On That Glorious Day!* Or grow up Tristram Hunt and Co

Jeremy Corbyn & Billy Bragg singing the Red Flag at

the pro-refugees rally in Parliament Square yesterday

photograph courtesy of The Guardian

Yesterday was a lovely day for those of us in the Labour Party who have been working and wanting Jeremy Corbyn to win the ballot for Labour Party Leader. Those of us who have admired him for years are so pleased that his/our principles are now in the public domain that it was, truly, a glorious day. And even the sun shone.

What saddens me are those - now proved to be the minority in our Party - who persist in name calling and besmirching Jeremy Corbyn and those of us who 'persist' in supporting him. As I have repeatedly said - on here and in other places - my views have not changed over the past fifty years during which I have been a member of the Labour Party. JC and I are contemporaries and the party to which we have both belonged changed over those years - I am sure he shuddered just as I did when our symbol became the red rose and the Red Flag ceased to be sung at conferences and rallies unless a renegade like me started it off! 'New Labour' was not my bag. However, I refused to leave the party because I believe that one should stay and try to change from within, rather than stand outside and criticise. 

On a personal note I would like once again to thank Jeremy Corbyn for the support he gave to a long-running union supported campaign in which I was involved for over five years. Without the support of MPs like him over 1400 retired workers would now be very much worse off financially.

Now I see people like Tristram Hunt standing outside the shadow cabinet and doing just that. He and his ilk really should grow up. If he believes that JC and his comrades are wrong, Hunt should stay and argue it out! As a political blogger in a small way I have abstained from criticising the critics, as it were, but someone has to take them aside soon and tell them they are behaving like spoilt brats who didn't win the pass the parcel at a kids party. If they stopped sulking and listened to what is to come they might learn something and, guess what, they might realise that they learnt something!!

Normally I do not criticise other party members publically, preferring to do so within the confines of party meetings. I believe in democracy and if my views are not in the majority I defer to them. I am asking now that those to whom I have deferred in the past to do the same now. They can, as I have done, discuss their views at all levels with party gatherings! And of course are free to say that they would have preferred a different outcome in the leadership elections. But to actively pillory and castigate the new leadership is, apart from bad manners, not the way to proceed.

From: A Labour Party member of fifty years standing. Also a Unite [retired] member. And lots of other organisations in common with Jeremy Corby - but that will not surprise any of you!


*Whilst it may seem rather facile to refer to  one of the theme songs of a '70s comedy [Citizen Smith] in the blog title, it is meant with love and great affection. Those of us who were young and idealistic in the '70s and have hung onto our ideals felt that yesterday was truly a glorious day for both our party and our country.