Labour's decision to appoint Jeremy Corbyn as the leader of the party began as a seemingly clever strategy. He quickly gained a large degree of support from younger voters, as well as becoming the face of the working class' plight for a government that would prioritise their interests over the financial incentives that only the rich can deliver. Since the election, however, he has been reduced to something that conservatives might have imagined in their heads when envisioning the socialist individual - and what is more, he has solely done the damage to himself.
Corbyn, in his role as leader of the Labour party, began as a symbol of change, but has since then been reduced to the image of a useless idealist. The election served as his greatest challenge, but also provided him with the opportunity of a few more years to redeem himself - some more time in which the Conservatives are already losing public support by the masses with Theresa May's determination to form allegiances with countries with questionable human rights ethics, and with cuts in basically every public service that is essential to the functioning of the average civilian's daily life. This would be the ideal time for Corbyn to demonstrate his leadership skills by suggesting alternative, more practical and humane strategies that could aid the British government in its leadership. However, instead of grasping this chance, ever since the election he has only issued empty promises that are becoming increasingly unrealistic in the possibility of actually coming to fruition. For instance, on the 10th of January, Corbyn announced that introducing a wage cap could bring about the end of inequality in society. This idea, by all accounts, is completely illogical. How can a wage cap possibly put an end to inequality? Two obvious results can be anticipated by such a scheme: firstly, the rich would pay less tax due to the cap on their wealth that would prevent them from offering up more money to the government; secondly, the super-rich would simply leave the country to avoid being affected by the cap in the first place. The reality is that, until we have a completely equal society, we need the rich. We need the rich to create jobs and to fund individual and collective causes because, as of yet, there is a notable lack of alternative means of doing these things - we can't exactly rely on the government to use the tax payer's money to do it; if we trusted the government to do it then we wouldn't have any issue with the government in the first place, and it is not a novel idea that the government is both untrustworthy and unreliable in implementing the policies it sugar coats over various Party manifestos.
The fact is that Corbyn hopes to put a stop to everything bad in society that disadvantages civilians but he offers no realistic plans to combat inequality. I am not a Tory supporter by any stretch of the imagination, but if the Tories could stop inequality with a simple measure wouldn't they, if only to get more votes? Corbyn has become a caricature of the socialist stereotype and he is making everyone with a democratic socialist ideology look bad in the process. Those who adopt more of a left-wing perspective are not necessarily the same as idealists, there is no reason why effective legislation could not successfully tackle inequalities over time, but Corbyn is enforcing the perception that all democratic socialists are all talk but no action. This is dangerous, as it could lead to Labour supporters losing faith in the idea that inequalities can realistically be reduced in British society, as the only plans that we are hearing to combat injustices are Corbyn's completely unbelievable dreams with a substantial lack of evidence that these policies can actually be implemented. Jeremy Corbyn is no longer a poster boy for the Left-leaning side of the political spectrum. It is time for a new Labour figurehead, with more rational policies that can practically be made into realities, to be given screen-time in Corbyn's place before everyone begins to assume that there is no alternative to the Tories' money-orientated and wealthy-favouring ideologies and values.