According to the Huffington Post, Jeremy Corbyn has announced he will boycott Trump’s upcoming visit, on the grounds that he does not want to show his support for the misogynist buffoon. I just came across the story linked to on a facebook page (where else do you find news these days?) but my reaction was to smirk. Just who is Corbyn trying to kid? True, Trump is a repugnant asshole, but how can Corbyn pretend to be repulsed by his far right, ultra-capitalist politics while refusing to oppose Brexit? Trump and brexit are virtually the same thing; they both stem from the same time of nationalist, reactionary, moronic mindset.
It’s as if Corbyn is trying to reclaim his leftist, liberal activist credentials. He knows most of his party want him to come out in support of a second referendum. He knows he looks useless as he leaves the door open to a hard brexit, so he’s itching to get his Trotskyite image back, and thinks boycotting Trump’s visit will do the trick. After all, he knows how vile Trump is to anyone even remotely capable of indipendent thought. Well, Corbyn should pull the other one: pretending to hate figures of hyper-capitalism while leaving the door wide open for the most sickening form of capitalism to be imposed on the UK just won’t fly these days.