The key passages from Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour conference speech – and what he REALLY meant by it all
JEREMY CORBYN today delivered his Labour conference speech - firing up leftie activists with his vision of a Britain going back to the 70s.
He painted a picture of a party ready to take power and lead the country to a socialist nirvana - but what was he really trying to say if you read between the lines?
SQUABBLING POLITICIANS
WHAT HE SAID: “Theresa May’s got a coalition of chaos around her own cabinet table - Philip Hammond and Liam Fox, Boris Johnson and David Davis.
“At each other’s throats, squabbling and plotting, manoeuvring to bundle the Prime Minister out of Number Ten and take her place at the first opportunity instead of getting to grips with the momentous issues facing our country.”
WHAT HE MEANT: “Thank God it’s not just Labour whose MPs all hate each other now.
“We’re completely united - if you ignore the fact that we can’t agree about Brexit and that most of my MPs have refused to work on my front bench!”
ONLINE ABUSE
WHAT HE SAID: “The campaign by the Tories and their loyal media was nasty and personal.
“It fuelled abuse online and no one was the target of that more than Diane Abbott. She has a decades-long record of campaigning for social justice and has suffered intolerable misogynistic and racist abuse.
“Yes we will disagree, but there can never be any excuse for any abuse of anybody. We settle our differences with democratic votes and unite around those decision.”
WHAT HE MEANT: “I’m furious about vile racist abuse from online trolls - when it’s directed at my own side.
“But I’m not mentioning Labour’s anti-semitism problem - hopefully if we ignore it, it will have gone away by next year’s conference.”
BREXIT
WHAT HE SAID: “As democratic socialists, we accept and respect the referendum result, but respect for a democratic decision does not mean giving a green light to a reckless Tory Brexit agenda that would plunge Britain into a Trump-style race-to-the-bottom in rights and corporate taxes.
“We are not going to be passive spectators to a hopelessly inept negotiating team putting at risk people’s jobs, rights and living standards.”
WHAT HE MEANT: “We’re trying to appeal to both sides - to metropolitan Remainers who are desperate for a soft Brexit, and to staunch working-class Leavers in the North and Midlands.
“So we won’t tell anyone what our policy is - will we stay in the single market and customs union, or not? - and hope that the Tories screw up badly enough for us to swoop in.”
THE ECONOMY
WHAT HE SAID: “There is a new common sense emerging about how the country should be run.
“That’s what we fought for in the election and that’s what’s needed to replace the broken model forged by Margaret Thatcher many years ago.”
WHAT HE MEANT: “Margaret Thatcher was the last PM to make a real, lasting impact on Britain with her radical agenda to remove state control of the economy.
“Now we need to undo everything she did by nationalising industries and building ever more council houses - it’s back to the 1970s.”
THE ROBOT REVOLUTION
WHAT HE SAID: “We need urgently to face the challenge of automation - robotics that could make so much of contemporary work redundant.
“That is a threat in the hands of the greedy, but it’s a huge opportunity if it’s managed in the interests of society as a whole.
“We won’t reap the full rewards of these great technological advances if they’re monopolised to pile up profits for a few.”
WHAT HE MEANT: “The artificial intelligence revolution threatens to wipe out millions of jobs - and no one has any clue what to do about it.
“We’re not sure either, which is why we haven’t suggested any actual policies. But we do know we want the State to take control so that if the robots do displace us then at least they’ll be nationalised robots.”
FOREIGN POLICY
WHAT HE SAID: “Democracy and human rights are not an optional extra to be deployed selectively.
“So we cannot be silent at the cruel Saudi war in Yemen, while continuing to supply arms to Saudi Arabia, or the crushing of democracy in Egypt or Bahrain, or the tragic loss of life in Congo which the media very seldom reports about.”
WHAT HE MEANT: “We definitely can be silent at the meltdown of Venezuela’s society given that I was such a strong supporter of its far-left regime in the past.
“And I won’t mention the fight against ISIS either, because Yemen’s war is a far more trendy leftie cause.”
DONALD TRUMP
WHAT HE SAID: “We must be a candid friend to the United States, now more than ever.
“The values we share are not served by building walls, banning immigrants on the basis of religion, polluting the planet, or pandering to racism.
“And let me say frankly - the speech made by the US President to the United Nations last week was deeply disturbing.”
WHAT HE MEANT: “Slagging off Trump is the easiest way to get applause in this country.
“Hopefully I won’t become the next target of his epic Twitter rants - but even if I do, he might be gone by the time of the next election in 2022.”
WINNING POWER
WHAT HE SAID: “It is often said that elections can only be won from the centre ground.
“And in a way that’s not wrong - so long as it’s clear that the political centre of gravity isn’t fixed or unmovable, nor is it where the establishment pundits like to think it is.
“It shifts as people’s expectations and experiences change and political space is opened up.”
WHAT HE MEANT: “I can’t believe I’m here - and now I’ve come this far, there’s nothing to stop me reaching Downing Street.
“The next step is convincing the rest of the country that hiking taxes and taking over industries is a step into the future, not the past.
“Whether I make it or not, the experts are going to be much more careful when they make predictions about politics!”
AND HERE’S WHAT HE DIDN’T SAY
Mr Corbyn did not devote a single word to the country’s sky-high deficit or its growing mountain of debt.
And although he paid tribute to the police, he failed to mention the Armed Forces or the topic of defence - perhaps seeking to avoid a row over Britain’s nuclear weapons.
The Labour leader had plenty to say about public-sector pay - but he did not put forward any ideas for boosting conditions for the private-sector workers who make up a large majority of the country.