The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is apparently having a think about whether his MPs should be given a free vote on the question of British military action in Syria. Which points out the obvious all too excruciatingly clearly. The attitudes needed to establish oneself as an eternally rebellious backbencher are not transferable to Corbyn’s current position.
Corbyn’s voting history in the Commons, as well as his airy rhetoric as party leader, both dictate that every vote under him should be free. The practical difficulty here, of course, is that such liberality makes for highly ineffective opposition. Which in turn makes even a highly ineffective Labour government unlikely, to say the least.
During Corbyn’s time as a backbencher he had only his own conscience to answer to. Now, he has to persuade his whole party of the rectitude of his position (if he’s entirely sure what it is). His confidence has been buoyed and energised because he knows he can swing a large room full of like-minded types behind him. He doesn’t seem to understand that there’s no easier task in politics.
Yet Corbyn must see that formally conceding to a free vote on a matter as serious as military action against a sovereign state, however odious that state may be, is also formally conceding the fact that he is unable to rally his own MPs behind him, let alone a majority of voters. If he decides to whip his party, then he has no option but to meet them halfway, and support military action, with concessions from David Cameron to limit “mission creep”.
The sad thing is that the matter is pretty academic. Syrians are being bombed, whether Britain’s name is on the list of bombers or not. In that very basic respect, a vote about action is Syria is very purely a vote about conscience. Action will bring some miserable consequences. Inaction will bring some miserable consequences. It is vanishingly unlikely that any participant will ever be able to look back on that vote and congratulate themselves on being on the side that fixed things.
The basic issue is whether you personally feel good and comfortable about washing your hands of the whole ghastly, nightmarish mess, or bad and uncomfortable about it. Corbyn’s trouble is that none of this is about him any more, or even about him and his supporters. By now he must surely be longing for the days before his elevation, when it was.
