Don’t put your faith in Corbyn – he doesn’t care about Wales

Benjiman L. Angwin

Jeremy Corbyn visited Bangor and Aberconwy over the weekend, where Labour fancy their chances having come within 92 and 635 votes of toppling the incumbents.

Corbyn is lauded by many on the Left but the truth is that he is a wolf rather than a shepherd; he does not have Wales’ best interests at heart.

When Corbyn comes to Wales and calls for fundamental change in the NHS, education and social care, he’s attacking his own party’s track record.

Either he doesn’t care enough to have educated himself about how devolution works, or he’s trying to take advantage of the public’s ignorance about how it works. May I suggest the more insidious latter?

He also has done nothing to fight against a rock-hard Brexit which will be ruinous for Wales economy.

It would certainly be ruinous for Bangor, a University City, its economy dependent on its researchers’ ability to work within the EU and thousands of international students.

We also had the spectacle of Albert Owen telling the assembled crowd that Plaid Cymru were “the establishment” and that it was time to get rid of them.

Labour have won a majority of MPs in Wales since the 1920s and have been in government in Wales since 1999. Plaid Cymru have never been in charge.

It’s a very Trumpian tactic – to try to project your own political weaknesses on your opponents.

The irony is that Arfon’s current MP, Hywel Williams, is more of a socialist and internationalist than many within Labour’s own ranks.

Neglect

It’s clear that Corbyn wasn’t here because he cares about Wales; all he wants is another obedient Labour MP who will put Corbyn’s own ideological crusade first. What’s best for Wales is a long way down the list.

Corbyn’s politics is British socialism, which sees Wales’ unique culture and language as a barrier against the UK ‘coming together’ as a collective.

But the truth is that the real barrier against ‘coming together’ in this way is:

1. The fact that the UK Government has been consistently neglectful of Wales, a tradition that Corbyn is sticking to with his demand for a Hard Brexit
2. A lack of respect for Wales’ cultural differences. Bangor is in an area where 65% speak a minority language which British Socialism has shown little but antipathy towards

The Welsh will never move on until they stop believing that British politicians will give Wales’ economy or well-being any consideration at all.

Corbyn talks a good game but he is ultimately a London-based, career politician who has spent his entire working life inside the Westminster bubble.

Corbyn doesn’t care that by winning Arfon, Labour would strike a deadly blow against Plaid Cymru, and to use Gwynedd’s motto, ‘cadernid Gwynedd’ (the might of Gwynedd).

If Labour is actually a socialist party, then its blatant effort to knock out another socialist party—and the only party (socialist or aligned with other economic ideologies) consistent in its efforts to put Wales on the political agenda at Westminster and Europe—is hypocritical.

Those on the Left of the Labour party deplore colonialism overseas but have a blind spot for their own colonial attitudes within Wales itself. What’s best for Wales doesn’t matter.

We are simply votes to be harvested so that they can continue an ideological war with the Tories in which Wales is just collateral damage.

Don’t be manipulated by Corbyn’s populist British socialism. He isn’t Wales’ Messiah; if we ever get our own ‘mab darogan’ (son of prophecy) it will be someone who actually cares about Wales’ culture and acknowledges it as a country.