Prefer Cameron to Corbyn for Prime Minister? That doesn't make you a Tory - it makes you normal

Would I replace Cameron with someone who seems like he’d genuinely struggle to take care of a single Scout troop and seems to have admiration for the leadership stylings of Enver Hoxha? Of course not

Jeremy Corbyn is challenging David Cameron to take part in an annual, televised “state of the nation” debate (Ge (Getty)

There appear to be two viewpoints within Labour if one is an anti-Corbynite.

The first goes that Jeremy is a stain on the nation and the party and that all effort must be put into wresting power away from him as quickly as possible. The alternative opinion being that ultimately the Tories are the enemy and that everyone must unite against them, regardless of Corbyn’s faults.

I’m not in the Labour Party so it’s easy for me to empathise more readily with the former group; however, it is easy to see the logic the second crew are advancing. Therefore, those within Labour who hold to the first viewpoint need a logical rebuttal to the second.

The real problem with the latter solution for a lot of Labour people is one that they are reluctant to have a conversation about, even with themselves, so I’ll just state the truth: in order to comply with the “let’s all unite regardless of Jeremy” faction, you have to ultimately prefer that Jeremy Corbyn was Prime Minister over David Cameron. And the hard truth is, most anti-Corbynites would (very begrudgingly) take Cameron as PM over Corbyn any day.

I myself would prefer to have David Cameron over Jeremy Corbyn in Number 10, basically as a lesser of two evils.

Cameron is rather uninspired, lacking vision and given to putting the country in perilous positions in order to try and keep the Conservative Party in one piece (see: referendum, European Union). But would I replace him with someone who seems like he’d genuinely struggle to take care of a single Scout troop - never mind the entire nation - and on top of that seems to have an admiration for the leadership stylings of Enver Hoxha? The answer to that is a definitive no.

It reminds me of when I gave my second preference to Boris Johnson over Ken Livingstone in the last London mayoral election. I didn’t do it out of love for Boris by any means, but simply because he wasn’t someone who actively supported Chavism. Boris was, to me at the time, the lesser of two evils.

Saying you’d prefer David Cameron to be Prime Minister over Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t make you a Tory – it just makes you normal. I think it’s important for many to come to grips with this concept, since it is the only logical position to be in for Labour people if they aren’t going to rally around Jeremy: that, ultimately, Jeremy is worse than Cameron.

To paraphrase Renton in Trainspotting: “Some hate the Tories. I don’t. They’re just wankers. It’s a shite state of affairs to be in, folks, and all the fresh air in the world won’t make any fucking difference.”

It may seem pedantic to some, but coming to terms with this is an important part of figuring out how the future of the centre-left pans out.

This article originally appeared on the writer's personal blog and has been reposted with permission