What if...

There was a journalist on TV tonight alarmed that people who paid the price of a cup of coffee to join were deciding the fate of the Labour Party in the UK. She missed the point, of course. Three quid is not what people thought Labour Party membership was worth. It's what they were asked to pay and a lot of people paid it. Labour is now the largest political party in Europe. The members' reasons for joining are their own business, but it's pretty clear that a lot voted - again - for Jeremy Corbyn (in an election caused by his opponents) and his left of centre agenda; hardly any of them are 'Trots'; and the party is left in the position of still looking for a way out of the mess it's in, thanks to a huge rift between the Westminster party and the party membership - and I suspect the voters. Meanwhile, a small number of Labour members have apparently decided to join UKIP, which makes me think maybe they didn't have a clear idea of what the Labour Party stood for in the first place. Mind you, I sometimes wonder if Tony Blair understood that.

And here's a wee thought I'd like to share with you:

What if Jeremy Corbyn is right?

What if the great political right turn that started in the UK with Thatcher and Co in the 80s doesn't appeal to a lot of people?

What if people don't want the UK to be privatised? What if we want to take the railways back into public ownership, as is the case in most European countries? Keep the NHS a publicly-funded body rather than hiving off bits of it to private companies? Decide our energy future lies with wave and wind power and not with nuclear power stations built and run for mega profits by China and France, which we the consumers will have to pay for? What if we want a good education for everybody in comprehensive schools (which are doing pretty well, thank you), rather than dangling elitist grammar schools in front of the middle classes as a way to buy their votes and divide them off from the rest of us? What if we want to take care of the the elderly and the disabled in a way that treats them with humanity, rather than as a problem to be sanctioned? What if we see taking in immigrants from Syria as our duty, rather than as the road to hell the Tory press describes.

What if people want a political party that makes these points? In Scotland, we have one: it's called the Scottish Greens. That's why I joined. It's all about equality and social justice. I joined the Greens initially because I could no longer support 'Scottish' Labour but I firmly believe there is a place for Labour in UK politics. To claim its place, the party is going to have to rebuild itself from the ground up, persuade the parliamentary party it's got the wrong idea, that Blairism is dead and they need a new philosophy that is inclusive, fair, based on sound financial principles (principles - now there's a word rarely heard from Tories) and get ready for a long campaign of information and persuasion in the face of almost total opposition from the media.

Is Corbyn the man to do it? I don't know. I honestly thought by now he'd have disappeared to the back benches. But no, he's still there. He has had a successful go at the new PM a couple of times. He has also had a go at some of the party's MPs. Will he be able to put his project into words - or at least hire some PR people who can? Is he a man on a mission? I hope so.