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COMMENTARY Jeffrey Gillespie: Britain turns further left DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Sep. 18, 2015 @ 12:01 am Posted Sep. 18, 2015 @ 12:01 am » Social News p bs:newslist StartDate="20121121" EndDate="p bs:datecalc Months="3"" DateSort="1" UseObjects="1" ObjectClass="81" Taxonomywords="2324,665" ExactTaxonomyMatch="1" Image="1" Count="4" --> As much as we are focused on U.S. and presidential politics in this, the run-up to the silliest of seasons, it is sometimes important to cast our view across the pond when there is an event of global importance underway. That is the case today, in the Palace of Westminster, where a leftist politician has this week won the prestigious post of leader of Great Britain’s Labour Party, as well as that of official leader of the Opposition. Jeremy Corbyn, a firebrand MP for the Labour Party since 1983, has long been marginalized as an aggressive Marxist, even by U.K. standards. For decades, his approach has been one of intense anti-establishment activism. In the 1980’s, during the reign of Margaret Thatcher, he vocally and visibly supported two groups of men who were convicted of conspiring with the IRA to instigate bombings during the 1970s in England that led to the death of nearly 30 people. The Guilford Four and the Birmingham Eight were all later acquitted and compensated as a result of Corbyn’s early efforts. He has been vocal in his opinion that Hamas and Hezbollah be treated as equal with Israel in any diplomatic or military skirmish. Small wonder, then, that conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron this week called Corbyn’s victory a “threat to national security.” But the fact remains that Corbyn was elected as a result of a wave of previously uninspired young people who, after seeing him speak and paying attention to his platform, registered in record numbers and showed up in waves at the polls to bring him a crashing and resounding victory. His policies, while promoted as radical, are in fact rather tame. He is anti-austerity. He promotes a plan wherein the Bank of England creates money to invest in public housing and transportation infrastructure. He encourages the reinstatement of the original themes of the Labour Party when the party was conceived, which include fair distribution of profits between a company and its workers, policies that were gutted under the New Labour government of Tony Blair. Blair, who provided major support to President Bush during the lead-up to the second Iraq War, is considered by many in England to have been a Labourite in name only; his bellicose foreign policy and capitulation to market forces were considered a betrayal, and caused deep divisions within the party. The election of Corbyn is a strong indication that, despite reported odds of 200 to 1, a populist socialist legislator can become one of the most powerful members of the U.K. parliament. What does this mean for America? Well, in the same week that Corbyn won his prize, Bernie Sanders passed Hillary Clinton in a New Hampshire poll, and is creeping up on her in most others. The conservative prime minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, was ditched by his constituents and is no longer in office. A hard left political turn has become a resilient trend in the Anglosphere. Newspapers and media outlets around the world are being caught with their pants down under these new conditions. With history being made in real time, many commentators are having to take a hard look at their way of profiling "unlikely" candidates. A serious shift of leadership in the Western world towards more anti-establishment figures who might actually defy corporate interests in order to empower the citizenry is now a reality. The status quo pimping of politicos by 1 percenters is slowly but surely being eroded by the anger of a public having to do more and more with less and less. With Corbyn and his cadre just down the street, one might imagine that the Queen, though perhaps not amused, may be casting her gaze toward an increasingly egalitarian Whitehall with an ever more wary eye. Jeffrey Gillespie's writing has appeared in the Santa Fean and Art Collector magazines, the Portland Mercury and Willamette Week. He lives in Ashland. DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Sep. 18, 2015 @ 12:01 am » Comment or view comments /* $( document ).ready(function() { // Jquery mobile is trying to style the button and leaving a blank gry button on top of a white button $("#viafouracoms .vf-comment-controls li.vf-right").html(' Submit '); });*/ » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with DailyTidings.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Alerts Email alerts RSS feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Propel Marketing Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Mobile Site Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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