8 October 2020
Diary of a Corbynista
Ed and the Pope in tune
by Don Urquhart
30 September
The Proud Boys – Stand Back and Stand By.
Trump’s call to arms for white supremacists should the electorate fail to put him back in The White House?
Or an invocation to make sure the electorate knows its duty on polling day?
A shiver runs down the spine.
1 October
Jeremy Corbyn attends a wake for a friend and is photographed sitting at a table with 8 fellow-mourners. Shock horror all over the media that he has broken the rule of six. Proof positive that they are still running scared of this man.
2 October
A report from Jim Ashton in Spain:
As of 11 pm. tonight, Madrid is in lockdown. The reason being is that a belligerent central government has decided that it knows better than the Madrid state government. The central government is left wing and the Madrid government is right wing. The central government’s unilateral decision is probably illegal and the matter has been referred to the courts. In addition, the left wing central government has approved an official enquiry into the right wing party’s funding irregularities. The left wing central government has blocked an official enquiry into the Chavista left wing party also about funding irregularities, presumably because the Chavistas support the left wing government. The left wing government has also teamed up with a Basque political party called Bildu that is made up of members of ETA, the communist leaning Basque separatist terrorist organisation. I find it interesting that what is happening in Spain is the inverse of what is happening in the UK. The conclusion I draw from this is that it does not matter which party is in power, once in, their top priority is to do whatever it takes to keep their bums on their seats, the security and wellbeing of country always comes second.
3 October
A storm is brewing over the Julian Assange case. Since 2010 he has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy and then in Belmarsh prison.
The Americans are seeking to extradite him to answer charges of publishing military whistleblower accounts. You can’t escape the impression that if he ever touches down in the USA he will be thrown down a big hole never to emerge. Hands up if you have any faith at all in the American legal system.
Judge Baraitser plans to deliver her judgement on January 4th 2021.
If the UK Government attempts to ship him to the USA there will be hell to pay.
4 October
Anyone claiming that the BBC has a left wing bias should take a look at today’s Andrew Marr. Reviewing the papers he has Laura Kuenssberg and the Spectator editor. Andrew records his sympathy for the Prime Minister’s difficult job.
Interviewing this gentleman his approach is that of a 1950’s sycophant:
Do you have anything you wish to share with us Sir?
Naturally enough Johnson launches into seemingly interminable depictions of his aspirations for the British people, interspersed with the latest mantra as plastered all over the bulldozers at the firm of some Tory Party funder hosting him in a hard hat on Friday.
5 October
Public Health England has reported that almost 16,000 positive Covid-19 cases were not properly registered on the system between September 25th and October 2nd. So we saw in the media a sudden spike explained away as a naughty computer malfunction.
I was reminded of the many year ends I had been involved with in various firms. Speaking to the CFO about how the profits were looking I was often informed that the Board had not yet decided how much profit or indeed loss they wanted. This might confuse those who believe that a firm either makes a profit or a loss and all the accountants do is measure it. Far from it – accountancy is up there with painting and music as a refined art form and while most board members do not understand it they do know what they like.
This I suspect is also the case with the measurement of Covid-19 test cases. What we see on the media as today’s positives are the result of decisions at the highest level regarding what would be a suitable number to present. Explaining negative results can take place when other issues are dominating the news cycle.
6 October
Ed Miliband, Sir Ed Davey, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Yanis Varoufakis, Pope Francis.
What could these notables possibly have in common?
Well, they all advocate Universal Basic Income, a means of guaranteeing a reasonable living standard for the poorest and most vulnerable.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer missed his opportunity and instead dreamt up fancy ways of pushing mass unemployment down the track for a couple of months while doing nothing for those at the bottom of the pile.
