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Dangerous Hero: Corbyn’s Ruthless Plot for Power
‘THE BOOK EVERY VOTER MUST READ’ Mail on Sunday
‘Meticulous and highly readable … Funny and devastating’ Daily Telegraph
‘The most compelling in-depth study so far’ Guardian
A gripping expose of the man, his politics and what Corbyn in Downing Street could mean for Britain
After four unremarkable decades in politics, Jeremy Corbyn stands on the brink of power. Until his surprise election as leader of the Labour Party in 2015, this seemingly unelectable oddball had not been a major political player. Since then, Corbyn has survived coup attempts and accusations of incompetence that would have felled most politicians, including grave charges of anti-Semitism, bullying and not being the master of his brief. Despite these shortcomings, as the Conservatives rip themselves apart over Europe, he is likely soon to become Britain's prime minister. Yet this hero of the far left has done his best to conceal much of his past and personal life from public scrutiny. In this book, best-selling investigative biographer Tom Bower reveals hidden truths about Corbyn's character, the causes and organisations he espouses, and Britain's likely fate under the Marxist-Trotskyist society he has championed since the early 1970s. Based on eyewitness accounts from those who have known Corbyn throughout his life, the book asks whether a Labour government led by Corbyn would transform the country for the better. Has capitalism, as he argues, run its course, and would our lives be improved by socialism? If so, what is Corbyn's brand of socialism? The same as that experienced under successive Labour governments since 1945, or something more extreme? Will his advocacy of more debt, tax hikes and renationalisation reproduce the fate of Venezuela as championed by his own hero Hugo Chávez? Is he a reformer or a revolutionary? Will he deliver a glowing new era or catastrophe? His supporters damn every opponent and critic, calling them 'traitors' or worse. Does this aggression, and the accusations that paint Corbyn as an entrenched anti-Semite and misogynist, override his image as an authentic 'good bloke'? Many are excited by the prospect of Corbyn’s arrival in Downing Street. Others believe that Corbyn as prime minister will prove to be a dangerous hero.
‘Meticulous and highly readable … Funny and devastating’ Daily Telegraph
‘The most compelling in-depth study so far’ Guardian
A gripping expose of the man, his politics and what Corbyn in Downing Street could mean for Britain
After four unremarkable decades in politics, Jeremy Corbyn stands on the brink of power. Until his surprise election as leader of the Labour Party in 2015, this seemingly unelectable oddball had not been a major political player. Since then, Corbyn has survived coup attempts and accusations of incompetence that would have felled most politicians, including grave charges of anti-Semitism, bullying and not being the master of his brief. Despite these shortcomings, as the Conservatives rip themselves apart over Europe, he is likely soon to become Britain's prime minister. Yet this hero of the far left has done his best to conceal much of his past and personal life from public scrutiny. In this book, best-selling investigative biographer Tom Bower reveals hidden truths about Corbyn's character, the causes and organisations he espouses, and Britain's likely fate under the Marxist-Trotskyist society he has championed since the early 1970s. Based on eyewitness accounts from those who have known Corbyn throughout his life, the book asks whether a Labour government led by Corbyn would transform the country for the better. Has capitalism, as he argues, run its course, and would our lives be improved by socialism? If so, what is Corbyn's brand of socialism? The same as that experienced under successive Labour governments since 1945, or something more extreme? Will his advocacy of more debt, tax hikes and renationalisation reproduce the fate of Venezuela as championed by his own hero Hugo Chávez? Is he a reformer or a revolutionary? Will he deliver a glowing new era or catastrophe? His supporters damn every opponent and critic, calling them 'traitors' or worse. Does this aggression, and the accusations that paint Corbyn as an entrenched anti-Semite and misogynist, override his image as an authentic 'good bloke'? Many are excited by the prospect of Corbyn’s arrival in Downing Street. Others believe that Corbyn as prime minister will prove to be a dangerous hero.
401 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 21, 2019
78 people are currently reading
181 people want to read
About the author
Tom Bower
57 books178 followersFor the author of works on child development, see T.G.R. Bower
Tom Bower (born 28 September 1946) is a British writer, noted for his investigative journalism and for his unauthorized biographies.
A former Panorama reporter, his books include unauthorised biographies of Tiny Rowland, Robert Maxwell, Mohamed Al-Fayed, Geoffrey Robinson, Gordon Brown and Richard Branson.
He won the 2003 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award for Broken Dreams, an investigation into corruption in English football. His joint biography of Conrad Black and Barbara Amiel Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing on the Edge was published in November 2006, and an unsuccessful libel case over a passing mention of Daily Express proprietor Richard Desmond in the book was heard in July 2009.
An unauthorised biography by Bower of Richard Desmond, provisionally entitled Rough Trader, awaits publication. Bowers's biography of Simon Cowell, written with Cowell's co-operation, was published on 20 April, 2012.
Bower is married to Veronica Wadley, former editor of the London Evening Standard, and has four children.
Tom Bower (born 28 September 1946) is a British writer, noted for his investigative journalism and for his unauthorized biographies.
A former Panorama reporter, his books include unauthorised biographies of Tiny Rowland, Robert Maxwell, Mohamed Al-Fayed, Geoffrey Robinson, Gordon Brown and Richard Branson.
He won the 2003 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award for Broken Dreams, an investigation into corruption in English football. His joint biography of Conrad Black and Barbara Amiel Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing on the Edge was published in November 2006, and an unsuccessful libel case over a passing mention of Daily Express proprietor Richard Desmond in the book was heard in July 2009.
An unauthorised biography by Bower of Richard Desmond, provisionally entitled Rough Trader, awaits publication. Bowers's biography of Simon Cowell, written with Cowell's co-operation, was published on 20 April, 2012.
Bower is married to Veronica Wadley, former editor of the London Evening Standard, and has four children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
January 4, 2020
I started this book two weeks after the disastrous 2019 general election for Labour. I had waited as I wanted to see how the campaign and result ended before delving into this, as after all it was not going to be one that saw the subject get glowing reviews.
As I was reading the book the Labour party, its MPs, former MPs and members were suggesting reasons for the largest electoral failing in seats since 1935. This was also the party's 4th defeat in a row (the latter two under Corbyn's leadership). As I reached the final stages of the book Labour announced that a review would take place under the "Labour Together" banner to assess what went wrong. It will be a cross-factional listening and reflecting exercise to understand root causes but won't recommend a replacement leader for Corbyn who is standing down.
It is at this point that one considers how far Corbyn, and indeed John McDonnell, have come from the days of being agitators, councillors and then fringe MPs.
Tom Bower's book is good. It is not great and it certainly won't be the best, but for a current overview and study it is useful. There will/are people who see this as a hatchet job but to me the consistent examples of Corbyn's approaches, views, statements - and he is a firm leaver when it comes to Brexit despite what he said as leader - associations, meetings and TV appearances especially Iranian TV, it provides theme and evidence.
The people providing their views also add colour and some of these were very close to Corbyn. I rather dismissed some points such as he'd rather eat cold baked beans or has never read a book, but as the book progressed these show insight with other aspects added that his character, knowledge and understanding are low, fabricated or used for useful perception.
His time as a Councillor and NUPE rep are ripped apart as we see the performance of departments under his control fail on budgets, delivery and basic services. This theme follows through as an MP and Bower provides good examples of these from public record.
The progress of Corbyn as an MP and finally to leader is fascinating. He did very well and one cannot suggest otherwise to get to the leader's chair. Of course he is backed by McDonnell, Momementum and Len McCluskey, General Secretary of the UK's largest union, Unite: The Union, and Labour's largest financial contributor.
The policies of Corbyn are unsurprising - named Corbynism - and are in essence Marxist anti-establishment, anti-corporation and anti-wealth. These are also supported by those mentioned above.
For those who disagreed - the so called Blairites or others further to centre - life as a MP, Labour councillor and Labour volunteer became difficult and often with treatment so bad (including threats of name calling, social media campaigns and even violence) they stood-down or hid away. Leaving these gaps and opportunities the Labour team under Corbyn assisted by the National Council, who had also seen leavers through similar tactics as mentioned above, helped by Momentum placed their extreme left candidates on boards and selection lists. This approach is bad and the authors cites plenty of evidence - for those who have followed John McDonnell's career his transformation into a suit-wearing shadow chancellor does not hide his long standing and publicly available views on direct action and causing difficulties to people not with the programme.
This theme of intimidation, threats and constant pressure is magnified further when the councillors or MPs were Jews. The book again cites solid examples and shows the links Corbyn and many others in positions of authority in his Labour party have against Jews and being Jewish. This treatment is extreme and racist.
The linkages to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran are well highlighted and Corbyn's "friends" are welcomed and supported by him as he champions peace; at no stage has he met Israelis to understand their side. The links to the IRA are covered and again this cannot be dismissed as the public evidence is clear of his views, statements and meetings. He also played no part in the peace process as he and his supporters now suggest. As for Venezuela he may support the regime like Cuba too, but his knowledge of countries and peoples lost wealth, famine, poor standards of health and living are all seemingly forgotten or unrecognised; rather like Iran's treatment of its own citizens and other countries peoples.
