This past week we have been provided with an education in the brutal reality of what passes for democracy in Britain. The political and media establishment has gone absolutely berserk in response to Jeremy Corbyn's resounding mandate as the new leader of the Labour Party. Everything from the complexion of his shadow cabinet to his mode of dress has been subjected to a withering assault in the pages of newspapers owned by billionaire press barons for whom people such as him, and the millions he represents, should know their place.
The latest furore over Corbyn's refusal to sing the national anthem at a commemoration of the Battle of Britain is particularly instructive. Here we have a man being attacked for refusing to sing an anthem celebrating feudalism by those who are intent on returning working people in the country to a state of feudalism.
How much space was devoted by the mainstream media to the Government's cuts to working tax credits, condemning millions to additional economic hardship, on the day of the aforesaid Battle of Britain commemoration? The answer is hardly any. Yet even members of Jeremy Corbyn's front bench have seen fit to direct their ire at their new leader's refusal to sign the dirge that passes for a national anthem in Britain rather than attack the Tories over these latest draconian cuts.
The evidence is irrefutable. What passes for democracy in Britain is in truth a system of organised hypocrisy. The idea of the democratically elected leader of a potential party of government being expected to pay deference to an unelected monarch you would naturally think outlandish in the 21st century, especially as the monarchy is a medieval relic that rubbishes our claim to modernity and anything which smacks of progress.
The wider point though is not whether or not Jeremy Corbyn sang along to God Save The Queen. The wider point is that he cares more about the young working class men who have fought and died in this nation's wars, most of them wars of empire, than those putting the boot in. The fact, for example, that the Sun could bandy around words such as "disrespect" in its attack on the Labour leader plumbed new depths of absurdity, given that this is a newspaper whose journalists were engaged in the widespread and systematic hacking of the phones of members of the Royal Family.
This is the sort of perverse right wing garbage that has poisoned our culture and political discourse for decades. In truth their all-out campaign of smear and demonisation is a measure of the extent to which they fear Jeremy Corbyn. For in him Labour finally has a leader for whom principles are not an alien concept - something akin to wings on a horse - but are a non-negotiable requirement when it comes to challenging the entrenched privileges and obscene wealth of the few, gained and enjoyed at the expense of the many.
At a time when demand for the services of the nation's foodbanks has grown exponentially, when poverty pay is the norm, when we have 4 million children and 2 million pensioners living in poverty, there is a glaring need for a radical alternative to the status quo.
But there is another aspect to the unprecedented eruption of anti-Corbyn mania we have seen that should not be overlooked - the willingness to destroy a Labour leader who presents a serious threat to the status quo. If they had Jeremy Corbyn down as a novelty act before, now they view him as someone who must be taken down.
Here, Corbyn joins an illustrious list of Labour and anti-establishment politicians who have succeeded in offending the political and media class to the point where they have been characterised as enemies within. It begins with the man who founded the Labour Party, Keir Hardie.
As with Corbyn's achievement in scandalising his pro-establishment counterparts, Hardie did likewise when his request for a note of condolence to the families of miners killed in a mining accident in South Wales be added to a message of congratulations to the royals on the birth of the heir to the throne (Edward VIII). Hardie's request was refused and in response he gave a speech attacking the monarchy, during which he said:
From his childhood onward this boy will be surrounded by sycophants and flatterers by the score, and will be taught to believe himself as of a superior creation. A line will be drawn between him and the people whom he is to be called upon some day to reign over. In due course, following the precedent which has already been set, he will be sent on a tour round the world, and probably rumours of a morganatic alliance will follow, and the end of it all will be that the country will be called upon to pay the bill.
In being elected leader of the party on a programme that resembles Labour's founding principles, and in refusing to play the game of pomp and ceremony, Jeremy Corbyn stands on the shoulders of Hardie. And in so doing he marks a departure from the accommodationist trend of a party that under Blair embarked upon a tactic of defeating the Tories by becoming Tory in many respects.
The real scandal today is not that Jeremy Corbyn refused to sing along to the national anthem. The real scandal is those 4 million children and 2 million pensioners who are living in poverty in one of the richest economies in the world. These are the people and families we should be concerned about, not a so-called royal family.
In a civilised society every women is a queen and every man a king. Alas, we do not live in a civilised society. Instead we live in a hell of Thatcher's creation.
It is nothing to be proud of.