So Corbyn went for the full Life On Mars option, and in the process gave the boys and girls (come on, lets be inclusive, now) in the Westminster bubble a collective fit of the vapours: by appointing four out of four shadow cabinet top jobs to white, heterosexual men, he has the broken the most sacred commandment of metropolitan liberal thought: Thou Shalt Be Known By Thy Group Identity.
Let us be uncharitable and assume Corbyn is a raging sexist: if so then his attitudes are no more offensive than the politico-media commentariat and Twitterati who were saying, prior to the appointment of John McDonnell to the post, that Angela Eagle would become Shadow Chancellor because one of the great offices of state had to be held by a woman.
For the past 20 years or so, the group politics practised by the political class and their media acolytes has collectively shredded our humanity by denying us the dignity of being first and foremost individuals: it is the mentality of the soulless corporation vying for key market segments, and nothing has shown us more vividly the deep contempt those metropolitan elites have for the rest of us. It is a grotesque indictment of their warped priorities that the most offensive thing many of them had to say about the IRA-supporting McDonnell is that he is a white heterosexual male.
There are many reasons to be deeply offended by Corbyn’s politics and his shadow cabinet appointments, but appointing men to shadow the top offices of state is not one of them. Many in the bubble mistakenly think that it will play badly in the country but I imagine that, to their horror, they find it makes not one jot of difference to him or his party’s popularity at all. At the very least, the fact that you could probably hear the collective squealing emanating from Islington and Hampstead as far north as Aberdeen has been a delight to behold, and for that we social conservatives owe him a debt of gratitude.
One more request, please, Jezza – how about that Gene Hunt fella for Shadow Ministry of Justice? No? Why not? What do you mean, you’ve already promised the post to some bloke called Jack Regan…….
