Many years ago there was a Labour leader who stumbled on the beach. Unlike William the Conqueror, who snatched victory from the jaws of defeat Mr Kinnock went on to host a victory party where he discovered he'd actually snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Mr Kinnock has now announced that he believes there won't be another Labour government in his lifetime if Jeremy Corbin wins the leadership election this week, as is predicted. At least the passing years haven't dulled Mr Kinnock's optimism.
He is of course right I have blogged previously about the perils of Britain becoming a one party state, well, England anyway, because while the SNP hold Scotland there's no real hope for Labour, Owen Smith or no Owen Smith. The Liberals should be the major party of opposition in this country since they hold, on the whole, to the centre, common sense ground where there's a little balance. Fiscal responsibility but not total austerity, balance.
It's a shame Nick Clegg is no longer leader, Tim Farron inspires less confidence and is not really that visible to be honest. He also made the mistake of voting and leading others to vote to throw deadly ordnance around in Syria with no strategy, when his party had been the only one to stand above such nonsense.
What really has happened is that the pendulum of public opinion has started to swing ever more wildly from one extreme to the other, it's reflected in the rise of the SNP, of UKIP, the referendum result and indeed even in Cameron obtaining an unexpected overall majority not so long ago.
We are, as a nation, becoming like America where everything happens first. We're becoming divided and broken. America is split down the middle, Obama may have replaced the nightmare of George W for two terms, but the American people were not united enough to give him any real power in House, or Senate, they're effectively a divided nation.
Now, as a result of frustration, the Republican leaning Americans have become even more extreme, a Trump victory is as likely as us voting to leave the EU. I'll spell that out, it's entirely possible even if people are not telling each other, or the pollsters of their intentions. Trump offers no more hope than the odious Farage or Johnson, he and they are just symptoms of the disease which is people's discontent.
The more you have the more you want it seems, most people in the UK and the USA have jobs, homes, education, some sort of free or affordable healthcare, pensions, cars, holidays. They're not living through the destruction of World War Two, other than Peral Harbour the Americans never did. We are living in a golden age, but I hear people who voted to leave Europe saying things like 'something had to be done'.
No, it's time to realise how lucky we've been and are, we don't need far left Corbynistas and Entryists any more than we need the far right. It's time Britain regained its moral compass and its common sense and got that damn pendulum under control. Did I mention the Lib Dem option?
Stand up for common sense.
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