Peace and justice

I have signed up to Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘Peace and Justice’ campaign, which will be officially launched next month. I applaud his decision to try to pursue his ‘project,’ it would be a shame if the issues he promoted whilst leader of the Labour Party were to be allowed to fade into the background, which seems to be the evident desire of the current leader. It is also good to see a former Labour leader creating something which unlike those of one or two of his predecessors is predicated on peace and justice, as opposed to providing high paying corporations with ‘political insights’ along with overpaid and over-rated speeches. Whilst never Labour leader, one still finds Mandelson’s modestly named ‘Global Counsel’ consultancy an affront to the public service ethos. Having said that, nobody it seems can escape the compromises that are the meat and gristle of modern politics, and so I was mildly bemused that in his four minute online intro to the Peace and Justice campaign, Jeremy gave a name check to Rolls Royce. Given that his campaign is being supported by Unite’s Len McClusky, whose union will have many members working for Rolls Royce, I can see the reasoning. But will this mean that Jeremy ends up supporting Rolls Royce’s bid to build 16 mini-nuclear reactors in the UK? The government seems quite keen on the mini-reactor idea. But to be clear, this is not an idea that lends itself to ‘climate justice.’ And climate justice will increasingly become the bigger part of social justice, as poorer populations suffer the consequences of our environmental missteps. Dearie me, I can already divine Jeremy’s project riven by the famous 57 varieties, the contagion which grips the Left.