In many ways I’m non-binary.
I don’t mean that gender wise, not yet at least, although I’ve always had a strong anima, maybe from having two sisters. I mean that Brexit wise; I’m a remainer but I understand what Corbyn is up to. Other parties are playing the Brexit card either way: they’ve come out. But it’s got to be more nuanced than that and Labour is more nuanced.
The Conservative owned press can argue Corbyn doesn’t have beliefs, but think about it, the antithesis is the issue. He is a very real threat because he has beliefs. Throughout his time in parliament he has been a thorn in the side even of his own party because of these beliefs. The word ‘ideology’ is thrown around, as if it is the biggest sin if someone holds a belief. The problem for Corbyn is his ideology of peace, making it very difficult for him:
You either assume ‘responsibility’ for the violent operation you are leading, or continue reciting your dogma of ‘ultimate ends’ while turning your back on the consequences. It’s well known that on the day a new prime minister takes office their duties include writing a letter to nuclear submarine commanders, giving them instructions on what action to take in the event that Britain has been wiped out in a nuclear attack. There is a deathly substrate to the state and its highest offices that seems almost ontologically incompatible with Jeremy Corbyn’s image of himself. This is the reason his followers adore him, and the reason too that the (far larger) ranks of sceptics will never accept him as part of a compromise. (Davies 2019)
Johnson’s only wish is to be PM; now he’s there, he indubitably doesn’t know what to do.
This is because, diametrically to Corbyn, he has no beliefs; he is the ultimate postmodern politician. The number of mistakes and lies he’s made doesn’t need repeating; each stunt falls through, because there’s no truth there. And the similarity of his language to that of Enoch Powell is also indubitable (Mount 2019). Johnson, whatever his beliefs or lack of them, must creep closer publicly to UKIP’s beliefs, obviously. Farage asked Powell for his support to win a bi-election and UKIP were constantly asking Powell to back them (Hope 2014). This regressive politics is getting the UK nowhere, obviously, other than to point of fragmentation. Welcome to the disunited kingdom.
References
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n18/william-davies/how-to-be-prime-minister
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n18/ferdinand-mount/wedded-to-the-absolute
Jason Lee 