04 November 2021

Diary of a Corbynista

Blah Blah Blah

by Don Urquhart

28 October

Ken Loach on Double Down News analyses the state of the Labour Party.  It is worth a look if you are interested in why Sir Keir Starmer will not succeed.

29 October

Message Board responses to Corbynista in Shaw Sheet 298:

Walsall:

Re Compass, this is a start for the conversation. However, they are not a political party.

In order for the Progressive Alliance to work, the Labour Party needs to follow the lead of Unite, and come out foursquare behind PR. We need, at least for the major opposition parties, a consensus on how to beat the Tories. While there is a belief that Labour can beat the Tories on their own, we will perpetuate this imbalance.

Sunlounger:

Re. the sewage problem, my favourite hash tag is #StoolBritannia

Greek Chic:

I heard we are importing raw sewage that Holland can’t handle and charging for processing here… swap processing for releasing into our watercourses.  Radio silence from BBC. 

Sunlounger:

Headline “Boris Allows EU to Take a Shit on the UK” Do you think that the Mail or Express would run this?

Patriot:

At last, something I agree with you about – river pollution and online platforms. There is hope for you yet.

30 October

I am not taking sides here. Any Answers focussed on COP 26 and many people showed concern about the planet’s future and what we should be doing.  Mid-programme there was a glorious exchange which identified presenter Chris Mason as an apologist for the benefits of capitalism.  He was totally thrown when confronted by an articulate victim of that system.

Geraldine:

There was an article in The Guardian today saying that capitalism is killing the planet.

Chris:

Capitalism has also lifted millions of people out of destitution and poverty hasn’t it?

Geraldine:

Sorry?

Chris:

But Capitalism has also round the world helped million of people out of poverty and improved their life chances and life expectancy.

Geraldine:

I don’t know what fairyland you’re living in.  I’m living in the real world.

Chris:

You’re living in a capitalist country.

Geraldine:

Unfortunately yes because I’m a disabled person who had to fight to get my PIP benefits and thousands of disabled people have committed suicide…

Chris:

Let’s stick to the question of COP and climate change.

Geraldine:

I was looking for quite some time at a site where the Prime Ministers partner…

Chris:

Let’s not get into specifics.  For the sake of both of us let’s avoid going down that particular avenue….

Geraldine:

My boiler broke down in 2012 and I’ve had no heating or hot water since then….

Chris:

Thank you Geraldine!

31 October

The gathering in Glasgow of the world’s great and good reminds me of the time I worked on the Y2K project for a bank.  Then the Operations Director had frequent calls with worldwide offices and was constantly having to remind them:

Y2K is now your day job.  Everything else goes on the back burner.

Who will have the gravitas to get a similar message through to the people running the world, particularly those who cannot be bothered to attend?

Saving the planet is now your day job.  Everything else goes on the back burner.

1 November

“Jeffrey Epstein” and “Foster Parent”;

“Keir Starmer” and “Exciting”.

These are pairings you do not expect to find in the same sentence.  And today the Daily Express offered another:

“Liz Truss” and “Masterstroke” as in the headline:

Win for Boris! Macron BACKS DOWN in fishing row -changes deadline after Truss masterstroke

If one was keen to get more details of our Foreign Secretary’s coup all the paper could offer was:

She told Sky News: “The French have made completely unreasonable threats, including to the Channel Islands and to our fishing industry. And they need to withdraw those threats or else we will use the mechanisms of our trade agreement with the EU to take action.”

Asked over what time frame France should back down, Ms Truss said: “This issue needs to be resolved in the next 48 hours.”

2 November

Newsnight dutifully presented COP 26 as Johnson front and centre busting a gut to make an errant world see sense.  They noted that President Biden had nodded off but failed to spot our own PM catching flies, assisted in this by him not wearing a mask unlike the rest of the audience.

One has the impression that Johnson is a bit like Ole Gunnar Solksjaer when 5-0 down to Liverpool at Old Trafford. He wishes it was all over and he could move on to the next game.

So it was that their representative in subsequent discussions was not a political heavyweight but Allegra Stratton who despite various high profile press liaison roles has been absent from our television screens up to this point.  Well she rambled on about the beauty of government policies then Mark Urban asked her a question offering a little challenge:

If the Government is so committed to net zero why is it encouraging short haul flights?

Allegra:

Well that’s a matter of personal choice.  This Prime Minister is not going to stand up and tell people what choices to make.

Or as Greta Thunberg would say Blah Blah Blah.

3 November

At Johnson’s COP26 Press Conference Beth Rigby posed the question:

On forests, Sky News is on the ground in Brazil where authorities don’t seem to care at all about mass deforestation.  Do you really believe that the President of Brazil will follow through on the pledges he made.  Is he taking it seriously?

For a change Johnson had a tidy haircut but that was the only thing that was straight about him:

On deforestation….what we’re doing is saying that companies that buy commodities as a result of deforestation whatever they may be…It’s not just world leaders who are saying this. What we’re doing is saying that companies that invest in or buy commodities that result from deforestation and that whatever they may be will not be invested in and there’s been an agreement by companies around the world that they will no longer support or invest in commodities like palm oil or whatever that result from deforestation.  You’ve heard what a big commodity producers like Cargill and others have had to say…

Secondly the world’s financial institutions have stepped up and they won’t invest in companies that invest in deforestation so financial institutions worth trillions and trillions of pounds will not be supporting deforestation.

And so it went on.  The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on the world stage making it up as he goes along as if he were in the House of Commons.

As Ms Thunberg would say: Blah, Blah, Blah.