The fabrication and massaging of the truth is another insight the book gives. From small things such as him suggesting he was called the bearded one when he was in the West Indies in the 1960s and on the front-lines of protests to larger ones stating he hadn't met people or laid wreaths he is shown to be lying. This is also the case for McDonnell who also embellishes career and performance too - the sheer mass attempt at hiding millions of pounds as a councillor is one good example in this book.
Overall, this is a enjoyable book with enough citations and evidence to show that Corbyn is dangerous and remains a hero to many. My personal view is he is a useful idiot and behind him and his inability to manage meetings, make decisions and command authority are the controlling arms of McDonnell and McCluskey - and it will be they who decide and mould Labour's next leader I believe.
That will be a disaster as the Labour party needs to be strong in opposition and build a credible threat to incumbents with good and high-quality people; without this, regardless of one's politics, we the electorate are poorly served in choice and governmental capability.
Why 4-stars - I wanted a heavier listing of sources and a greater bibliography. It is clear Bower has used Hansard and other publications but these are not stated. Sources listed specifically are not provided - this is a weakness although the majority of points/quotes can be found in public too.
My copy was a William Collins Paperback published 2019 (the book ends at early new year 2019). There are some good colour and black & white plates. 373 pages.
As I was reading the book the Labour party, its MPs, former MPs and members were suggesting reasons for the largest electoral failing in seats since 1935. This was also the party's 4th defeat in a row (the latter two under Corbyn's leadership). As I reached the final stages of the book Labour announced that a review would take place under the "Labour Together" banner to assess what went wrong. It will be a cross-factional listening and reflecting exercise to understand root causes but won't recommend a replacement leader for Corbyn who is standing down.
It is at this point that one considers how far Corbyn, and indeed John McDonnell, have come from the days of being agitators, councillors and then fringe MPs.
Tom Bower's book is good. It is not great and it certainly won't be the best, but for a current overview and study it is useful. There will/are people who see this as a hatchet job but to me the consistent examples of Corbyn's approaches, views, statements - and he is a firm leaver when it comes to Brexit despite what he said as leader - associations, meetings and TV appearances especially Iranian TV, it provides theme and evidence.
The people providing their views also add colour and some of these were very close to Corbyn. I rather dismissed some points such as he'd rather eat cold baked beans or has never read a book, but as the book progressed these show insight with other aspects added that his character, knowledge and understanding are low, fabricated or used for useful perception.
His time as a Councillor and NUPE rep are ripped apart as we see the performance of departments under his control fail on budgets, delivery and basic services. This theme follows through as an MP and Bower provides good examples of these from public record.
The progress of Corbyn as an MP and finally to leader is fascinating. He did very well and one cannot suggest otherwise to get to the leader's chair. Of course he is backed by McDonnell, Momementum and Len McCluskey, General Secretary of the UK's largest union, Unite: The Union, and Labour's largest financial contributor.
The policies of Corbyn are unsurprising - named Corbynism - and are in essence Marxist anti-establishment, anti-corporation and anti-wealth. These are also supported by those mentioned above.
For those who disagreed - the so called Blairites or others further to centre - life as a MP, Labour councillor and Labour volunteer became difficult and often with treatment so bad (including threats of name calling, social media campaigns and even violence) they stood-down or hid away. Leaving these gaps and opportunities the Labour team under Corbyn assisted by the National Council, who had also seen leavers through similar tactics as mentioned above, helped by Momentum placed their extreme left candidates on boards and selection lists. This approach is bad and the authors cites plenty of evidence - for those who have followed John McDonnell's career his transformation into a suit-wearing shadow chancellor does not hide his long standing and publicly available views on direct action and causing difficulties to people not with the programme.
This theme of intimidation, threats and constant pressure is magnified further when the councillors or MPs were Jews. The book again cites solid examples and shows the links Corbyn and many others in positions of authority in his Labour party have against Jews and being Jewish. This treatment is extreme and racist.
The linkages to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran are well highlighted and Corbyn's "friends" are welcomed and supported by him as he champions peace; at no stage has he met Israelis to understand their side. The links to the IRA are covered and again this cannot be dismissed as the public evidence is clear of his views, statements and meetings. He also played no part in the peace process as he and his supporters now suggest. As for Venezuela he may support the regime like Cuba too, but his knowledge of countries and peoples lost wealth, famine, poor standards of health and living are all seemingly forgotten or unrecognised; rather like Iran's treatment of its own citizens and other countries peoples.
The fabrication and massaging of the truth is another insight the book gives. From small things such as him suggesting he was called the bearded one when he was in the West Indies in the 1960s and on the front-lines of protests to larger ones stating he hadn't met people or laid wreaths he is shown to be lying. This is also the case for McDonnell who also embellishes career and performance too - the sheer mass attempt at hiding millions of pounds as a councillor is one good example in this book.
Overall, this is a enjoyable book with enough citations and evidence to show that Corbyn is dangerous and remains a hero to many. My personal view is he is a useful idiot and behind him and his inability to manage meetings, make decisions and command authority are the controlling arms of McDonnell and McCluskey - and it will be they who decide and mould Labour's next leader I believe.
That will be a disaster as the Labour party needs to be strong in opposition and build a credible threat to incumbents with good and high-quality people; without this, regardless of one's politics, we the electorate are poorly served in choice and governmental capability.
Why 4-stars - I wanted a heavier listing of sources and a greater bibliography. It is clear Bower has used Hansard and other publications but these are not stated. Sources listed specifically are not provided - this is a weakness although the majority of points/quotes can be found in public too.
My copy was a William Collins Paperback published 2019 (the book ends at early new year 2019). There are some good colour and black & white plates. 373 pages.
February 20, 2019
Would be untrue to say I read this cover to cover as I skipped some parts and jumped around. But it is a very thorough history of Corbyn and his politics. Early on there is a conclusion that he considers success and ambition to be character flaws - Rather than wanting everyone to have the opportunity to succeed he seems to want to make sure that nobody does.
Also very clear that - regardless of your views on his politics - he is simply not clever - two Es at A level and no secondary education is just the start.
Just horrifying.
Also very clear that - regardless of your views on his politics - he is simply not clever - two Es at A level and no secondary education is just the start.
Just horrifying.
March 3, 2019
Looked at from a literary point of view, this is not a particularly well written and structured biography. It feels, especially in its later chapters, rushed and in need of a decent edit. There will be better books about the past few years of the Labour party, and if Corbyn (perish the thought) ever succeeds in becoming Prime Minister, there will be better books about him.
But Bower's biography is a timely piece of reportage, helping to remind us exactly who Corbyn is. The man is a relic of the unreconstructed, Trotskyist Left, whose whole world view is based on a belief that Capitalism is all bad, the West is the worst example of Imperialism in the history of humanity, and all would be fine if a Socialist state could magic all the badness away. For whom all enemies of the West are his friends. Stubbornly refusing to learn from the history of Actually Existing Socialism, from the Soviets through China, North Korea, Cuba, all the way to Venezuela, Corbyn is like those audiences Ben Jonson criticized for liking old plays - "...a man whose judgement shows it is constant, and hath stood still these five and twenty, or thirty years." Whilst some might find such adherence to beliefs admirable, surely less so is Corbyn's long-standing commitment to ideological purity and absolute agreement within the political circles in which he operates. He is shown willing to use bullying (always by proxy), intimidation, and abuse to achieve power. Bower shows how Corbyn did this in Haringey council, and that he's done it in the Labour party since becoming leader. More noxious still is the long history of anti-Semitism that Bower uncovers. Corbyn was an early adopter of enmity towards Jews, and it is no surprise whatsoever that he has led a party which has lurched from one racist controversy to another. Whilst the scandals in this regard have been regular and high-profile news in the past few years, it is shocking to see the extent of the cesspool which Labour has become compiled over a few dozen unedifying pages. Bower makes it clear that Corbyn cannot solve the problem, because he is the problem.
A deeply unflattering picture of the man comes out - a hollow man seemingly without an inner life, a neglectful husband, an ideologue, a Philistine, a practised liar, and emphatically not the sharpest knife in any drawer. There are equally scabrous thumbnail sketches of Corbyn's political allies - McDonnell, Abbott, McCluskey, the odious Milne - as well as his enemies - Blair, May, the various nobodies who have challenged Corbyn for the Labour leadership. One finishes the book depressed at the lack of impressive personalities or visionaries in our recent political life.
Bower makes clear that were Corbyn to gain power, economic stability and democracy itself would soon disappear into the rabbit hole of the usual Socialist mess. The book probably won't stop his adherents thinking that he's the UK's last, best hope. But it's a timely reminder to the rest of us that, under a Corbyn Labour government, things would only get worse.
