MANIFESTO
Directed by Daniel Draper
Certificate: PG
☆☆☆

THERE are readers of this newspaper for whom this film will not be enjoyable. Those who did not like Jeremy Corbyn’s stewardship of the Labour Party will hold their heads in their hands.

Democratic Socialists will instead hang their heads in disappointment, an uncomfortable reminder of the 2019 manifesto and the type of Britain it promised to build.

Manifesto charts three years around the 2019 election and aftermath, as seen by members of the Walton constituency Labour Party in Liverpool. It is Labour’s safest seat, and at the party HQ, we are given a seat as activists talk about the scale of the challenge ahead, and how to lay out the manifesto’s pledges, answer questions, use persuasive arguments on the doorstep.

It’s fascinating to hear a range of reasonable, rational arguments being played out. There is a bit of a barney over Brexit and the second referendum, but it’s conducted in a spirit of slightly exasperated friendship and good humour.

As the film illustrates, the strength of support for Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, marked by the 500,000 members that made the Labour Party the largest democratic socialist party in Europe, is inspiring. Those who believed in the aims of the manifesto lament the fact that they are many but not all can be activists.

“Imagine having half a million of us, out there?,” says one, wistfully. “Imagine what we could achieve.”

And it is this sense of hope, that comes over. The manifesto ideas are popularly received and when they are explained by these humble, clever people – not those seeking election, power, personal glory – the grief so many felt by Boris Johnson’s victory will come back hard.

The grand theft of workers’ labour, the vile exploitation by one class of another, is starkly illustrated by well-pitched voiceovers.

We follow on from the aftermath of the General Election defeat and hustings to elect a new leader, and then the debacle of Labour infighting and the anti-Corbyn moves that saw him have the whip withdrawn comes to the fore.

The usual argument between ideology – socialist principles versus power by any means possible – are played out. It’s the age-old issue on the left and centre left.

Manifesto is an in-depth look at grassroots politics today. Despite the huge challenges facing us to make Britain a better place, there is a sense of hope when you see these people.