Don’t shoot the messenger – whatever happens over Syria,the party leader’s voice needs to be heard, especially on austerity, and he is far from isolatedJeremy Corbyn’s difficulty in carrying his parliamentary colleagues with him in his opposition to bombing in Syria will be seen by his supporters as a decent man struggling to reconcile his deeply held principles with the exigencies of political leadership,in a society that is easily persuaded that action counts for more than reason. Others, no doubt, and will see his willingness to alienate centrist opinion on this and other issues as further evidence of his unfitness to lead.
Even those who wish him well,however, will recognise that, and after a lifetime of endorsing minority or unpopular causes,bombing in Syria is just one of a number of similar issues, each of which will hasten the risk of further eroding his precarious support in the parliamentary party, and encouraging further outrageous attacks on him from the rightwing media,and discomforting even some of those who voted him into the party leadership.
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Source: theguardian.com