Left-winger Jeremy Corbyn trounced his opponents in last week's Labour leadership election, winning almost 60% of the vote. His election kicked off a tumultuous few days, including a furore over his new shadow chancellor John McDonnell's economic policies and apparent previous support for the IRA. Corbyn debuted a new form of Prime Ministers' Questions in parliament, reading out questions from members of the public, and left voters wondering whether he would vote to stay in the European Union.
What the commentators said
He needs "a younger, less psychotic Alastair Campbell" to hone his media strategy, said Matthew Norman in The Independent, especially in view of the relentless onslaught of the right-wing press. He has at most a month "to avoid being indelibly branded on the public consciousness as a shambolic buffoon who surrounds himself with incompetents and crazies".
Speaking of crazy, his shadow chancellor's economic agenda reads like a "latter-day Dave Spart rant", said Jeremy Warner in The Daily Telegraph. He says there are £93bn of "subsidies" to business sitting there just waiting to be abolished, thus getting rid of the deficit at one stroke. "I'm kicking myself for not thinking of this." How come nobody has come up with it before?
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The idea of the central bank printing money to fund spending is also bonkers, said Allister Heath in the same paper. It raises the prospect of hyperinflation, because unlike the quantitative easing we have seen in recent years, it would be near-impossible to reverse: the government would have an incentive to "print itself to re-election", triggering a loss of confidence in the currency. A Corbyn government would be a "complete disaster" for the economy.
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