Circuses and skillsets

I offer you this extended metaphor:

There was once an incredibly famous trapeze artist. Let’s call him “The Great Jeremy”. He flew through the air with the greatest of ease. Derring do was his calling card. He pushed to the limits what could be done in the circus, and the people loved him for it.

One day, though Jeremy decided that he wanted to be the ringleader. In charge of the whole show and directing how the circus was run, how it was presented, what it’s message was. Jeremy’s trapeze act was so incredibly popular that he got the job as ringleader with the same ease with which he wooed the crowd who thrilled to his daring exploits.

But it turned out that being ringleader is not the same as being a trapeze artist. Sure there are some vital components in common – a sense of showmanship, a desire to perform and to please – but there were new skills that Jeremy had to learn and old habits he needed to unlearn. There could be no more flying by the seat of his pants.

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Tortured perhaps but this strikes me to be as good an analogy of where Corbyn and his team find themselves now as any other. He has changed political role after a very long time and a very short, rather dizzying climb to the very top of his Party. He now has to learn much and unlearn much more in the space of the few short weeks it will take for the national narrative to be set.

This is not to say that it is up to Jeremy to now knuckle down and become an identikit politician. But he does have to work out how to bring his exceptionally popular brand of lone-wolf rebel to work in a leadership context without losing what makes him Jeremy.

His dilemma was put to me quite starkly by a friend yesterday who is sympathetic to Corbyn (but not a Labour member or supporter) who pointed out that for thirty years, other than the voters of Islington North (who by all accounts adore him), Jeremy has not had to be accountable to anyone but himself and his conscience.

As a backbencher, whether or not you sing the words of the National Anthem matter not a jot. As someone who is a republican agnostic, I find them bloody silly too. (Also the tune’s a dirge – bring on Jerusalem!). But when you’re leader of a Party as big and as important as Labour, these things do matter. Because you do not just represent yourself but everyone in the Party and all those who have invested their hopes and dreams in you. So it is now incumbent on you to think of these broader issues when you pick your battles.

Because Jeremy didn’t sing the National Anthem we spent this week fire fighting rather than pushing forward on our issues. Is it fair? Hell no. Are the press biased and feral? Hell yes. But they also aren’t going to change. Freedom of speech means freedom to be as biased and ugly in your opinions as you like. You can’t – or at least shouldn’t – publish lies, but you can certainly spread your version of the truth. And that is the playing field Corbyn suddenly finds himself in. One where symbolism matters not only to him but to everyone looking to be led by him, and where those symbols are filtered through a hostile medium.

Every leader makes mistakes. In the grand history of things, this will be quite a minor one. It will blow over. But early mistakes matter because they do help set the tone. So Jeremy needs to learn to tread carefully where once he strode ahead.

But it is also vital that he doesn’t fall into the trap of losing himself. He was elected for a reason and his authenticity is his absolute trump ace. He still needs to speak about the passions that drive him and the causes to which he has dedicated his life. But in order to do so, he must prioritise the cause from the symbol. He must choose to make strong interventions that bring the people with him.

None of this is beyond the wit of a man as clever and erudite as Jeremy Corbyn. He has the potential to be a very successful ringleader. Doing it his way. But to do so, he must learn to control the whole show.