But Bower's biography is a timely piece of reportage, helping to remind us exactly who Corbyn is. The man is a relic of the unreconstructed, Trotskyist Left, whose whole world view is based on a belief that Capitalism is all bad, the West is the worst example of Imperialism in the history of humanity, and all would be fine if a Socialist state could magic all the badness away. For whom all enemies of the West are his friends. Stubbornly refusing to learn from the history of Actually Existing Socialism, from the Soviets through China, North Korea, Cuba, all the way to Venezuela, Corbyn is like those audiences Ben Jonson criticized for liking old plays - "...a man whose judgement shows it is constant, and hath stood still these five and twenty, or thirty years." Whilst some might find such adherence to beliefs admirable, surely less so is Corbyn's long-standing commitment to ideological purity and absolute agreement within the political circles in which he operates. He is shown willing to use bullying (always by proxy), intimidation, and abuse to achieve power. Bower shows how Corbyn did this in Haringey council, and that he's done it in the Labour party since becoming leader. More noxious still is the long history of anti-Semitism that Bower uncovers. Corbyn was an early adopter of enmity towards Jews, and it is no surprise whatsoever that he has led a party which has lurched from one racist controversy to another. Whilst the scandals in this regard have been regular and high-profile news in the past few years, it is shocking to see the extent of the cesspool which Labour has become compiled over a few dozen unedifying pages. Bower makes it clear that Corbyn cannot solve the problem, because he is the problem.
A deeply unflattering picture of the man comes out - a hollow man seemingly without an inner life, a neglectful husband, an ideologue, a Philistine, a practised liar, and emphatically not the sharpest knife in any drawer. There are equally scabrous thumbnail sketches of Corbyn's political allies - McDonnell, Abbott, McCluskey, the odious Milne - as well as his enemies - Blair, May, the various nobodies who have challenged Corbyn for the Labour leadership. One finishes the book depressed at the lack of impressive personalities or visionaries in our recent political life.
Bower makes clear that were Corbyn to gain power, economic stability and democracy itself would soon disappear into the rabbit hole of the usual Socialist mess. The book probably won't stop his adherents thinking that he's the UK's last, best hope. But it's a timely reminder to the rest of us that, under a Corbyn Labour government, things would only get worse.
June 18, 2019
Nobody, and I mean nobody, should take anything written in this book seriously. Full of tripe and conjecture.
This article explains it better than I ever could.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion...
This article explains it better than I ever could.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion...
December 31, 2019
I picked this book up as a kindle deal of the day a while ago and was motivated to read it after the disastrous election for the Labour Party, this month. I was especially interested as I live in a London borough heavily targeted by the Labour Party in the recent election - I think the Labour Party knocked at my door about six times in the run up to the election, as opposed to the Conservatives twice. I had so many red leaflets through my door that it was somewhat reminiscent of Harry Potter's Hogwart letters in the first film and posters were displayed in local roads. Yet, somehow, I never sensed they would be successful and that proved to be true. The Labour Party, and Corbyn himself, seems to have been impressed by chanting crowds, young voter enthusiasm and the dangerous ability of the internet to preach to the converted, while ignoring those who don't go out and wave a banner, but nevertheless vote.
Obviously, this book has an agenda and so, whatever was within the pages, had to be treated with a pinch of salt. What is difficult for Corbyn to deny are the photographs of him supporting terrorist organisations, the fact that those around him who had extreme political views and the undercurrent of anti-Semitism which haunted the party. I think it is true that large sections of the press were anti-Corbyn, but then both the BBC/Sky seemed hardly able to hide its disgust when interviewing Boris Johnson. I watched reporters sneer at Mr Johnson that he would be the shortest ever Prime Minister, in interviews which were almost shocking in their disdain. As such, neither of the main party leaders had an easy time while campaigning. However, the Labour Party certainly has a difficult to task to make themselves a viable electable force in the short term - like the Democrats in the US (let's remember that we have another election, across the Pond, next year, and unless the Democrats find a viable opponent, undoubtedly Trump will walk into a second term). Personalities do matter and so it was interesting to read about Corbyn, who I knew virtually nothing about before reading this. Certainly I was not inspired by his front bench (Diane Abbott, John McDonnell...), but, if only a small percentage of what is stated in this book is true, then certainly the unease felt by many Labour MP's was justified. Oh, and he doesn't read, which, for anyone on Goodreads will certainly be viewed negatively!
Obviously, this book has an agenda and so, whatever was within the pages, had to be treated with a pinch of salt. What is difficult for Corbyn to deny are the photographs of him supporting terrorist organisations, the fact that those around him who had extreme political views and the undercurrent of anti-Semitism which haunted the party. I think it is true that large sections of the press were anti-Corbyn, but then both the BBC/Sky seemed hardly able to hide its disgust when interviewing Boris Johnson. I watched reporters sneer at Mr Johnson that he would be the shortest ever Prime Minister, in interviews which were almost shocking in their disdain. As such, neither of the main party leaders had an easy time while campaigning. However, the Labour Party certainly has a difficult to task to make themselves a viable electable force in the short term - like the Democrats in the US (let's remember that we have another election, across the Pond, next year, and unless the Democrats find a viable opponent, undoubtedly Trump will walk into a second term). Personalities do matter and so it was interesting to read about Corbyn, who I knew virtually nothing about before reading this. Certainly I was not inspired by his front bench (Diane Abbott, John McDonnell...), but, if only a small percentage of what is stated in this book is true, then certainly the unease felt by many Labour MP's was justified. Oh, and he doesn't read, which, for anyone on Goodreads will certainly be viewed negatively!
May 8, 2019
Tom is a jew, and he considers Jeremy Corbyn as a marxist jew hater, a certified anti semitic, who has somehow managed to convert all of the Labour party into anti-semitics. Tom has used the classic sophist method of syllogism, a statement of fact juxtaposed with completely irrelevant statement to leave the reader to make his own conclusion. For instance, a young Jeremy Corbyn has come to London to loom for a job, and Stalin has captured Czechoslovakia brutally suppressing all dissent. Page after page is filled with similar premises till the final chapters where it is decided that the whole Labour party has been converted into a jew hating organisation. Tom even had the audacity to pin the blame of Jo Cox’s murder on Labour’s jew hating brigade.
Now, the issue for me is that if Tom is a jew than i am a Muslim and in this new age of highly polarised British politics i am going to side with Labour party rather than a very Islam-phobic Tory party, because politics is a game of choice.
Now, the issue for me is that if Tom is a jew than i am a Muslim and in this new age of highly polarised British politics i am going to side with Labour party rather than a very Islam-phobic Tory party, because politics is a game of choice.
December 9, 2019
Jeremy Corbyn could very well be Prime Minister of the UK. It is important that we know about him. Corbyn’s past has been mysterious, and now Tom Bower reveals in this timely biography how this previously obscure far left MP took over the Labour party. Is he Comrade Corbyn, or Jew-hating Jeremy?
Corbyn has a throughly middle class background. To boost his credentials, Corbyn has claimed that his parents were at the Battle of Cable Street, but Bower questions that assertion. What Corbyn did in Guyana remains a mystery.
Corbyn has no interests outside of politics. He has no idea how to manage money. He ran up huge debts in his constituency. It could only be worse if he did that with the whole country.
Corbyn said he wants to make a ‘kinder, gentler politics’ but of course that’s never the case with the hard left.
Corbyn has adopted the ideas of Trotsky, Lenin and Marx, and yet has never read any of their writings. It seems he had never read a book in his adult life. Corbyn has no understanding of the socialist ideology that he has dedicated his life to fighting for. Corbyn has never changed his views since he took them in the late 60s. He has to rely on John McDonnell to provide an intellectual backing to his platform.
We learn about Corbyn’s long history in far left politics. His alliance with Ken Livingstone, his dealings with Tariq Ali, how he first met Diane Abbot, Corbyn eagerly supported the ruinous strikes of the 70s, and he actively aided and abetted the strike leaders.
Corbyn’s antisemitism is laid bare. How could the Labour party, once the champion of every antiracist cause, become the stalwart of antisemitism? It’s especially strange given that Corbyn’s predecessor was himself a Jew. Corbyn had no sympathy for Holocaust survivors. Corbyn doesn’t know how to deal with the antisemitism scandal. He also doesn’t recognise a distinction between antisemitism and anti-zionism. For those in the US, the Democrats are always facing an antisemitism scandal.
Corbyn has sided with pretty much every enemy of Britain. He made friends with the terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the IRA. Corbyn’s associations with those terrorists is now spun as being in the name of peace, He also Corbyn and McDonnell would rather forget their support of the socialist regime in Venezuela .
Even people who should know better, such as Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, are taken in by Corbyn.
Bower largely puts Corbyn’s victory in the leadership contest down to the ineptitude of his opponents. The other candidates were tainted by Blair’s legacy and no one was willing to challenge Corbyn on his ideology. Corbyn also happened to be right about the Iraq War, but he’s right as much as a stopped clock is.
This was also the case when Corbyn was challenged for the leadership. The 2017 general election should have been an easy win for the conservatives, but Theresa May was also not willing to confront Corbyn’s core beliefs. Corbyn took the strategy of ignoring much of what he had spent the last 40 years advocating, and McDonnell is willing to lie about what he really thinks. There’s a video of McDonnell happily stating that he’s a Marxist but he then denied it in an interview. McDonnell also has no problem rallying with stalinists. Could McDonnell actually be a Stalinist? Corbyn’s other close ally, shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbot, can’t count, also praises Chairman Mao. Mao and Stalin were responsible for some of the greatest crimes in history. Now the UK is potentially one election away from their supporters running the country.
Corbynistas bring their opprobrium on anyone who dares to question the dear leader. Momentum effectively ensures that Corbyn will stay in the leadership position.
