17 December 2020
Diary of a Corbynista
Sunlit Uplands Beckon
by Don Urquhart
10 December
At PMQ’s Johnson told us what a grand future awaits us thanks to Brexit, deal or no deal. One of the wonders we are to anticipate is the establishment of free ports which, as far as I can ascertain, are tax avoidance devices that save you all the trouble of setting up nameplates in distant parts. Daniel Boffey’s Guardian article gives us a clue as to what else they are about:
EU clamps down on free ports over crime and terrorism links
A further clue to what awaits us was provided by Brexiteer MP John Baron on Newsnight. We would be attracting inward investment thanks to low business taxes and flexible labour relations. So, a nirvana of sweatshops and zero hours contracts to enable us to undercut our continental neighbours.
11 December
The Message Board throbs again in reaction to Corbynista in Shaw Sheet 259:
Northey: On a couple of occasions through my adolescence when I uttered a socialist leaning, Dad responded, ” Son, the Labour Party is just the Tory 2nd XI, sent in to bat by the Tories when they think things are going to get difficult.”
Greek Chick: Good on your Dad for getting on his bike decades before Norman Tebbit called for the unemployed to do just that.
I think you are right; actions speak louder than words we need to get back in the band even if we think the lead singer is singing the wrong song, out of tune.
Sunlounger: Good on your Dad and that quote about the British working man being his own worst enemy has never been truer than it is today.
Watching the evolution of the guaranteed no deal is morbidly fascinating. Johnson is like a tarantula dancing around his helpless victim (the UK) just waiting for the right moment to kill it off with his poisonous fangs.
A no deal is of course necessary because without it, the wealthy Tories and their friends who probably have billions in short Sterling positions stand to lose a fortune. No deal also means that the UK economy will suffer, driving down business value. Given that MPs, Ministers and their friends have offshored their money, all they need to do is wait a while for valuations to plummet and then return to buy up the bargains. Unemployment will have increased by then so the bonus is a work force willing to work for peanuts and thanks to the removal of all those horrible EU human rights and employment laws, they won’t get much in the way of benefits either. It’s a great day for the wealthy and the demographics show that it was gifted to them mostly by the low-end working class, pensioners and the unemployed.
God bless all those unfortunates who voted leave thinking that Brexit would improve their lives.
FlyBoy: Think you’re giving them far too much credit; there is no plan, no strategy, no leadership, just endless incompetence, yes the owners of capital will get richer but that is more a factor of cheap money rather than some grand scheme. The lack of governance is shocking and Brexit will amplify the discord – think we all should expect a return to the 70’s, mass unemployment, strikes, and general mayhem.
And on the subject of Millwall fans booing the players taking the knee, the fact that no action has been taken against the club is proof of how racist the country is.
Walsall: The response given by the club as to why there was booing was laughable. While I have every admiration for the intellect of the archetypal Millwall fan, not all of them, to suggest that they booed because they were upset as to the politicisation of BLM stretches credulity for me. This was a convenient trope, suggesting that this was an expression of free speech, rather than blatant racism.
12 December
Johnson wearing a hard hat and big grin tells us that “no deal” is a likely option. Kuenssberg, Peston and the like parrot the same line as surely as night follows day. The Mail gives free rein to its xenophobia.
We are making our way through the Netflix canon but I am not allowed to get ahead of my wife and she has other things to do. So I turn to Novara Media and the remarkable Michael Walker who makes a convincing case that Johnson is bluffing, will accept the EU offer of single market access as long as we remain aligned however this is defined. Of course he will claim a victory, but then so will the EU.
13 December
I was surprised to see Andrew Marr gleefully validating the xenophobia of the gutter press, at one point describing Frau Merkel’s alleged comments as typical of the daughter of a Lutheran pastor.
I was as surprised and also delighted to see Ed Miliband grab Marr by the metaphorical throat when he tried to shut down the Shadow Minister’s passionate denunciation of Johnson and his no deal “Russian Roulette”. Marr tried to paste him into the “so Labour will definitely vote for a deal” corner but Ed wasn’t having it.
14 December
Fewer people will ever die of Covid than are dying of poverty.
The words of Lewisham Food Bank co-founder Ray Barron-Woolford at the start of Feeding Lewisham, a short film about a group of volunteers in South London which is feeding over 4,000 people.
The shape of things to come for many areas of the country?
Tories will call it the Big Society at work.
15 December
Some time ago a friend who is politically to the right of Genghis, having watched the Education Secretary speaking in The Commons, said there’s something not right about this bloke. I am all for diversity, equal opportunities and the like but I ask you. This from today’s Mirror:
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is threatening to use legal powers against Greenwich council, as schools across the London borough have ‘organised remote online learning from tomorrow’
