Jeremy Corbyn wants more nice things, fewer nasty ones

Mr Corbyn used to stand not just for abstract nouns but also—though his manifesto falls a little quiet on this point—for the Labour Party, which he led between 2015 and 2020. In that time he presided over not only Labour’s worst election defeat by number of seats since 1935 but also over an alleged rise in antisemitism, which critics felt smacked less of “equality” and “compassion” than of rather nastier things. Under his successor, Sir Keir Starmer, Labour first banned him from being a candidate and later booted him out of the party. In this election, Mr Corbyn is offering himself as an independent. He is also offering “hope”, for hope is “very precious”. Which is a little piece of poetry in itself.