There needs to be a term to collectively refer to Corbyn. McDonnell and Abbott. The Troika? Or how about the Unholy Trinity?
This book should be read by everyone who wants to understand Jeremy Corbyn.
Corbyn has a throughly middle class background. To boost his credentials, Corbyn has claimed that his parents were at the Battle of Cable Street, but Bower questions that assertion. What Corbyn did in Guyana remains a mystery.
Corbyn has no interests outside of politics. He has no idea how to manage money. He ran up huge debts in his constituency. It could only be worse if he did that with the whole country.
Corbyn said he wants to make a ‘kinder, gentler politics’ but of course that’s never the case with the hard left.
Corbyn has adopted the ideas of Trotsky, Lenin and Marx, and yet has never read any of their writings. It seems he had never read a book in his adult life. Corbyn has no understanding of the socialist ideology that he has dedicated his life to fighting for. Corbyn has never changed his views since he took them in the late 60s. He has to rely on John McDonnell to provide an intellectual backing to his platform.
We learn about Corbyn’s long history in far left politics. His alliance with Ken Livingstone, his dealings with Tariq Ali, how he first met Diane Abbot, Corbyn eagerly supported the ruinous strikes of the 70s, and he actively aided and abetted the strike leaders.
Corbyn’s antisemitism is laid bare. How could the Labour party, once the champion of every antiracist cause, become the stalwart of antisemitism? It’s especially strange given that Corbyn’s predecessor was himself a Jew. Corbyn had no sympathy for Holocaust survivors. Corbyn doesn’t know how to deal with the antisemitism scandal. He also doesn’t recognise a distinction between antisemitism and anti-zionism. For those in the US, the Democrats are always facing an antisemitism scandal.
Corbyn has sided with pretty much every enemy of Britain. He made friends with the terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the IRA. Corbyn’s associations with those terrorists is now spun as being in the name of peace, He also Corbyn and McDonnell would rather forget their support of the socialist regime in Venezuela .
Even people who should know better, such as Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, are taken in by Corbyn.
Bower largely puts Corbyn’s victory in the leadership contest down to the ineptitude of his opponents. The other candidates were tainted by Blair’s legacy and no one was willing to challenge Corbyn on his ideology. Corbyn also happened to be right about the Iraq War, but he’s right as much as a stopped clock is.
This was also the case when Corbyn was challenged for the leadership. The 2017 general election should have been an easy win for the conservatives, but Theresa May was also not willing to confront Corbyn’s core beliefs. Corbyn took the strategy of ignoring much of what he had spent the last 40 years advocating, and McDonnell is willing to lie about what he really thinks. There’s a video of McDonnell happily stating that he’s a Marxist but he then denied it in an interview. McDonnell also has no problem rallying with stalinists. Could McDonnell actually be a Stalinist? Corbyn’s other close ally, shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbot, can’t count, also praises Chairman Mao. Mao and Stalin were responsible for some of the greatest crimes in history. Now the UK is potentially one election away from their supporters running the country.
Corbynistas bring their opprobrium on anyone who dares to question the dear leader. Momentum effectively ensures that Corbyn will stay in the leadership position.
There needs to be a term to collectively refer to Corbyn. McDonnell and Abbott. The Troika? Or how about the Unholy Trinity?
This book should be read by everyone who wants to understand Jeremy Corbyn.
March 31, 2019
Worst thing about this book is its sensationalist title, which will mean many people won't read this who should.
Was somewhat sceptical, given the gleeful publication of extracts by the right wing gutter press, but even if only 10% of it is correct, it's an absolutely horrifying read.
And there doesn't seem to be any real serious suggestion it isn't broadly accurate, beyond the inevitable 'she said, he said' disputes which inevitably emerge around these sort of books, and some questions about the accuracy of a previous book by the author.
To be living in a point in history where people like Corbyn, McDonnell, May and Trump are our leaders - it makes me feel sad and ashamed that more of us haven't gotten involved in politics and have left it to this rabble. What's that they say about 'we get the leaders we deserve...'?
Was somewhat sceptical, given the gleeful publication of extracts by the right wing gutter press, but even if only 10% of it is correct, it's an absolutely horrifying read.
And there doesn't seem to be any real serious suggestion it isn't broadly accurate, beyond the inevitable 'she said, he said' disputes which inevitably emerge around these sort of books, and some questions about the accuracy of a previous book by the author.
To be living in a point in history where people like Corbyn, McDonnell, May and Trump are our leaders - it makes me feel sad and ashamed that more of us haven't gotten involved in politics and have left it to this rabble. What's that they say about 'we get the leaders we deserve...'?
May 30, 2019
Always a dangerous thing to read a book which is so politically motivated against someone's character. Whilst I can't say that I'm a Corbynist, it's easy to mindlessly go through Tom Bower's writing and nod your head complacently as he assaults Jeremy Corbyn's character and actions. If you surround yourself purely with likeminded people who only reinforce your own arguments rather than challenge them (as it almost felt here), all you do is fall into an act of circle jerking.
That being said, I can't say that I was totally immune to all of it. There's a lot of dirt being thrown here, and even if half of it is true and sticks, then it makes me question what the future holds for British politics should Labour take power with Corbyn at the helm.
That being said, I can't say that I was totally immune to all of it. There's a lot of dirt being thrown here, and even if half of it is true and sticks, then it makes me question what the future holds for British politics should Labour take power with Corbyn at the helm.
February 20, 2019
Pretty cliched hack job in my opinion. It does make me think though. He wrote a wonderful expose of Richard Desmond called 'Rough Trader' but when threatened by his lawyers, he wilted. If it was all facts and not conjecture don't you think he would 'publish and be damned'? It was, I venture to suggest, more red top tabloid fodder just like this is. How the mighty are fallen.....
March 22, 2020
I'm extremely critical of Corbyn and the 2015-19 disaster.
Turning the once proud Labour Party from the party of workers to the party of internet cranks, anti-Semites and Guardian readers.
This book was so badly written. If it was from a high school student it would get good marks. This does not look like someone who has written 10+ books.
Turning the once proud Labour Party from the party of workers to the party of internet cranks, anti-Semites and Guardian readers.
This book was so badly written. If it was from a high school student it would get good marks. This does not look like someone who has written 10+ books.
March 7, 2019
At a time when the Labour Party's anti semitism is being exposed (by it's own MPs) this is a must read.
March 11, 2019
Entirely false account with no citations or references for completely fabricated events. Nothing more than a failed character assassination. Poor
August 24, 2021
When Corbyn was Labour leader, I found it very difficult to get any real idea of how good or bad he was doing, because the reporting of him was so blatantly polarised. He was vilified in the mainstream press, and hailed as a messianic figure on social media. The mainstream reporting was so brazenly hyperbolic that it was easy to disregard it all as a smear campaign; when anyone criticised Corbyn, they could be dismissed as part of the Establishment campaign against him. Two hyperpolarised mythologies developed around the Labour leader: Corbyn the Messiah, who would champion the downtrodden and lead Britain to a golden age; Corbyn the Destroyer, who hated Britain and sympathised with terrorists.
Tom Bower's book is all of the Corbyn the Destroyer mythology condensed into one handy volume, published in 2019 (it was also serialised in the Daily Mail). It is not a good book, sometimes it is comically bad, and it is riddled with errors and inaccuracies.
Sources are not provided for most of the information - 'for legal reasons... unusually the book has no references'. When a source is named, such as the notoriously untruthful George Galloway, it becomes clear that Bower has largely been in contact with people who disliked Corbyn or had vendettas against him: he has no interest in getting a proper understanding of Corbyn as an actual person, only in presenting him as an incompetent Marxist cartoon villain.
The sources of quotations from books, magazines, and newspapers are also frequently not given: we are just meant to trust that the magazine or newspaper did say it, but are not given the date or issue number for us to find the quote ourselves. We also have to take it on trust that Bower has not deliberately omitted positive comments from his various sources. The few times that a source does say something positive about Corbyn, Bower immediately tries to defuse it:
'"People thought he was a nice bloke," conceded Allcock. "He made them feel comfortable. He even charmed his adversaries." In his constituency dealings at least, Corbyn had perfected a genial mask, despite not yet proving himself as an effective MP.'
Bower pretends to understand Corbyn's inner thoughts and motivations, which are invariably sinister and malicious: he acts not out of concern for the unfortunate, but out of hatred for the upper and middle classes. For example, before he was an MP, councillor Corbyn pushed for houses to be built on some parkland; if we are to believe Bower, Corbyn's main goal here was to annoy the middle classes who would lose their park, not to help people without homes.
'Annoying Haringey's middle classes gave him particular delight. Faced with a huge housing problem after the arrival of thousands of Cypriot refugees in London, Corbyn proposed building homes on green parkland. Local residents were outraged. The rich, he scoffed, clearly disliked living alongside immigrants - but they would have no choice.'
Racist dog whistles are common throughout. The reader is meant to be suspicious of Corbyn's anti-imperialist beliefs and championing of refugees and immigrants; we are meant to see him as anti-White, anti-British, a self-hating white British man who sides with foreigners against his own people: 'He would black up if he could,' one Labour MP said of Corbyn, according to George Galloway.
