Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is surrounded by supporters at a rally in Birmingham’s Centenary Square (Photograph: Olly MacNamee)
What started off as probably the first truly Autumnal day last Saturday, turned out to be a rather balmy and beautiful late afternoon rally for Jeremy Corbyn to once more address the Corbyn faithful of Birmingham at Centenary Square ahead of the Labour leadership election’s closure.
There was, from my estimation, about 1500 strong, but these kind of rallies often do preach to the converted, and that’s a shame, as I felt Corbyn beginning to formulate a plan; policies for a potential Labour government. As the darling buds of May retire and sleep through the colder seasons about to descend upon us, Corbyn was offering the crowd a speech suggesting the grassy shoots of policies tackling the major issues of housing, the rise of hate crimes and the far-right, immigration and defence of the public sector. Oh, and there was even time to share a joke, as one banner asked for the nationalisation of The Great British Bake Off. But, behind this facile humour lies some truth once you consider this as a metaphor for what is happening to this country and our public sector right her, right now.
Hundreds packed into Centenary Square in Birmingham to hear Jeremy Corbyn speak (Photograph: Olly MacNamee)
The Great British Bake Off, arguably, was nurtured and grown under the support of the BBC, the public sector of the broadcasting world. Now, the rapacious producers of this programme are happy to take a brand that has benefited from public monies and hawking it to the private sector. And, like public sector workers, it was great to here some rally against then fate of this well loved programme. Mel and Sue, in standing proud and with the BBC, could be seen as a substitute, if you like, for every teacher, every police officer, every doctor and every barrister who has had to defend their own publicly supported sector. Since 2010, I can’t think of a single public sector institutions that has not been forced to take strike action because of austerity – one of the biggest lies this government has sold to the public.
But, I digress.
Jeremy spoke for over half and hour, before rushing off to further rallies and having just been in Glasgow earlier in the day too. He reminded us all of the lies and deceit of the Tory government, reminding us that the recession in 2008 wasn’t caused by the vulnerable in our society. “It was not caused by the homeless, it was not caused by the wages of care workers, not caused by children in schools” but rather by, “deregulation” and an ignorance amongst the professional classes.
Jeremy Corbyn speaks to a large crowd in Birmingham’s Centenary Square (Photograph: Olly MacNamee)
Jeremy Corbyn supporters in Birmingham gather for a rally in Birmingham (Photograph: Olly MacNamee)
The economy and justice were reoccurring themes, with case study after case study that illustrated, on a very personal level, the kind of world we’ve become. A world, as Jeremy reminded us, in which a woman working at one of Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct warehouses had to slink off to the toilet to give birth for fear of losing her job. Remember the 100 companies that signed off in favour of Zero Hours; contracts? Thanks to the election of a Tory government, these things are allowed to continue, And soon, with our seemingly inevitable Brexit, the Tory toffs will be able to begin to dismantle the human rights of such workers too.
Quite rightly, Corbyn came out in defence of trade unions. The only force who support workers after all. If there was a fair and level playing field, we wouldn’t need the protection of such unions. Don’t forget that, as the media often tries to portray such groups as some kind of Machiavellian shadow organisations. Y’know, like the government and their backroom deals with Chine, last the expense of £30 billion to us, the tax payer. Are we really shunning our European allies for a Communist regime in which civil rights and freedoms are almost non-existent?
Jeremy Corbyn at a rally in Birmingham last year, campaigning for his first leadership campaign (Photograph: Adam Yosef)
Public support for Jeremy Corbyn has surged following resignations by members of his shadow cabinet earlier this year (Photograph: Adam Yosef)
And so to education, which, “should be a right and not a privilege’. An educational landscape wherein “schools could work together and not see the schools down the road as rivals,” rather than, “bring back the 11+ and divide our children at 11.” Selective education is exactly that, selective and ‘Sadly, the majority of children will not pass it” and even those that do, may find they are not accepted. With the Public Schools (and no greater an oxymoron exists in education) and now the grammar schools being re-introduced it would seem the Conservatives are adamant on embedding the class system within education, leaving the great and unwashed taught in Academies and the like, where they don’t even need to employ trained teachers to ‘teach’ your kids.
The crowd were rightfully lifted and in starting to sketch out broad brush strokes on policies to tackle the Conservatives’ heinous austerity measures, Corbyn began to feel like a man ready to learn to lead. He asked for party unity after this election, whatever the result, and offered an olive branch to one and all.
Whether that happens, of course, will be down to whoever rises as leader, but it does give that person nearly 4 years, theoretically, to build a strong and believable opposition with more that the supposed Left-wing voice on the front bench.
After all, the Labour party did bring to life the very same welfare system the Toffs have tried to sell off to their mates. And, that as a pretty radical and left-wing thing to do. Maybe being ‘Left-wing’ isn’t all that bad after all? I mean to say, I don’t hear many people complaining now, do you?
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Olly MacNamee
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