10 September 2020

Diary of a Corbynista

Waiving the Rules

by Don Urquhart

1 September

Met up with Eric who tries to put a positive spin on government policy.  He asked me whether I had lost confidence in our democratic system and I had to ask him in turn: “with someone like Johnson in charge with an 80 seat majority comprising bovine lobby fodder, what did he think?”

I am reading Akala’s autobiography Natives which kicks off with a history of the repression of poor people since the war.  There have been many demonstrations, sometimes violent, involving people who have felt disenfranchised by our much vaunted democratic system. Brixton, Broadwater Farm, Saint Paul’s in Bristol, Moss Side, Toxteth, Handsworth, Chapletown are just a few from early Thatcher days.

2 September

Astonishing during PMQ’s that Johnson should hurl an IRA smear at Starmer.  It was one of many Corbyn had to brush off.  The PM is a desperate man.

3 September

Peter Shearer on Twitter:

Can I just say how wonderful I think the resolution of anti-Semitism has been? Vanished overnight as if, well as if it was not the issue many told us it was!

Corbynista’s  response:

As soon as Starmer starts advocating taxing the rich we will find out that he is as anti Semitic as the rest of the Marxists.

4 September

Much debate about how to pay for Coronavirus.  A head of steam is building up for depicting it as an old versus young issue with many of the great and good nodding along.  There goes the pension!

5 September

Our next door neighbour asked us if we had seen her newspaper which is usually left on the doorstep.  It was only later that we realised that Extinction Rebellion was preventing distribution of many dailies.  Attacking Freedom of the Press shouts the press.  I must admit to being on the protesters’ side given the nature of the majority of national newspapers.  I would not wrap my fish and chips in them.

6 September

Toby Helm in The Observer has picked up on the increasing desperation of the Prime Minister now trying to excavate possibilities for smearing Sir Keir Starmer.  It can’t be long before the press demonstrates its freedom by parroting whatever Conservative Central Office comes up with.

7 September

It is pointless to debate whether Johnson is incompetent or up to the job. It is pretty certain that he does not care about the outcome of the Brexit negotiations as long as he can convince his MPs that it is in their interests that he should remain as Prime Minister for the time being.