This characterisation is appalling, and I think it tells you a lot about the author. Indeed, throughout Bower comes across as an intensely repulsive man; this is not helped by the two author photos, in which his body language and facial expression make him look like an absolute prick.
Furthermore, in the introduction and author bio, Bower says he used to be a Marxist himself back at university, and was known as 'Tommy the Red', and yet he seems completely incapable of understanding Corbyn & co's ideology and motivations. Leftist descriptors such as 'Marxist' are used almost as synonyms for 'evil' or 'villainous'. Corbyn is variously described as 'ideologically inconsistent', 'obsessed with ideological purity', 'Marxist', 'Trotsykist', 'committed to Stalinism', and 'anarchist'. These words have incompatible meanings which you would expect a supposed former leftist to understand; Bower's 'ex-Marxist' backstory reminded me of the unconvincing 'ex-atheist' backstories encountered in works of Christian apologetics. If he genuinely was Tommy the Red, my assumption is that he was motivated by teenage rebellion and a temporary dislike of middle class Britain, and he is projecting those remembered feelings onto Corbyn & co.
The book's subtitle is 'Corbyn's Ruthless Plot for Power'. As a result, Corbyn's lack of both ruthlessness and ambition for power throughout are hilarious recurring themes. Bower repeatedly tells us that Corbyn is ruthless without backing this up; often he clunkily adds implied ruthlessness when it manifestly isn't there.
'Lenin would have expected him to act ruthlessly, but... '
It is clear throughout that Corbyn is not power-hungry. He was quite happy as a backbench MP focused on his constituency and protesting global injustices; he had never aspired for ministerial positions or put in the work to develop policies. In 2012, he was considering retiring to Wiltshire to focus on beekeeping and growing vegetables. On page 311 out of 348, describing the 2017 election campaign, Bower says:
'The campaign had transformed Corbyn himself. The veteran protester understood that politics was no longer just a series of battles within the Labour Party, but actually about winning real power. His new ambition was to become prime minister.'
It is on page 311 out of 348 of a book supposedly about 'Corbyn's Ruthless Plot for Power' that Corbyn is first described as wanting power.
The book ends with what is meant to be a mic-drop by Bower, but it is such a failure of a mic drop that it perfectly illustrates how lazy and perfidious the book is. Bower does not believe that 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' is Corbyn's favourite poem, as he has claimed in interviews.
'His enthusiasm for it was dubious, not least because Wilde himself was no believer in socialism.'
Bower then closes the book with a part of the poem which ends with,
'For none can tell to what red Hell
His sightless soul may stray.'
The implication is that Wilde was somehow warning of a socialist hellscape like the USSR, but the poem is about someone being executed by hanging at Reading Gaol, the British prison, and the 'red Hell' refers to - you know, well - the afterlife hell to which 'his sightless soul may stray', not to socialism.
That's not the worst of it. After reading this I had to look around for a bit thinking I was going mad or had fallen into a parallel universe. Hadn't Wilde wrote an essay advocating socialism? The Soul of Man Under Socialism? Wasn't this essay a socialist classic?
'Socialism, Communism, or whatever one chooses to call it, by converting private property into public wealth, and substituting co-operation for competition, will restore society to its proper condition of a thoroughly healthy organism, and insure the material well-being of each member of the community.'
Either Bower didn't bother to check Wilde's views on socialism (even just by Googling 'Wilde socialism'), or he doesn't care, because it doesn't matter if the book is truthful or accurate: its only purpose is to damage Corbyn's reputation.
There are of course grains of truth in the book, as there was in other Corbyn coverage (I think it is quite clear that Corbyn's administration would have been disappointing, that the bond market would have savaged him, that he was out of his depth as leader, that he had some weird views, and there was a serious anti-Semitism crisis*), but they are so thoroughly buried in falsehood and hyperbole that it becomes easy to dismiss it all as smears and nonsense. Those hoping for an accurate insight into Corbyn and his leadership would best look elsewhere.
*When Corbyn was leader, I had absorbed, from friends and social media, the narrative that the anti-Semitism crisis was largely an Establishment smear against Labour and Corbyn. I wasn't following politics or the story very assiduously, and I wasn't on social media that often. However, by the time Rebecca Long-Bailey was sacked from the Shadow Cabinet, I was on social media more often, and on the day of her sacking I saw a huge explosion of anti-Semitic comments and posts from leftwing sources. This was a moment of Great Disillusionment for me, the scales fell from my eyes.
Tom Bower's book is all of the Corbyn the Destroyer mythology condensed into one handy volume, published in 2019 (it was also serialised in the Daily Mail). It is not a good book, sometimes it is comically bad, and it is riddled with errors and inaccuracies.
Sources are not provided for most of the information - 'for legal reasons... unusually the book has no references'. When a source is named, such as the notoriously untruthful George Galloway, it becomes clear that Bower has largely been in contact with people who disliked Corbyn or had vendettas against him: he has no interest in getting a proper understanding of Corbyn as an actual person, only in presenting him as an incompetent Marxist cartoon villain.
The sources of quotations from books, magazines, and newspapers are also frequently not given: we are just meant to trust that the magazine or newspaper did say it, but are not given the date or issue number for us to find the quote ourselves. We also have to take it on trust that Bower has not deliberately omitted positive comments from his various sources. The few times that a source does say something positive about Corbyn, Bower immediately tries to defuse it:
'"People thought he was a nice bloke," conceded Allcock. "He made them feel comfortable. He even charmed his adversaries." In his constituency dealings at least, Corbyn had perfected a genial mask, despite not yet proving himself as an effective MP.'
Bower pretends to understand Corbyn's inner thoughts and motivations, which are invariably sinister and malicious: he acts not out of concern for the unfortunate, but out of hatred for the upper and middle classes. For example, before he was an MP, councillor Corbyn pushed for houses to be built on some parkland; if we are to believe Bower, Corbyn's main goal here was to annoy the middle classes who would lose their park, not to help people without homes.
'Annoying Haringey's middle classes gave him particular delight. Faced with a huge housing problem after the arrival of thousands of Cypriot refugees in London, Corbyn proposed building homes on green parkland. Local residents were outraged. The rich, he scoffed, clearly disliked living alongside immigrants - but they would have no choice.'
Racist dog whistles are common throughout. The reader is meant to be suspicious of Corbyn's anti-imperialist beliefs and championing of refugees and immigrants; we are meant to see him as anti-White, anti-British, a self-hating white British man who sides with foreigners against his own people: 'He would black up if he could,' one Labour MP said of Corbyn, according to George Galloway.
This characterisation is appalling, and I think it tells you a lot about the author. Indeed, throughout Bower comes across as an intensely repulsive man; this is not helped by the two author photos, in which his body language and facial expression make him look like an absolute prick.
Furthermore, in the introduction and author bio, Bower says he used to be a Marxist himself back at university, and was known as 'Tommy the Red', and yet he seems completely incapable of understanding Corbyn & co's ideology and motivations. Leftist descriptors such as 'Marxist' are used almost as synonyms for 'evil' or 'villainous'. Corbyn is variously described as 'ideologically inconsistent', 'obsessed with ideological purity', 'Marxist', 'Trotsykist', 'committed to Stalinism', and 'anarchist'. These words have incompatible meanings which you would expect a supposed former leftist to understand; Bower's 'ex-Marxist' backstory reminded me of the unconvincing 'ex-atheist' backstories encountered in works of Christian apologetics. If he genuinely was Tommy the Red, my assumption is that he was motivated by teenage rebellion and a temporary dislike of middle class Britain, and he is projecting those remembered feelings onto Corbyn & co.
The book's subtitle is 'Corbyn's Ruthless Plot for Power'. As a result, Corbyn's lack of both ruthlessness and ambition for power throughout are hilarious recurring themes. Bower repeatedly tells us that Corbyn is ruthless without backing this up; often he clunkily adds implied ruthlessness when it manifestly isn't there.
'Lenin would have expected him to act ruthlessly, but... '
It is clear throughout that Corbyn is not power-hungry. He was quite happy as a backbench MP focused on his constituency and protesting global injustices; he had never aspired for ministerial positions or put in the work to develop policies. In 2012, he was considering retiring to Wiltshire to focus on beekeeping and growing vegetables. On page 311 out of 348, describing the 2017 election campaign, Bower says:
'The campaign had transformed Corbyn himself. The veteran protester understood that politics was no longer just a series of battles within the Labour Party, but actually about winning real power. His new ambition was to become prime minister.'
It is on page 311 out of 348 of a book supposedly about 'Corbyn's Ruthless Plot for Power' that Corbyn is first described as wanting power.
The book ends with what is meant to be a mic-drop by Bower, but it is such a failure of a mic drop that it perfectly illustrates how lazy and perfidious the book is. Bower does not believe that 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' is Corbyn's favourite poem, as he has claimed in interviews.
'His enthusiasm for it was dubious, not least because Wilde himself was no believer in socialism.'
Bower then closes the book with a part of the poem which ends with,
'For none can tell to what red Hell
His sightless soul may stray.'
