding when they have reached their full potential.
Only today, I learnt with an unbridled sense of relief that one of the first decisions of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader has been to create a shadow minister of rmental health. At last! It is well documented that all health begins with mental health so I can only wonder what previous governments have been doing to address this national problem. Resources for those with mental health problems have never been more pathetic at a time when we have a government which seems hell bent on making the exisitng levels of mental illness far worse. It all feeds back to Maslow's triangle with relentless simplicity.
We need to remember why Jermey Corbyn was elected. It was not for his slick business suit or his carefully rehearsed sound bites. It was not because he was so photogenic or because he had real presence in front of the camera. He was elected because he was thrown in to a stale race just at the time when people had grown tired of the same old rhetoric. Here was an uncoomplicated man who simply spoke his mind and said the things which the majority evidently wanted to hear. It is no more complicated than that.
Even after his first few days in the job, I am very impressed with his plans. He plans to give a voice to ordinary people. How I wish my local council would do that in Denbighshire! He plans to change his approach to Prime Minister's question time. He wants to use questions put forward by members of the public. That would be far closer to democracy than anything we have seen in the stage managed tedium of recent years. Like the rest of us, he is unimpressed by the current format of the debates which take place. This is the area where Jeremy Corbyn and I have a lot in common. Like me, he attended Adams' Grammar School in Newport, Shropshire. Like me, he spoke at the William Adams Debating Society. Like me, he was often the lone voice travelling in an opposite direction to the majority. To stick to your principles and formulate sound arguments is a valuable gift even if only in the long run. After all those years in the wilderness, Corbyn now needs to grasp this opportunity with both hands and prove to the British people that there remains a more civilised way of doing things. He has already broken new ground by engaging with so many ordinary people during the recent leadership campaign. In particluar, he has connected with the younger generation and therein lies his secret weapon. Seldom has the youth of the UK been more down trodden. Their chances of home ownership are slim. The cost of a decent University generation has seldom been more expensive and of such poor value. They are very disillusioned and have every right to be. Theirs is the generation which will be asked to work until their 70s just to pay for the excesses and profligacy of our recent governments. His real challenge will be to translate those impressive levels of engagement in to votes in 2020. If he does, he will not only be Prime Minister but he will have an enormous mandate to lead.
Corbyn's plans to re-nationalise are a step in the right direction provided he can rein in a public sector in the UK which has increasinlgy lost sight of it's core obligations. His biggest enemy though will undoubtedly be the Murdoch-dominated right wing press which continues to dominate in the UK. Having a couple of daily newspapers on side is no good when the other eight are all baying for your blood. He has already shown his strength of character though. He has placed his flag firmly on the left lest there be any doubt. The next election will be one of ideology rather than politcal posturing.
So will the UK opt for a tee-total, tea drinking, cyclist who doesn't own a car in 2020? Will they elect a man with a beard who doesn't wear a tie? Is it important to people in the UK to have a man who sings the national anthem? Watch the next England football match and see how many players actually sing the national anthem - we seldom hear a word said about that because Murdoch is not that interested in them. These are very interesting times and refreshing at that.
Of all his achievements in this first week of his leadership, it was an announcement at the TUC yesterday which has really announced him. His decision to seriously consider backing the UK leaving the EU in 2017 was a masterstroke. He has now set himself apart from the rest and created common ground with those on the far right of the party who despises him the most. More imprtantly though, he has sent out a clear message to the people. He wants to put the UK first for the workers who sustain the economy and the quality of their everyday lives. In private, I suspect that Cameron's conservatives are ruing the day that Margaret Beckett decided to back the quietly spoken man of conviction.
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