13 June 2019

Diary of a Corbynista

Boris nearly there

by Don Urquhart

6 June

Here’s Tory leadership candidate Matt Hancock about Jeremy Corbyn:

The UK could end up with the first anti-Semitic leader of a Western nation since the Second World War.

He might think he is doing his chances a power of good but decent Conservatives will consider that Mr Hancock demeans himself with such utterances.

7 June

Chilling words in The Guardian covering Labour’s by election win in Peterborough:

Brexit party insiders said Labour’s reliance upon a mainly Pakistani vote in inner-city wards had been the difference between the parties. “Some of these houses had 14 people in them registered to vote. It would be interesting to see what proportion voted Labour,” said one.

Oswald Mosley – your spirit lives on!

8 June

In Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail Hunter S Thompson includes this anecdote:

This is one of the oldest and most effective tricks in politics.  Every hack in the business has used it in times of trouble, and it has even been elevated to the level of political mythology in a story about one of Lyndon Johnson’s early campaigns in Texas.  The race was close and Johnson was getting worried.  Finally he told his campaign manager to start a massive rumor campaign about his opponent’s life-long habit of enjoying carnal knowledge of his own barnyard sows.

“Christ, we can’t get a way with calling him a pig-fucker,” the campaign manager protested.  “Nobody’s going to believe a thing like that.”

“I know,” Johnson replied.  “But let’s make the sonofabitch deny it.”

In the early hours Lisa Forbes’ victory in the Peterborough election was announced and the anti-Semitism smear machine went to work.  On Politics Live Jo Coburn introduced the topic and was backed up enthusiastically by a couple of hacks, from the Telegraph and the Guardian.  The London Evening Standard had it as the headline and the usual self-publicists and smearers in the PLP said their pieces.

9 June

Sophy Ridge had John Ashworth on, Andrew Marr had Barry Gardiner. The anti-Semitism smear came out in both cases.  Ridge had three senior Tories, Marr two but none of these was challenged on the Conservative Party’s failure to deal with Islamophobia and in particular its refusal to publish the number of cases received and the number of suspensions.

The Tories and their tame media have nothing of substance to use against Corbyn and are reduced to the usual black propaganda.

10 June

After the week’s moving tributes to D-Day veterans accompanied by fulsome virtue signalling from our politicians a dose of reality kicks in as reported by The Sun.

We have 12,000 homeless veterans on our streets and it is worth considering this along with the government’s dismal record in so many areas as their leadership hopefuls paint a glorious picture of life after Brexit if the Party members give them the nod.

11 June

While Boris Johnson seeks to buy Tory members’ votes with tax breaks for higher earners, the rest of us struggle with the results of 9 years of Tory rule.

Here’s an example from The Daily Mirror:

More than 250,000 patients waiting four-and-a-half months to see specialists

12 June

Boris Johnson will become Prime Minister, hopefully by coronation to reduce the waste of time.  The Labour Party is introducing legislation which will hopefully sidetrack a no deal Brexit.  Given our next Prime Minister’s lack of interest in principles and consistency, a second referendum might well give him his opportunity to show leadership and save his party.