The implication is that Wilde was somehow warning of a socialist hellscape like the USSR, but the poem is about someone being executed by hanging at Reading Gaol, the British prison, and the 'red Hell' refers to - you know, well - the afterlife hell to which 'his sightless soul may stray', not to socialism.
That's not the worst of it. After reading this I had to look around for a bit thinking I was going mad or had fallen into a parallel universe. Hadn't Wilde wrote an essay advocating socialism? The Soul of Man Under Socialism? Wasn't this essay a socialist classic?
'Socialism, Communism, or whatever one chooses to call it, by converting private property into public wealth, and substituting co-operation for competition, will restore society to its proper condition of a thoroughly healthy organism, and insure the material well-being of each member of the community.'
Either Bower didn't bother to check Wilde's views on socialism (even just by Googling 'Wilde socialism'), or he doesn't care, because it doesn't matter if the book is truthful or accurate: its only purpose is to damage Corbyn's reputation.
There are of course grains of truth in the book, as there was in other Corbyn coverage (I think it is quite clear that Corbyn's administration would have been disappointing, that the bond market would have savaged him, that he was out of his depth as leader, that he had some weird views, and there was a serious anti-Semitism crisis*), but they are so thoroughly buried in falsehood and hyperbole that it becomes easy to dismiss it all as smears and nonsense. Those hoping for an accurate insight into Corbyn and his leadership would best look elsewhere.
*When Corbyn was leader, I had absorbed, from friends and social media, the narrative that the anti-Semitism crisis was largely an Establishment smear against Labour and Corbyn. I wasn't following politics or the story very assiduously, and I wasn't on social media that often. However, by the time Rebecca Long-Bailey was sacked from the Shadow Cabinet, I was on social media more often, and on the day of her sacking I saw a huge explosion of anti-Semitic comments and posts from leftwing sources. This was a moment of Great Disillusionment for me, the scales fell from my eyes.
Want to read
September 6, 2019
Does he really want elections?🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
😵
🐔🐔🐔🐔[ These are true chlorinated chicken,...]
I just read this
"POLL — CORBYN HAS WORK TO DO: Voters are more worried about the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister than they are about Britain leaving the EU without a deal, according to a new POLITICO/Hanbury snap poll. Our survey ahead of the looming election found 43 percent of respondents said Corbyn as prime minister would be the worst possible outcome, vs. 35 percent who said a no-deal exit would be worse"
In POLITICO, London playbook
For a man who believes he'll become PM, that's not good.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theg...
UPDATE
Back to chicken-talk:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9865044...
May 14, 2019
Good grief, it's like reading Mein Kampf after Hitler's already in power
March 7, 2019
This is a depressing book to read. It is unbelievable how the radical left wing ideology has reared its ugly head in 21st century Britain and Corbyn and his cronies have become real contenders for power. The book tells a story of man with a chip on his shoulder and how he became to deeply hate the Western democracy. Corbyn’s hatred of the West is so deep that he has and would collude with any movement that would hasten the destruction of our democratic system to be replaced by Marxist revolutionary order.
The most frighteningly fascinating part of the book is Bower’s description of the machinations and backstabbing that Corbyn and his ilk used to gain power first at local government level culminating to his election as the leader of the opposition followed by the putch of moderate MPs.
Bower also details the ideological basis of the far left’s antisemitism. Corbyn considers Israel as a imperialist power, hence it has to be destroyed. I was not left in any doubt that Corbyn is a anti-Semite.
The only thing that was missing from Bower’s book was an analysis why anyone could ever vote for the ideology and politics that Corbyn represents.
The most frighteningly fascinating part of the book is Bower’s description of the machinations and backstabbing that Corbyn and his ilk used to gain power first at local government level culminating to his election as the leader of the opposition followed by the putch of moderate MPs.
Bower also details the ideological basis of the far left’s antisemitism. Corbyn considers Israel as a imperialist power, hence it has to be destroyed. I was not left in any doubt that Corbyn is a anti-Semite.
The only thing that was missing from Bower’s book was an analysis why anyone could ever vote for the ideology and politics that Corbyn represents.
September 13, 2020
I’m no fan of Corbyn, but I found the way this book was written a little tabloidy. It felt like it was written for the Daily Mail. I am sure that much of it is true and therefore concerning, but the way it was written reduced it’s credibility somewhat. That being said, it highlights many concerns about Corbyn’s politics and is an interesting read.
March 9, 2020
Funny, tabloid, hack, hatchet job.
November 10, 2020
Lazy, rushed, littered with errors.
August 17, 2022
It is a shame Tom Bower didn't wait a year to publish this book. Although it was meticulously researched and well written as you would expect, it did come to a sudden stop in February 2019 rather than reaching a finale. It missed out on the last days of Theresa May and subsequent election of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister and of course the humiliating defeat of the Labour Party in the December 2019 general election.
The book confirms all I have ever thought and know about Corbyn and much, much more. He comes across as obstinate, one-dimensional, unintelligent, unread, someone who is desperately economically with the truth and in many ways a misogynist, he is clearly academically challenged and has little in the way of financial acumen, not only in politics but in his personal life too. He has historically tried to hide his own middle class background and has done all he can to maintain his own scruffy, unkempt image to align himself with the 'workers' and the Socialist ideal.
He has campaigned his whole life to bring down capitalism and to make the rich poorer rather than advance the lot of the poor and the working class. His Trotskyite views are to bring everyone in line with the 'proletariat' by any means. He closely aligned himself with people like Len McCluskey, ex-Militant member John McDonnell, Ralph Miliband a committed Communist and Seamus Milne whose sole aims are to bring about a revolution with or without a democratic mandate and get rid of the capitalist system. Their aim to replicate Hugo Chavez's disastrous regime in Venezuela did not diminish in any way when they witnessed the total collapse of the economy and the starvation of its people.
Bower writes that Corbyn has never been able to understand both sides of an issue despite purporting to be a peaceful man, his unequivocal backing of the IRA borders on the obscene as witnessed when he and his colleagues in a London office cheered when they heard that the IRA had bombed Bishopsgate. Following the Grand Hotel bombing in Brighton he invited the IRA's Adams and McGuinness to the House of Commons despite since arguing that it was a peace mission. His unequivocal support for the Palestinians is not tempered with a commitment to a two party state, he has long advocated for a state of Palestine from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean and it was his blatant anti-Semitism and anti-Zionist views that eventually helped lead to his downfall. He is unable or unwilling to condemn terrorism or war wherever it happens, even the Munich Olympic murders, 9/11, 7/7 or the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussain he argues are a result of British and American imperialism.
After many years in various political positions in London, almost bankrupting Haringey Council on the way he finally reached the position he desired, leader of the Labour Party, although some of his close colleagues restricted some of his outlandish ideas in the interests of party image, his views never changed. Along with McDonnell, Abbott, McCluskey and others, bringing about a Trotskyite revolution in Britain was and remains his sole objective.
Corbyn was fortunate that Ed Miliband laid the foundation for his leadership bid as far back as 2010
when McCluskey's Unite union backed him for the leadership. By introducing the policy of £3 to vote for the leader it led to the far left infiltration of the Labour Party who, with the support of so-called moderates such as Yvette Cooper and Margaret Beckett (although she later admitted that it was the worst decision she made in her political career) elected the most dangerous man ever to lead a mainstream political party in the UK.
Dangerous Hero is an absorbing read but if ever it were needed, it confirms just how close we were to electing a PM that would have bought the country to its knees, we dodged a bullet.
The book confirms all I have ever thought and know about Corbyn and much, much more. He comes across as obstinate, one-dimensional, unintelligent, unread, someone who is desperately economically with the truth and in many ways a misogynist, he is clearly academically challenged and has little in the way of financial acumen, not only in politics but in his personal life too. He has historically tried to hide his own middle class background and has done all he can to maintain his own scruffy, unkempt image to align himself with the 'workers' and the Socialist ideal.
He has campaigned his whole life to bring down capitalism and to make the rich poorer rather than advance the lot of the poor and the working class. His Trotskyite views are to bring everyone in line with the 'proletariat' by any means. He closely aligned himself with people like Len McCluskey, ex-Militant member John McDonnell, Ralph Miliband a committed Communist and Seamus Milne whose sole aims are to bring about a revolution with or without a democratic mandate and get rid of the capitalist system. Their aim to replicate Hugo Chavez's disastrous regime in Venezuela did not diminish in any way when they witnessed the total collapse of the economy and the starvation of its people.
Bower writes that Corbyn has never been able to understand both sides of an issue despite purporting to be a peaceful man, his unequivocal backing of the IRA borders on the obscene as witnessed when he and his colleagues in a London office cheered when they heard that the IRA had bombed Bishopsgate. Following the Grand Hotel bombing in Brighton he invited the IRA's Adams and McGuinness to the House of Commons despite since arguing that it was a peace mission. His unequivocal support for the Palestinians is not tempered with a commitment to a two party state, he has long advocated for a state of Palestine from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean and it was his blatant anti-Semitism and anti-Zionist views that eventually helped lead to his downfall. He is unable or unwilling to condemn terrorism or war wherever it happens, even the Munich Olympic murders, 9/11, 7/7 or the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussain he argues are a result of British and American imperialism.
