12 September 2019
Diary of a Corbynista
Peaky Blinders rule
by Don Urquhart
5 September
Jo Swinson went on Politics Live to talk up Luciana Berger’s latest career move and to reiterate that the LibDems would not support an interim government led by Jeremy Corbyn.
She is probably very concerned at the strong possibility that the Benn Amendment will succeed and that a General Election can be deferred past Halloween. In such circumstances the LibDems would no longer be the natural home for Remainers and the election agendas might well be uncomfortable for a party with a history of voting for austerity when in coalition with the Tories. She must be desperate to go for a General Election while the 31st October Brexit is still in the balance.
It is a challenging time for us Corbynistas. The anti no-deal alliance is fragile and while Cummings is still around he will be driving wedges in a turbocharged manner.
6 September
Question Time was even more of a shoutfest than usual – all about Brexit with most people simply regurgitating the party line. The most interesting comment came from the panellist I found least sympathetic, Brexit Party Chairman Richard Tice, who out of the Blue remarked that October 31st was gone as far as Brexit was concerned. It struck me that this would be a perfect scenario for the Brexit Party which could then mop up Conservative Brexiteers virtually unopposed.
7 September
The Conservative Party strategists might consider the irony of characterising the Leader of the Opposition as a chicken. Their own less than Churchillian leader might think on the way his illustrious predecessor dealt with such insults.
In 1941 Winston Churchill addressed the Canadian Parliament and told them of the Vichy Prime Minister’s comment that Britain would soon be invaded and have its neck wrung like a chicken. His response with sensational dramatic emphasis:
8 September
Fascist dictators proclaim that they know the will of the people and ignore laws enacted by parliaments representing alternative viewpoints.
We are moving in that direction. Stand by for street violence represented by the BBC, Sky, LBC, The Mail, The Telegraph, The Express and The Sun as the work of Labour supporters. Cummings and Johnson, bolstered by injections of funds from people looking to benefit from a no deal Brexit, are quite capable of engineering such events.
9 September
Today’s Prime Minister is in a set off with the law of the land so it is unsurprising that people inclined to challenge the law have come to the fore.
We saw the English Nationalists last week in Westminster, loudly and aggressively clashing with police. They overlap with the English Defence League which demonstrated yesterday in Leeds chanting Tommy Robinson’s name.
A touch paper has been lit. It suits the Government to see headlines about combating civil unrest rather than their own Brexit incompetence.
My wife has floated the idea of visiting the Black Country Museum where Peaky Blinders is filmed. The series is set in the years following the First World War and focuses on Tommy Shelby and his family and their gang of crooks, generally shown in a sympathetic light as they overcome Irish, Jewish and Italian competition. They appear to revel in murder and mayhem but always come out on top assisted by a universally corrupt police force and deals with senior politicians.
God help us if today’s English Nationalists see themselves as the new Peaky Blinders.
10 September
On Newsnight Emily Maitlis interviewed Lord Mandelson and I thought why him? Soon answered when the noble lord proceeded to rubbish Labour’s Brexit policy.
11 September
Amazing that on Newsnight a random Grimsby vox pop found 5 people who loved Johnson and would vote Tory and just the one chap who would vote Labour.
