29 March 2018

Diary of a Corbynista

Corbyn, the anti-Semite and Stalinist?

by Don Urquhart

22 March

At Yesterday’s PMQ’s, Jeremy Corbyn went in hard on cuts in local government services.  Andrew Gwynne is the shadow minister responsible for local government and Theresa May asked whether he supported certain local labour parties.

Haringey where the Labour leader was forced out; Brighton where the Labour leader was forced out; Cornwall where the local Labour group leader was forced out.  What had these people done?  Supported building more homes, providing good local services and tackling antisemitism in the Labour party.

It was clear that the Prime Minister had no answers and was reduced to gratuitous smears to enthuse her backbenchers.

23 March

On Question Time the panel discussed the dangers of revealing information about themselves on Facebook.  They then went on to discuss Brexit and the Irish border issue.  James Cleverly, the Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party shared this opinion:

My party has disproportionately suffered the impact of terrorism from the troubles in Northern Ireland.

Now this shows the danger of revealing too much about oneself in the traditional broadcast media let alone Facebook.

Meanwhile BBC Northern Ireland is running a mockumentary called Soft Border Patrol which purports to show how a soft border will work in practice.  It is hilarious and alarming in equal measure.

24 March

Jeremy Corbyn has sacked Owen Smith from the front bench for advocating a second referendum.  There is probably more to it than that.  Mr Smith is an independent minded communicator and at some point and on some issues the whole front bench has to advocate the same policy.  Lord Hain denounces the sacking as Stalinist so aligns himself with the red scare mob.  For the Corbyn supporter it is unfortunate that this occurs a week after the Debbie Abrahams sacking.  I have gone through formal channels to get sensible answers on this but have received no response.

25 March

Corbyn’s opponents have lit on anti-Semitism as a potential weak flank and have made much of his support in 2012 for Kalen Ockerman whose East London mural was to be painted over.  The artist says it wasn’t anti-Semitic but it looks as if it probably was.  What’s certain is that Corbyn is not anti-Semitic and equally that his opponents are undertaking a black propaganda barrage as the local elections approach.  Last week we had the nonsense of Corbyn being photoshopped by Newsnight in front of an image of the Kremlin. Russia, Venezuela, Hamas, Hezbollah and the IRA don’t seem to have worked but anti-Semitism might be worth a second shot.  Sadly Chukka Umunna and other Labour MP’s are on the team.

26 March

For Corbyn’s opponents today’s march organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews is a godsend.  Liz Kendall, John Woodcock, Luciana Berger and Ian Austin are opponents of Corbyn in the PLP and never miss a chance to attack him.  Most Labour Party members take at face value his statement that the party is working hard to root out antisemitism.

27 March

Yesterday on Daily Politics Jenny Manson from Jewish Voice for Labour made the point that some people fear a Corbyn administration because he is in favour of a Palestinian state.  You hear quite a bit about conflating anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel.  It is certainly the case that many Jewish people will not brook criticism of Israel. Now that Tony Blair has weighed in and the media continue with their feeding frenzy, we Corbynistas find our resolve reinvigorated.

28 March

The Government encourages voters to regard  the dire state of the NHS as an Act of God.  Sarah Wollaston, the Chair of the Health Select Committee is promoting a cross-party commission to investigate and come up with a 10 year plan “to take the NHS out of politics.”  This is heartily endorsed by Liz Kendall and other Blairites.

The King’s Fund recently published NatCen Social Research’s British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey regarding the NHS. It was carried out between July and October 2017.

Among the conclusions:

The statistically significant fall in satisfaction (and rise in dissatisfaction) in 2017 took net satisfaction to its lowest level since 2007. With an increase over the last few years in the proportion of survey respondents reporting lack of funding as a reason for their dissatisfaction, it seems the public is increasingly aware of the reality of funding pressures that the NHS has experienced over the last seven years. With equally small increases in funding planned over the next few years and NHS performance on key headline measures worsening, it is hard to see the public’s satisfaction with the NHS improving in the near future.

Is it any wonder that the Tories are seeking to promote a “nothing to do with us guv” approach.