After many years in various political positions in London, almost bankrupting Haringey Council on the way he finally reached the position he desired, leader of the Labour Party, although some of his close colleagues restricted some of his outlandish ideas in the interests of party image, his views never changed. Along with McDonnell, Abbott, McCluskey and others, bringing about a Trotskyite revolution in Britain was and remains his sole objective.
Corbyn was fortunate that Ed Miliband laid the foundation for his leadership bid as far back as 2010
when McCluskey's Unite union backed him for the leadership. By introducing the policy of £3 to vote for the leader it led to the far left infiltration of the Labour Party who, with the support of so-called moderates such as Yvette Cooper and Margaret Beckett (although she later admitted that it was the worst decision she made in her political career) elected the most dangerous man ever to lead a mainstream political party in the UK.
Dangerous Hero is an absorbing read but if ever it were needed, it confirms just how close we were to electing a PM that would have bought the country to its knees, we dodged a bullet.
September 28, 2022
I picked this one up as an "easy read". I'm geekily interested in politics, have a mix of mostly liberal and some conservative views, and consider Jeremy Corbyn to have been a massive danger to the country, had he ever been elected. So, it's easy reading to me because a book like this isn't very likely to say anything I'd want to challenge. The title, and Tom Bower as the biographer, gives you the pretty clear indicator that this is going to be quite critical of its subject.
The book covers Corbyn's early life up to 2019 when it was published, so it's already a bit of out-of-date given some of the things that have happened since - Johnson's accession to the premiership, Starmer's leadership of Labour and Corbyn's having the whip suspended. So that's worth bearing in mind if you do pick it up now.
The book is unfailingly critical, and it does pick out patterns in Corbyn's behaviour that you can see time and time again. The west is bad, so anything opposing it must be good. Corbyn doesn't like confrontation, so has a habit of walking away from it or ignoring it. He dismisses out of hand anything not conforming with his world-view without actually addressing it, including inconsistencies. He backs his supporters regardless of their behaviour because they agree with him. Yes, it's fair enough that to build an electoral coalition, it does mean contorting into some strange positions, but Corbyn prides himself on his ideological consistency. But the same man says he is anti-racist, opposes anything to do with Israel, his supporters then attack Jews because they conflate them with Israel, and then he backs with supporters without conceding this contradicts his anti-racism.
Some of the attacks can seem personal. Bower attacks Corbyn for being thick and not reading anything, and it has a feeling of being personally insulting (even if it does seem to ring true from what he writes around it). His book can have a very brief sort of style of detailing things - something quite striking can be asserted, then it suddenly moves on without evidencing it or detailing it. Sometimes things can be gone into in very deep detail, so the pacing can seem a bit uneven. Also, the assertions, combined with the lack of references (acknowledged by the author as to protect his sources' identities) just give the impression that not everything written about is factually accurate. He paints a broad brush that comes away as broadly right, but with the details not quite being right. Some of it is just wrong - he assets that David Cameron left the chamber in silence after PMQs, but you can find it on YouTube showing that he was cheered to the rafters by his own backbenchers. The impression is just that not every loose thread was tied up, in order to make the book seem more critical.
Overall, it's pretty entertaining to read, and quite enlightening in the picture it paints, but don't let it be your only source for this period of history, or, much though I despise him, Jeremy Corbyn.
The book covers Corbyn's early life up to 2019 when it was published, so it's already a bit of out-of-date given some of the things that have happened since - Johnson's accession to the premiership, Starmer's leadership of Labour and Corbyn's having the whip suspended. So that's worth bearing in mind if you do pick it up now.
The book is unfailingly critical, and it does pick out patterns in Corbyn's behaviour that you can see time and time again. The west is bad, so anything opposing it must be good. Corbyn doesn't like confrontation, so has a habit of walking away from it or ignoring it. He dismisses out of hand anything not conforming with his world-view without actually addressing it, including inconsistencies. He backs his supporters regardless of their behaviour because they agree with him. Yes, it's fair enough that to build an electoral coalition, it does mean contorting into some strange positions, but Corbyn prides himself on his ideological consistency. But the same man says he is anti-racist, opposes anything to do with Israel, his supporters then attack Jews because they conflate them with Israel, and then he backs with supporters without conceding this contradicts his anti-racism.
Some of the attacks can seem personal. Bower attacks Corbyn for being thick and not reading anything, and it has a feeling of being personally insulting (even if it does seem to ring true from what he writes around it). His book can have a very brief sort of style of detailing things - something quite striking can be asserted, then it suddenly moves on without evidencing it or detailing it. Sometimes things can be gone into in very deep detail, so the pacing can seem a bit uneven. Also, the assertions, combined with the lack of references (acknowledged by the author as to protect his sources' identities) just give the impression that not everything written about is factually accurate. He paints a broad brush that comes away as broadly right, but with the details not quite being right. Some of it is just wrong - he assets that David Cameron left the chamber in silence after PMQs, but you can find it on YouTube showing that he was cheered to the rafters by his own backbenchers. The impression is just that not every loose thread was tied up, in order to make the book seem more critical.
Overall, it's pretty entertaining to read, and quite enlightening in the picture it paints, but don't let it be your only source for this period of history, or, much though I despise him, Jeremy Corbyn.
September 26, 2020
Reflections and lessons learned:
My journey - knowing a bit about him as a strong opinionated/willed Labour back bencher despite not always being a Labour supporter myself; watching the nomination and election as leader televised live on a Saturday afternoon and feeling hope for a traditional socialism returning to the Labour Party after new Labour; being confused by odd stances taken, apparent puppeteering within, and a concern on intolerance and a demand to a single voice sign up... desperate heartache for the party not to go under and possibly a vote against my own beliefs in a changing time, in a hope to keep them going; a liking of the lead two figureheads as individuals and a team; sadness at a larger movement within the party dominating and pushing out, disharmony being ignored and an absolute belief in not listening when the country started to voice concern; seeing Alan Johnson be furious but definite in identifying the cause on the disastrous election night with anger that this didn’t need to happen... overall I’m reading to try and identify who or what changed...
The book - so difficult, as the timing of this publication was obvious part warning/reminder of quite worrying parts of the history and part smear campaign, which is always low (promote someone, don’t put someone else down), but parts of this history (fact checked to be sure) are shocking and depressing. In my view, he will always be a man that is absolute in his beliefs, and has tried to balance his opinions and support the underdog - a character that I strive to be in many ways. However, power allowed him to continue to take “the side of the devil” and back the non obvious side of an argument but he seemingly chose not to be strong willed on the main elements on political platforms, for which the voting public had to make a decision when he (or the wider group?) chose not to. Did literal and actual momentum take him in the wrong direction to the attraction of populism, for a group trying to morph the party to be what they believed? To be in power needs to have a beliefs system that can be adaptable but still strong in a quick changing world - and this is the problem. Such a shame and a probable death knell on popularity for socialism in politics for the near future... I hope that it comes back at some point as we need political choice
My journey - knowing a bit about him as a strong opinionated/willed Labour back bencher despite not always being a Labour supporter myself; watching the nomination and election as leader televised live on a Saturday afternoon and feeling hope for a traditional socialism returning to the Labour Party after new Labour; being confused by odd stances taken, apparent puppeteering within, and a concern on intolerance and a demand to a single voice sign up... desperate heartache for the party not to go under and possibly a vote against my own beliefs in a changing time, in a hope to keep them going; a liking of the lead two figureheads as individuals and a team; sadness at a larger movement within the party dominating and pushing out, disharmony being ignored and an absolute belief in not listening when the country started to voice concern; seeing Alan Johnson be furious but definite in identifying the cause on the disastrous election night with anger that this didn’t need to happen... overall I’m reading to try and identify who or what changed...
The book - so difficult, as the timing of this publication was obvious part warning/reminder of quite worrying parts of the history and part smear campaign, which is always low (promote someone, don’t put someone else down), but parts of this history (fact checked to be sure) are shocking and depressing. In my view, he will always be a man that is absolute in his beliefs, and has tried to balance his opinions and support the underdog - a character that I strive to be in many ways. However, power allowed him to continue to take “the side of the devil” and back the non obvious side of an argument but he seemingly chose not to be strong willed on the main elements on political platforms, for which the voting public had to make a decision when he (or the wider group?) chose not to. Did literal and actual momentum take him in the wrong direction to the attraction of populism, for a group trying to morph the party to be what they believed? To be in power needs to have a beliefs system that can be adaptable but still strong in a quick changing world - and this is the problem. Such a shame and a probable death knell on popularity for socialism in politics for the near future... I hope that it comes back at some point as we need political choice
January 15, 2021
I don't know whether bio writers are required to be objective but this book certainly says they don't have to. It is interesting to note that the book is contemporary, both the victim (Corbyn) and the attacker are still alive and I wonder how could Tom Bower look into Corbyn's eye if they ever meet after such an unjustified and baseless attack of a book.
A brain blowing deduction from the book: "...The Guardian praised his pledge to increase taxes to ‘invest’ in housing and welfare, although the paper’s own £80 million investment in technology was contributing to its annual £60 million deficit...". Is the Guardian a government department?
