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| Corbyn's TUC address shows Labour politics is a new game now | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Day three-and-a-half of the Corbynite era and another blizzard of lessons for the entrenched elite of politics and the media that “how we intend to do things”, as the new Labour leader put it, is not like anything any of them have seen before. | Day three-and-a-half of the Corbynite era and another blizzard of lessons for the entrenched elite of politics and the media that “how we intend to do things”, as the new Labour leader put it, is not like anything any of them have seen before. |
| Corbyn ripped up the political rule book some months ago, of course; since being confirmed as leader of the opposition on Saturday he has been gathering up those tattered bits of paper and shredding them into even teenier pieces so he can bundle them into a pile and then light a match. Labour politics is a new game now – just don’t ask the rules, they are going to be crowdsourced at some point in the future. | Corbyn ripped up the political rule book some months ago, of course; since being confirmed as leader of the opposition on Saturday he has been gathering up those tattered bits of paper and shredding them into even teenier pieces so he can bundle them into a pile and then light a match. Labour politics is a new game now – just don’t ask the rules, they are going to be crowdsourced at some point in the future. |
| Take Corbyn’s speech to the TUC annual congress in Brighton, his first major address since being appointed and almost his first public remarks as leader in any context, having spent no little effort in his first 72 hours rebuffing the determined attentions of the nation’s press. | Take Corbyn’s speech to the TUC annual congress in Brighton, his first major address since being appointed and almost his first public remarks as leader in any context, having spent no little effort in his first 72 hours rebuffing the determined attentions of the nation’s press. |
| Related: Those who flounce out on Jeremy Corbyn will not escape blame if Labour crashes | Polly Toynbee | Related: Those who flounce out on Jeremy Corbyn will not escape blame if Labour crashes | Polly Toynbee |
| This has not always been the friendliest of arenas for Labour leaders – Tony Blair got an enthusiastic pitchforking in his last speech here, while Ed Miliband was heckled in 2011. But while Corbyn’s shadow cabinet choices, and even his politics, have not been not universally welcomed by TUC members, he is a passionate defender of their institutions; for this leader, in front of this crowd, there was no question that the welcome would be warm. | This has not always been the friendliest of arenas for Labour leaders – Tony Blair got an enthusiastic pitchforking in his last speech here, while Ed Miliband was heckled in 2011. But while Corbyn’s shadow cabinet choices, and even his politics, have not been not universally welcomed by TUC members, he is a passionate defender of their institutions; for this leader, in front of this crowd, there was no question that the welcome would be warm. |
| And so it took a particular contrivance for the man of the moment, with the nation’s cameras turned expectantly towards the stage, to miss his own standing ovation. The delegates were on their feet; there was the odd whoop, the occasional attempt at a chant of “Jez we can!”, but thirty seconds later, Corbyn was still nowhere to be seen. “I promise you, congress,” said the chair nervously, “he is on his way”. | And so it took a particular contrivance for the man of the moment, with the nation’s cameras turned expectantly towards the stage, to miss his own standing ovation. The delegates were on their feet; there was the odd whoop, the occasional attempt at a chant of “Jez we can!”, but thirty seconds later, Corbyn was still nowhere to be seen. “I promise you, congress,” said the chair nervously, “he is on his way”. |
| Labour’s press team, those gleaming young professionals who just a few short months ago were steering Miliband by the elbow from regimented meet ’n’ greet to carefully considered photo-op, must have been tearing out what is left of their hair. Corbyn, when he eventually slid into his seat, was magnificently unconcerned. “Sisters and brothers, thank you very much for inviting me here today,” he said with a peer over his spectacles, and he was off. | |
| As with the old politics, so with the rules of oratory – Corbyn is not an electrifying speaker; he ranged confidently if at times erratically from topic to topic, dipping into his notes when he remembered to, but otherwise speaking off the cuff. | As with the old politics, so with the rules of oratory – Corbyn is not an electrifying speaker; he ranged confidently if at times erratically from topic to topic, dipping into his notes when he remembered to, but otherwise speaking off the cuff. |
| A section that had been pre-briefed to reporters, in which he intended to echo Margaret Thatcher’s comments about the miners and say the Tories viewed union members as “the enemy within”, was omitted altogether. One could almost hear the screams of those TV producers who would have to select a pithy line or two to lead the nightly bulletins. | A section that had been pre-briefed to reporters, in which he intended to echo Margaret Thatcher’s comments about the miners and say the Tories viewed union members as “the enemy within”, was omitted altogether. One could almost hear the screams of those TV producers who would have to select a pithy line or two to lead the nightly bulletins. |
| Related: If first impressions matter, it's not been the best start for Jeremy Corbyn | Related: If first impressions matter, it's not been the best start for Jeremy Corbyn |
| Still, for those who witnessed him shifting somewhat uncomfortably on the opposition frontbench in the Commons on Monday, there was no question in which arena Corbyn felt more at home. There was a shout-out to striking workers from the National Gallery – “Well done to you for your campaign!” – and a passionate avowal that at the heart of his policymaking process would be “every union branch, every party branch and every union”. So stop asking me, he didn’t say (but might have) to the press corps at the back. | |
| The Conservative government was determined to destroy the influence of the unions, he said, “so I would like to ask the prime minister this question ...”. Has he remembered, one wondered briefly, that he is allowed to ask the prime minister several questions, every week in fact, starting on Wednesday? | The Conservative government was determined to destroy the influence of the unions, he said, “so I would like to ask the prime minister this question ...”. Has he remembered, one wondered briefly, that he is allowed to ask the prime minister several questions, every week in fact, starting on Wednesday? |
| A member of his team has a little bit of work ahead first. Corbyn vowed at the weekend that the topics he puts to Cameron at prime minister’s questions will be sourced from his supporters. In the first two days he had more than 30,000 suggestions. Nobody said the new politics would be easy. | A member of his team has a little bit of work ahead first. Corbyn vowed at the weekend that the topics he puts to Cameron at prime minister’s questions will be sourced from his supporters. In the first two days he had more than 30,000 suggestions. Nobody said the new politics would be easy. |
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