by Kevin Meagher
It’s often said, usually pejoratively, that Tony Blair and New Labour represented the ‘professionalisation’ of Labour politics.
An obsession with presentation. Style over substance. Spin.
What a contrast, then, to today’s unprofessional Labour party.
Diane Abbott’s interview yesterday with LBC’s Nick Ferrari, as she announced Labour’s pledge to recruit 10,000 extra police officers, was invariably described as a ‘car crash’.
Actually, it was more like a plane slamming into a mountain. The scale of calamity was of an altogether greater magnitude.
Pieces of smouldering fuselage were scattered across television and radio studios. Diane’s reputation as a ‘serious’ politician was utterly incinerated.
She clearly had no idea how the policing pledge was to be funded, initially suggesting it would cost £300,000. The actual figure is apparently £300 million. 1000 times her original estimate.
Of course, Jeremy Corbyn was ‘not embarrassed in the slightest’ by her blundering.
He should be.
Corbyn can do himself a lot of favours by running a basically competent, functioning election campaign.
I’ve mentioned before that his easy manner contrasts well with the stage-managed hysterics of Theresa May’s campaign.
The obvious caveat is that he is going to lose; but it’s the manner and scale of the defeat that’s in his hands.
Bluntly, he can lose badly or he can lose catastrophically.
The only card he has to play is to confound the low expectations voters, the media and his own colleagues have of him.
That requires using every opportunity, straining every sinew, to at least offer a semblance of coherence.
Alas, that’s too much for Diane.
She is an experienced broadcaster but she is used to spouting her opinion on television and radio.
It requires a higher level of skill and preparation to defend the party line, something she is simply not used to doing.
Did she think she could bluster past the entirely predictable line of questioning about how she was going to pay for 10,000 extra coppers? Is she really that inept?
I guess so.
The upshot is that she has made Jeremy Corbyn’s life a lot harder.
So catastrophic it is then?
Kevin Meagher is associate editor of Uncut
