Mr Nice Guy

Everyone says Jeremy Corbyn is a nice genuine guy. 

I have never met him so I do not have a view.  Though a man who separates from his wife because of an ideological difference, where she doesn’t want to send their son to the failing local school, does leave you taking a deep breath. 

And Mr Corbyn, who believes Ed Miliband was not left wing enough to convince voters to back Labour, surely one of the oddest analyses of why Labour lost the election, also admitted that he could not be friends with anyone who was not left wing.  “At the end of the day, it's the question of your values - they get in the way,” he told the Guardian.

But there is much to admire him for.  The patron saint of unpopular causes.  The Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six whose convictions were found to be unsound.  Afghanistan and Iraq, Mordechai Vanunu who was imprisoned in Israel for giving away its nuclear secrets.  Palestine.   

The thing about Corbyn is that he is nearly always proved right – after the event.  Remember him embracing Gerry Adams and Sinn Féin decades ago?  Now they are brought in from the cold and in government in Northern Ireland.  Many people thought he was mad.  And we’ve not even started on apartheid …

But he is a man of wide views which I would not fall out with him on.  “I’ve just had an interesting discussion on the TTIP.”, he tells a journalist.  The what? “Ah, sorry – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.” This is a negotiation between the US and European Union to develop a way to develop a way in which investment would be protected, and a way in which governments must not make life difficult for investors. The fear is that it’s a race to the bottom, with the lowest common denominator on both sides of the Atlantic becoming the norm.  I’m with Jeremy on this.   

Then there is Trident.  I’d rather spend all that money on weapons and “boots the ground” that we actually controlled rather than ones that have a key the USA must turn on before we use them.  I’m not sure he would spend the money on more conventional systems.  But on the Trident weapons system, I’m with him on that.

And there is Europe.  Why are we allowing a super state to evolve before your eyes that will surely end in tears.  In discord.  And war.  So I’m with him on that.

So a lot of good things.  But as Boris said of Jeremy “What I think they saw in Jeremy Corbyn was this kind of originality and authenticity and willingness to say exactly what he thought, and that has proved very seductive.   The trouble is that his manifesto, his plans for the country, are diametrically the opposite of what the country needs.  It is possible to have a charming air of authenticity and yet to be totally wrong about what you’re trying to do.”

Asked by the Guardian about how he would he feel if he actually won he replied “Interested”.  He calmly added, “And hopeful that we could bring about some changes in Britain.”  Would it scare him?  He closed his eyes, as if imagining himself as Labour leader for the first time. “Scare me?” He smiles. “It would be a challenge.” 

But the real challenge is over his shoulder.  The new deputy leader Tom Watson.  Labour leader by next year at this time?

That challenge for Mr Corbyn starts today.