Is the UK trying to out Bernie Bernie sanders? Jeremy Corbyn, sounds
like Sanders, only with a strong anti war position.
Carl Jarvis
****
What just happened?
A 66-year-old left-wing MP, Jeremy Corbyn, has
won the leadership
of the UK's official opposition.
It was a landslide win - he got 59.5% of the vote. For context, former
Prime Minister Tony Blair got 57% of the vote when he was elected
Labour leader
in 1994.
Bookmakers in particular have had their feathers ruffled - he began
the contest in May as a 200 to 1 outsider. In fact, his support was so
low, he made
it on to the ballot only when some MPs who did not agree with his
policies nominated him to "broaden the debate".
Yet Labour supporters warmed to his anti-austerity message and he
seems to have captured their imaginations. His victory was also helped
by a 2014 change
in Labour leadership rules, which allowed tens of thousands of
non-party members to vote for a fee of £3 .
Born in a market town in Wiltshire, in the west of England, his father
was an engineer and his mother was a maths teacher.
He spent two years working in a voluntary service programme in Jamaica
before leaving the North London Polytechnic without a degree.
He was active in Labour politics, firstly in Shropshire and then in
London, where he was a local councillor for nearly a decade.
His only paid job outside politics was working for two trade unions,
the National Union of Public Employees and the National Union of
Tailors and Garment
Workers.
He was first elected to Parliament in 1983, when Margaret Thatcher was
prime minister.
He has been MP for the London constituency of Islington North for 32
years, being re-elected seven times.
Compared with many other candidates, a lot of press attention focused
on his appearance - with reports
suggesting he was given a (very gentle) makeover in recent weeks.
So why is his win significant?
Rewind a few years.
After election defeats in the 1980s, Labour ditched a number of
far-left policies and moved more towards the centre - a move that Mr
Corbyn opposed.
For the Labour Party, it worked. Under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown,
the party stayed in power for 13 years.
His election as Labour leader reflects a pattern in other European
countries, such as Greece and Spain, of a move towards the far left.
Having said that, the next UK election will be in 2020 and the
Conservative Party has a majority in parliament. It may be a while
before we see whether
there is a wider Corbyn Effect.
