It’s time to look past the Tories and Corbyn. Spring is coming

Am I alone (in these pages) in thinking that the main point of politics and the democratic process in the UK is not the preservation and continuance in power, no matter what, of the Conservative Party?

I do sometimes wonder.

It doesn’t seem to matter what degree of ignorance, or incompetence, or sheer out-and-out buffonery are displayed by the Tories, there is a whole school of thought predicated on the belief that things could only get worse under Labour.

Now I don’t doubt that a Labour Government led by Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell would be bad for Britain, possibly even disastrous. Corbyn is a silly old fool, and McDonnell is a rouble-shop Lenin. But what if the twat twins were to be “disappeared” and a new, New Labour, led by Hillary Benn and Keir Starmer, was to emerge. Yes, you might wish to be assured that Diane Abbott would not be placed in charge of the Treasury and that Seumas Milne had been sent back to the salt mines of the Socialist Worker. But, honestly, would such a Democratic Socialist government be bad for Britain?

Those who believe that only Tories can ever be entrusted with the keys to Number Ten will point out that Corbyn and McDonnell pose a real and present danger to the British way of life and that the likes of Benn fils and Starmer will never succeed in displacing them. But that is to take a very short-term attitude to British politics. A mere fifteen years ago, Tony Blair was only just past his peak, and if he hadn’t been so foolish as to plight his troth to George W Bush and participate in the ill-conceived invasion of Iraq, he might well have remained in power until 2010, by which time it would unquestionably have been time for a change.

I know, I know. Gordon Brown would have had something to say about that. But a Blair unsullied by the chaos of Iraq would probably have slapped him down, keeping him in the Treasury, where he would have performed sterling work (pun intended) in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash.

In any case, was Brown such a bad premier? He was certainly a tad pompous and full of himself. But which PM is not? It goes with the territory. It’s just that some are better at concealing it than others. More to the point, Brown kept Britain on a reasonably even keel throughout the crisis and won the plaudits of other world leaders for his efforts. He was certainly no disaster.

From what I can tell from the fastness of rural France, Corbynism is starting to fade. It’s not simply the anti-semitism, or the refusal to say anything remotely helpful about Brexit, one way or the other. It’s not even the growing recognition that the Leader still thinks it’s 1974 and Ban the Bomb is the latest thing. It’s more that he increasingly resembles a twenty-first century Don Quixote, but with McDonnell as a paunchy Trotsky rather than Sancho Panza.

The pair are surely a passing phase – an incoherent response to years of Tory dominance based on austerity. We have seen it before. There is nothing new in politics. Michael Foot is remembered these days, if at all, as a daft old eejit. Neil Kinnock saw off the Militant Tendancy, despatching Derek Hatton to Cyprus to make his fortune as a property developer. And, sometime in the next couple of years, most obviously if and when Labour loses the next election, Corbyn and McDonnell will be removed, giving way to a new generation of Social Democrats who will go on to defeat the Tories and bring some much-needed redress to the government of whatever remains of the United Kingdom.

Journalists can’t help concentrating on what’s in front of them. It’s what we do. Who’s up and who’s down is the stuff of our trade. We tend to forget that the sweep of history includes us and what is here today is gone tomorrow.

I am in no position to make predictions about Labour’s fortunes over the next three months, any more than I can tell you who will take over from the forlorn and ridiculous Theresa May as leader of the Tories. Maybe the Gang of Eight-plus three will expand to be a Gang of 15 or 20. And it could be that another half-dozen or so Tories will join them in the event of a No-Deal Brexit. Who knows? All I can say with some measure of assurance is that the Tories will not stay in power forever and that their successor as the party of government is more likely to be sensible and moderate than radical and crazy.

Even if Corbyn and McDonnell do scramble a win next time out, following a spectacularly disastrous Brexit, they are highly unlikely to make it through to a second term in office. They will screw things up and be out sooner than you can say Ramsay McDonald.

Note that I haven’t said anything about the Liberal Democrats, for whom I used to vote. That is because they are useless. Where is Nick Clegg when you need him? Working for Facebook, that’s where. Instead, we have another Magic Grandpa, this time in a Homburg. Words fail me. Nor have I wasted time on the Scottish Nats. For what it’s worth, my suspicion is that they will get their way sometime in the next ten years, just as I believe that a United Ireland is now more likely than not. Brexit, once achieved, may set everything back to zero in England, but it will not do so for the Celtic fringe, whose time is almost upon us.

A lot to play for, then. But, please, I beg you, don’t make the survival of the Tory Party the main object of either your ambition or your affections. The Conservatives have let the country down in an appalling fashion since the referendum. Whether you are a Remainer or a Leaver, their record on Brexit is nothing short of horrendous. They deserve a come-uppance. They should be hoofed out of office in the manner of a violent drunk being ejected from a nightclub. What truly matters now is not how they pull themselves together – that will take years – but the quality of those who will replace them in government. It is time to look beyond the theatre of the absurd that is the millennial Left. Momentum has had its chance and it has blown it. The time is fast approaching when the Labour Party must make a choice: a car-crash with Corbyn or a return to its core values. I’m betting on the latter.