Parliament is always in a way a comedy of vanity. Yesterday it was a narcissistic farce. Our elected representatives spent ten hours making the same unconvincing points over and over again. The standard of speaking was poor because nobody had much worth saying. The pro-bombers kept arguing that we had to stand with our allies, and that Isis was horrid. The anti-bombers urged us not to make another tragic mistake in the Middle East. And everybody had to say how they felt personally — as if personal feelings are more important than right or wrong.
Yet all the MPs knew deep down that Britain’s intervention in the Syrian conflict would be so small-scale as to be pointless. For all the posturing about solidarity and keeping our citizens safe, the winning argument was that since we are already bombing Isis a little in Iraq, we may as well bomb them a little in Syria, too.
The whole debate wasn’t really about the Syria war, though, was it? It was about Labour’s war. Yes, Hilary Benn spoke movingly at the end, but his speech wasn’t that great. It has been obscenely over-hyped because the Labour right, and the political class generally, are embarrassed by Jeremy Corbyn and they want rid of him. Benn, who did such a brilliant job of undermining his leader over the last two weeks, has now been anointed as the man who can reclaim Labour’s soul from the Corbynites. Yes, we can bomb. We are Labour. Except of course they aren’t Labour.
Like the general public, Labour voters loathe Isis, but they don’t see the point in dropping a few bombs on Syria for no good reason. And people are disgusted that our politicians, while mouthing pieties about the moral gravity of the decision they faced, have so obviously exploited the Isis issue for political gain.
If Labour do slip up in the Oldham by-election tonight — some Labour figures are secretly hoping they do — the media will interpret the loss as a rejection of Corbyn’s leadership. It will be said that the public are appalled by his weakness on national security. But perhaps it is more that people are appalled by politics. Look at who they are voting for instead. They are flocking to Ukip, another anti-establishment party that also opposes Cameron’s intervention in Syria. People are voting for Ukip, for the SNP, for Corbyn because they think Westminster is a sham. And the way our politicians behaved yesterday suggests they are right.
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