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PM David Cameron's early Christmas present

By Jonathan J. Ariel - posted Tuesday, 25 August 2015


For Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, Christmas may come early this year. As early as 12 September in fact.

For that is the day that British Labour will elect its new leader, following the resignation of the gentleman who lead the party to a humiliating defeat on 7 May: the socialist and anti-Blairist, Ed Milliband.

Out in front of a less than electrifying field of replacements is one Jeremy Corbyn, the MP for Islington North and the standard bearer for the far left of the party.

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Candidate Corbyn represents nearly everything Prime Minister Cameron (and for that matter, former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair) does not. Corbyn's views according to many even within his own party are so removed from reality that on video he has compared the actions of Da'esh with those of the United States.

He wants Britain out of NATO and carries an economic agenda in his knapsack that resembles Cuba's centrally planned fiasco. He also wants closer ties with Moscow.

The video, which was filmed last year but was widely circulated in the last few days, elicited a strong reaction from Corbyn fans and detractors alike.

John McTernan, a former adviser to Tony Blair and more recently Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, described his comments as "nauseating".

The hostility to New Labour blinds Corbyn and the kool-aid drinkers to what secured Tony Blair three victories: making Labour relevant.

If he succeeds on 12 September in becoming opposition leader, the MP from Islington North will spend his time reminding Britain that he is anti-American, anti-NATO, friendly with a terrorist group proscribed by Australia, HAMAS, and from an economics perspective, keen on taxing and nationalising Britain into prosperity.

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The clamour by some both within and without the Labour Party for a Corbyn led Labour Party apes the enchantment many in Greece and Spain share for Syriza and Podemos.

More public sector spending? Check. Higher taxes? You bet. State ownership of businesses? Yes please. We can't have enough of that, can we?

The move by Labour leftwards since the departure of Tony Blair from the stage has been gradual but consistent. First to Gordon Brown, who was to Blair's left. Then to Ed Miliband, who was to Brown's left and now possibly to Corbyn, so far left that the middle class (long on hard work, honesty and thrift) would collectively snap their cervical vertebrae imagining him as the next occupant of No. 10.

A key theme of Corbyn's campaign and for that matter, much of the messaging from his predecessor, Ed Milliband is the rusted on hostility to everything Tony Blair stood for. Goodbye "New Labour" and hello "Old Labour".

Outside the party, the anti-Blairists have also been beating their drums. Often in the media.

Very red meat was tossed recently towards those expressing disdain towards Tony Blair in the form of the outrageous book, Blair Inc. The Man behind the Mask. "Outrageous" in the sense that it is "appalling" in promising so much, but delivering so little. It was penned by Francis Beckett, David Hencke and Nick Kochan.

The first two are journalists with unconcealed sympathies for socialism. Beckett has written for The Guardian and The Independent. His work for the New Statesman provided the munitions for the leftist strike on Tony Blair's New Labour.

Hencke spent 33 years writing for The Guardian and now contributes to Tribune Magazine, a Labour leaning fortnightly publication.

The third wheel, Nick Kochan, is a finance journalist who has written for a wide array of publications.

The book is what is commonly called a "hack job". Its focus is squarely on Blair and not New Labour's policies. It offers much smoke but no fire.

Blair apparently can do no right in his post Westminster life.

After handing in the keys to No. 10 to Gordon Brown, Blair scooted to Jerusalem as the Middle East Representative of the Quartet (the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia). While his remit was one with an economic focus, the authors let fly with accusations that he was ignoring (pro-Arab) foreign policies and on the ground did not support the Arab side (against the Israelis) enough. He is accused of spending most of time promoting his friends at J P Morgan to share in every business opportunity that came his way in the "disputed territories". To "make" their case, the authors lap up criticism of Blair from the Palestinian apologist Hanan Ashrawi, as though it was gospel.

Blair is condemned for not spending enough time in the region and not giving his work for the Quartet his "all". He is compared unflatteringly with his predecessor, James Wolfensohn, a former president of the World Bank. In the eyes of the authors, Wolfensohn took his job seriously and actually lived in the region, whereas Blair did neither.

Blair wears many hats: diplomat, businessman, charity worker, fundraiser etc. The authors' chief criticism is that it's hard to know which hat is on when he ponies up to a meeting with, say, leaders of the Gulf States. Is he pushing peace, faith (he runs a faith based foundation), education, direct commercial opportunities for himself or arranging deals for his well-heeled clients and snipping a few percent for himself? Or is he doing all of the above?

Who knows? And frankly, should we care?

Similar mudslinging returns time and again in the book. The aim is to pulverise Blair's reputation. While the authors take aim, they miss their target.

When the authors investigate Blair's activities in Central Asia, where he advises a great deal to Nursultan Nazarbayev, the President of Kazakhstan, they belittle him for promoting a country whose democratic traditions are not as deep as those of say, the United Kingdom. Again the writers are contemptuous of Blair's motives, the company he keeps, the secrets he cherishes and the remuneration he receives.

Next is Africa.

The masters of envy peek behind the mask at Blair's activities in Libya, where he rubbed shoulders with former leader Muammar Gaddafi; in Egypt where he chinwagged with President Gen Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he winded and dined with President Joseph Kabila.

Yes, the book is riveting as it provides a window on a life mostly hidden from view.

The book however is emblematic of the Labour Party's lurch to the left. Offering smears, accusations, claims of improper behaviour and whatever else the comrades can throw at the one man who kept Labour in power by moving it to the centre.

The book explores Blair's commercial activities as best it can without interviewing him or those close to him. Readers get a glimpse of his strategic practice, his inter-faith foundation, his charity work, and his wealth. His and his wife Cherie's very large wealth.

Blair is guilty of making money. Guilty of mixing commercial opportunities with his Rolodex of contacts. And guilty of mixing with folk, young and old, who can be of use to him.

The book's 374 pages are long on finger pointing but short on proving even one illegal act. Just boos and hisses from the peanut gallery about a man whose worth is close to £60 million.

With Jeremy Corbyn we have the candidate from central casting who best encapsulates the anti-Blair camp. Candidate Corbyn has worked hard and is gaining a strong following. So successful in getting his views "out there" that a menagerie of former and present Labour elites has in unison demonised and delegitimized him. The herd of naysayers include Alastair Campbell, Peter Mandelson, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Miliband. David's brother Ed has so far kept his views to himself.

They are all determined to stop him.

If the rank and file choose Corybn, then from 12 September until the general election in 2020, a dysfunctional Labour Party will prove to be the gift that keeps on giving as far as the Tories are concerned.

Labour will be seen to be stumbling about punch drunk on its own delusions, arms outstretched, towards the edge of a cliff and in time, onto the rocks of political annihilation below.

Conservatives would be well advised to maximise the chance of such a scenario. They can do worse than donate generously to Corbyn's campaign.

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About the Author

Jonathan J. Ariel is an economist and financial analyst. He holds a MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management. He can be contacted at jonathan@chinamail.com.

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