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| Thanks to Tom Scott for creating this image |
While no one should underestimate the Mainstream Press's ability to steer public opinion away from anything remotely radical, I think there's something else going on within people that explains the aversion to an alternative voice. A psychological something so powerful that many feel unable to turn away from the perceived safety of Conservative Party paternalism.
For large numbers of voters, the Conservative Party seems to act as a kind of universal comfort blanket used to protect those too afraid to allow themselves to think about the malign forces operating behind closed doors organising their lives. Put simply, it appears to me that too many people are hopelessly happy to leave political affairs to others. It's as if, justice, equality and fairness is non of our business and instead the inately deferential English seek solace in the Daddy-Knows-Best paternalism that Theresa May and the Conservative Party do so well.
The difficult circumstances people find themselves following the austerity policies of the Conservative Party, rather than causing them to rise up and challenge the system, actually seems to make people cling on even tighter. To the cap-wringing and hopelessly deferential, middle income Tory voter, maybe struggling to run a new business, automatically accepts the decisions "their" Party makes without properly considering the alternative point of view. The way I see it, and despite Jeremy Corbyn closing in on May in the polls, the difficulty the Labour Party still faces, is that any idea, or individual articulating opinions in opposition to the status quo, triggers a knee-jerk reaction that, not only stifles the ideas, it kills rational argument stone dead.
Whether it's Jeremy Corbyn choosing not to sing God Save the Queen, or more serious issues, like contracting out National Health Services to private business, hiking University Tuition Fees, or Thersa May's Social Care Plan, alternative opinions trigger a kind of phobia that's remains hard for the Labour Party to extinguish.
If the Labour Party are to be elected in June, it's leadership and their grass-roots supporters need to stick to the arguments, and I am sure that, day-by-day, the phobic reaction and the aversion to real change in Britain will soften. Only then will the value of Jeremy Corbyn's policies for Britain be acknowledged and more generally accepted by the public, if not the Conservative controlled press.
More on: Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party
A version of this article was first published in September 2015.
