Yesterday Mike Smithson of politicalbetting.com wrote a
post about a question he asked on Twitter –
How is history going to judge Mr. Corbyn?
How is history going to judge Mr. Corbyn?
Mr Smithson received a range of replies to what is a tempting but unanswerable
question. The question also gives rise to an equally interesting but much more general issue.
Jeremy
Corbyn’s elevation to Labour party leader would not have been predicted only a
few years ago. Even if his leadership had been suggested as a future
possibility it would have attracted widespread ridicule. As it does now of
course.
Ed Miliband’s bungled update to the Labour leadership election rules kicked it
all off and Ed obviously didn’t predict this outcome or he probably would not have changed anything. A few years ago, Corbyn would not have predicted it either, yet a series of apparently unlikely events changed the course of Labour party history. At least for a time - we can't predict that either. A lesson for democracy perhaps.
Let us go much further back in time, to the time of Jeremy's conception. First contact between his mother's egg and his father's sperm could have turned out differently and Jeremy could have been Jemima. Such
as small matter yet these things change the tide of history. Apply the same thought to any major actor on the political stage and what do we get?
We don’t know. We’ll never know. Things are as they are.
It all goes to show the validity of Harold Macmillan’s disputed but famous quote.
Events, dear boy, events.
4 comments:
"Let us go much further back in time, to the time of Jeremy's conception."
And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat....Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;
Thank God we have been spared the begetting of any liason between Jeremy and the Abbopotamus.
In around 1973-1974 and perhaps later, I wonder if Jeremy might have been interested in many of the jobs going in local government at the time? Had he got one, he might have made a career in the London area, perhaps rising to a senior position in one of the Boroughs or even Greater London. Corbyn the Chief Executive of Tower Hamlets. There's a thought.
Sam - fair enough, but surely a little harsh in this case.
Wiggia - as far as we know...
Demetrius - yes he could have made a career in local government but I don't think he would have made much progress. Too intransigent.
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