Opinion: We can now look forward to exciting times in politics

First they said that he couldn’t become leader. Then when it became obvious that he could, they said that he could never lead the party into Government. We are, of course, talking about Jeremy Corbyn and only the second of these ideas remains to stand the test of time.
The new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.The new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Whatever you think about politics and politicians, you have to admit, that over the last few months, something pretty amazing has stirred within the consciousness of many people who have some care for the direction in which this country is going.

Labour Party membership has, over the last couple of months, almost doubled, and now, standing at over half a million, exceeds the membership of the Conservative, Liberal Democrat, UKIP, Green and BNP parties put together. In fact, nearly one in every 100 adults in the UK is now a member of the Labour Party.

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So what is happening in the political landscape of our nation, because not since the early 1980s has the membership of any political party been as high?

Don Laing.Don Laing.
Don Laing.

This increase of membership is due, at least in part, to younger people realising the iniquity of tax-paying workers being employed on zero hours contracts at the minimum wage so that they can be exploited by capitalist industries to make obscene profits on which they can often avoid paying any tax at all. It could be a reaction against the union bashing that started with Margaret Thatcher.

We cannot know the motif of each of the people who have paid their fee and become members of the Labour Party, but we must suspect that their reasoning is based in the desire to see a fairer and more equal society in this country. We cannot know the future, but we can look forward to a time of excitement in the politics of this land.

A time when, at least some, of our politicians are willing to propose policies on the basis of believing them to be right and just, and not merely expedient, perpetuating the inequality in our society.