An interesting question from Bower "...Now he repeated that killing Emwazi was obscene, and ‘the ultimate in sanitised warfare’. (It was unclear what was wrong in making warfare sanitised.)...". What could be wrong with a clean war, really!!!
And finally "...The ridicule bounced off Corbyn. If only the imperialist West had not interfered in Muslim countries, he said, there would be no bloodshed. ‘A succession of disastrous wars,’ he planned to say at a conference, ‘has increased, not diminished, the threats to our own national security.’..." In spite of finding WMD in Iraq and ruining the country, savaging Afghanistan, doing everything to help ruin Syria the UK and its master are not to be blamed. They were there to bring their kind of civilizations to those savages and if those Middle Easterners turned out to be ungrateful too bad!
A brain blowing deduction from the book: "...The Guardian praised his pledge to increase taxes to ‘invest’ in housing and welfare, although the paper’s own £80 million investment in technology was contributing to its annual £60 million deficit...". Is the Guardian a government department?
An interesting question from Bower "...Now he repeated that killing Emwazi was obscene, and ‘the ultimate in sanitised warfare’. (It was unclear what was wrong in making warfare sanitised.)...". What could be wrong with a clean war, really!!!
And finally "...The ridicule bounced off Corbyn. If only the imperialist West had not interfered in Muslim countries, he said, there would be no bloodshed. ‘A succession of disastrous wars,’ he planned to say at a conference, ‘has increased, not diminished, the threats to our own national security.’..." In spite of finding WMD in Iraq and ruining the country, savaging Afghanistan, doing everything to help ruin Syria the UK and its master are not to be blamed. They were there to bring their kind of civilizations to those savages and if those Middle Easterners turned out to be ungrateful too bad!
July 3, 2023
A hugely disappointing book, all the more disappointing as there is an excellent story waiting to be told here. Unfortunately, the writer's bias completely undermined his efforts, with the result being a whingeing diatribe.
Although we are all aware of who Jeremy Corbyn is, he has remained a distant character, hiding in plain sight on the British political scene until his election as Labour leader. My hope was that this book would reveal the man being the mask. Sadly, Tom Bower has allowed his personal bias and profound dislike of Corbyn to colour the entire narrative. There may be many criticisms to level at Corbyn, but to continually refer to him as the '...Member for Antarctica North' does little to add to the discourse.
I found it interesting that we are continually lectured in the text about what a threat to UK society Corbyn and his allies are, but those on the right escape similar censure. For example, I would argue that John Redwood and Jacob Rees-Mogg reflect positions as far to the right as Corbyn is to the left, yet they are not discussed in similar terms. I also found it hard to credit that the Labour Party is awash with Marxists and, had Corbyn won an election, the UK would have become a Marxist state with no recourse to the ballot box.
Whilst it is evident that there was an element of anti-Semitism in Corbyn's party, and Bower makes the assertion that Labour at that time could find nothing positive from the Israeli state, it is a refection of his bias that he could not bring himself to report anything positive about Jeremy Corbyn.
Although we are all aware of who Jeremy Corbyn is, he has remained a distant character, hiding in plain sight on the British political scene until his election as Labour leader. My hope was that this book would reveal the man being the mask. Sadly, Tom Bower has allowed his personal bias and profound dislike of Corbyn to colour the entire narrative. There may be many criticisms to level at Corbyn, but to continually refer to him as the '...Member for Antarctica North' does little to add to the discourse.
I found it interesting that we are continually lectured in the text about what a threat to UK society Corbyn and his allies are, but those on the right escape similar censure. For example, I would argue that John Redwood and Jacob Rees-Mogg reflect positions as far to the right as Corbyn is to the left, yet they are not discussed in similar terms. I also found it hard to credit that the Labour Party is awash with Marxists and, had Corbyn won an election, the UK would have become a Marxist state with no recourse to the ballot box.
Whilst it is evident that there was an element of anti-Semitism in Corbyn's party, and Bower makes the assertion that Labour at that time could find nothing positive from the Israeli state, it is a refection of his bias that he could not bring himself to report anything positive about Jeremy Corbyn.
September 25, 2019
In this searing portrait of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Tom Bower paints in fast and furious brushstrokes to show how Corbyn has betrayed his constituents, his wives, and all sense of decency in seeking political power. Corbyn comes off as a bumbling, decidedly un-intellectual relic of midcentury Marxism who, due to a craving for anti-estabishment authenticity, is launched into the mainstream of 21st Century British politics.
The book includes some memorable anecdotes, including a younger Corbyn scarfing down Christmas day dinner without so much as thanking his wife. More damning, though, is Corbyn's alleged dalliances with IRA terrorists and anti-Israel (as well as anti-semitic) figures.
Whatever one thinks of Corbyn's politics, Bower doesn't appear to accomplish the beating heart of Corbyn: what drives this man? The biography pulls back some of the curtain, but often feels like a blistering journalistic attack rather than a peering into the man's heart and soul, as better biographies accomplish.
The book includes some memorable anecdotes, including a younger Corbyn scarfing down Christmas day dinner without so much as thanking his wife. More damning, though, is Corbyn's alleged dalliances with IRA terrorists and anti-Israel (as well as anti-semitic) figures.
Whatever one thinks of Corbyn's politics, Bower doesn't appear to accomplish the beating heart of Corbyn: what drives this man? The biography pulls back some of the curtain, but often feels like a blistering journalistic attack rather than a peering into the man's heart and soul, as better biographies accomplish.
August 16, 2021
As a "Yank", I picked this book up out of curiosty more than anything. How did this anti-establishment guy end up as head of the labour party?
It certainly wasn't because I liked him.
Corbyn always gave me the creeps. He's that sort of British Soy-boy, wet, middle-class wanker. that I utterly despise. Compared to men like Corbyn; American SJW's seem almost patriotic and "macho". How unsurprising that Corbyn went to Jamaica in the 60s - as part of some sort of "British peace corps" - to avoid miliary service. Or that he was more interested in going to the Beach and reading Marx than helping the so-called "natives".
However Bowers seems to hate him so much, I actually started feeling sympathy for Corbyn. After all what does it matter what Corbyn thinks about Israel? The UK has little military power, and I doubt many Brits really care about the Middle East one way or the other. OTOH, the detailed info on Corbyn's marxism, support for the IRA terrorists, open borders, and his obvious hatred of the average Englishman was welcome.
Anyway, its a well written hit piece. But one gets the impression that if Corbyn had simply touted the "party line" on Israel and said nothing about the Palestinians Bower would never have written the book.
It certainly wasn't because I liked him.
Corbyn always gave me the creeps. He's that sort of British Soy-boy, wet, middle-class wanker. that I utterly despise. Compared to men like Corbyn; American SJW's seem almost patriotic and "macho". How unsurprising that Corbyn went to Jamaica in the 60s - as part of some sort of "British peace corps" - to avoid miliary service. Or that he was more interested in going to the Beach and reading Marx than helping the so-called "natives".
However Bowers seems to hate him so much, I actually started feeling sympathy for Corbyn. After all what does it matter what Corbyn thinks about Israel? The UK has little military power, and I doubt many Brits really care about the Middle East one way or the other. OTOH, the detailed info on Corbyn's marxism, support for the IRA terrorists, open borders, and his obvious hatred of the average Englishman was welcome.
Anyway, its a well written hit piece. But one gets the impression that if Corbyn had simply touted the "party line" on Israel and said nothing about the Palestinians Bower would never have written the book.
April 21, 2024
A pacy, glaring hatchet job. Bower somehow managed to stitch together various (to be fair somewhat juicy) anecdotes - from disgruntled people formerly and peripherally close to Corbyn - into a highly biased and cartoonishly inaccurate portrait, which *could* make for entertaining reading, if you suspend for a moment the great harm that twisted narratives like Bower's wreaked on our political landscape. Along the way Bower is casually misogynistic (which he claims to be a particular flaw of his subject), sneeringly anti-left, and about as subtle as a turd on a dinner plate.
Essential to read Peter Oborne's review alongside this https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion...
Essential to read Peter Oborne's review alongside this https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion...
April 10, 2019
Combines impressive research on a man who works hard at being inscrutable with an almost insufferably snide right-wing worldview -- which he tries to justify by pointing to an illustrious past as a sixties student radical. The author can't decide whether he despises Corbyn more for rejecting material comforts, or for occasionally indulging in them. Similarly, Corbyn gets slammed for being inflexible and ideological, but then again for inconsistency and being willing to compromise to attain power.
But there is an overwhelming amount of evidence, beyond the editorialising, that Corbyn is that dangerous combination, a self-mythologising ideologically driven simpleton.
But there is an overwhelming amount of evidence, beyond the editorialising, that Corbyn is that dangerous combination, a self-mythologising ideologically driven simpleton.
August 16, 2019
Good overview of Corbyn's life; shows just how destructive a government run by him and his cronies (John McDonnell, Diane Abbott) would be. It shows how Corbyn is of limited intelligence, limited reading, and is simply an instinctive leftist with confused views. Quotes from Corbyn in the book may be accurate and are certainly disturbing, but not having sources for the quotes is a major shortcoming. Still, a good book to recommend (or lend) to anyone who thinks Corbyn is anything but a disaster for the Labour Party and would be a disaster for the country if he became Prime Minister.
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