28 January 2021
Diary of a Corbynista
A Plague caused by Poverty
by Don Urquhart
21 January
A friend pointed me at an article by James Wood in the London Review of Books. It is called These Etonians and deals with his time at the famous school.
It has much to recommend it but this piece particularly struck me:
There are no fundamental political differences between Cameron, Johnson and Rees-Mogg, because they belong to the same world. A world of extreme wealth where there has never been any decline for them. They are secure as their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents were before them. Once that security may have come from land; now it comes from hedge funds and shipping fortunes and extracurricular salaries (‘chicken-feed’, Johnson said of the £250,000 a year he was paid to write a column). Whatever happens in the next thirty or forty years, post-Brexit, isn’t going to affect them. Privilege is like an unwritten constitution: you can never lose what you never have to find.
Clearly the removal of Jeremy Corbyn from the political stage was essential to maintaining this state of affairs.
22 January
Owen Jones organised a discussion with Michael Walker and Paul Mason, so we had three of the most influential socialist commentators chewing over Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.
I found myself thinking: Is this the best we can do?
They rattled on for half an hour without mentioning restoring the whip to Jeremy Corbyn or the Labour leader’s reliance on millionaire donors.
For many socialists discussion of Starmer has to start there.
23 January
I watched the Parliamentary Oral Evidence Session on Child Poverty which resulted from a petition initiated by Marcus Rashford. There were 4 leaders of food charities, including Trussell Trust, a couple of MPs I hadn’t heard of, the Children’s Commissioner and a food entrepreneur called Henry Dimbleby. It was very civilised and worthy. They all referred to Marcus as if they were his best mates but I was left with the impression that these people were not going to solve the problems Mr Rashford had posed. Quite the reverse – this pantomime was contrived to protect the people responsible for the children going hungry.
24 January
Here’s Corbynista’s diary entry for July 2nd:
From the start the furlough scheme was designed to protect the owners of businesses rather than the staff. It gave them the chance to plan for the post-lockdown world while minimising staff costs. Most board meetings in March would have had cost cutting as a major theme. They were hoping to come back in a few months time leaner and meaner having shed employees. Where the business could not be saved the owners were working out how and when to head for the hills.
The Daily Express seems to bear Corbynista out:
Furlough: Rishi Sunak’s ‘gravy train’ will make 3 million unemployed warn finance experts
25 January
Sir Keir Starmer has employed Assaf Kaplan to work in his office as Social Listening and Organising Manager
There has been no official announcement of this appointment by the Labour Party.
Mr Kaplan was formerly employed by Israeli Intelligence although he has recently deleted mention of this from LinkedIn.
The employment of a foreign spy by one of our political parties might well raise questions of interest to the mainstream media but it has not been mentioned by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky or any major newspaper, not even The Guardian.
Plenty of coverage in The Canary and Novara Media
26 January
Hancock, Johnson & co. have been telling us that the UK has a world-beating vaccination programme, comparing it favourably with apparent disarray in the EU. For the last couple of weeks however they have been muttering that supply is the limiting factor. At the Downing Street Press Briefing not one of the journalists thought to pose the questions:
What is the problem with vaccine supply?
Who or what is causing it?
What are you doing about it?
On the Radio 4 Today programme, Nick Robinson happened to mention that the EU might be limiting supply, because of some spat with Astra Zeneca, then moved on to more important items like the racing tips.
Our EU friends see it differently. Today’s headline in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:
Die große Impfstoff-Irritation
The decision of the vaccine manufacturer Astra-Zeneca to cut back deliveries to the EU is causing great anger. Representatives in Brussels rely on contractual commitments. It’s about billions and reputation.
Our government is still trying to work out how to spin it if the vaccines dry up. My favourite is:
EU Bureaucrats take Brexit Revenge by stealing our vaccine.
27 January
Nick Triggle, Christine Jeavans & Robert Cuffe got together to pen this article for the BBC:
UK Covid deaths: Why the 100,000 toll is so bad
Tucked away at the bottom is the statement:
But many have argued that these high levels of ill-health have been compounded by the levels of inequality in the UK.
Levels of ill health and life expectancy have always been worst in the poorest areas, but the pandemic certainly seems to have exacerbated this.
LBC is a radio station with a predominantly right wing slant, but yesterday James O’Brien put the point of view that the country’s appalling Covid-19 performance was due to poverty. He invited callers to offer an alternative analysis, but instead there was a flurry of people who had not been able to self-isolate because their families would have starved had they not gone to work.
