22 February 2018
Diary of a Corbynista
Fake figures, charity charlatans and trial by troll
by Don Urquhart
15 February
Across the Dispatch Box May and Corbyn exchange crime statistics. He claims that things are getting worse; she produces figures to prove that crime is decreasing. Yesterday Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) released reports on three regions.
Both Thames Valley Police and North Yorkshire Police are only noting 80% of crimes reported. Durham Constabulary failed to record 8.5% of crimes reported to it.
16 February
Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development in 2011, was quick out of the blocks to tell us that he knew nothing of any Oxfam scandal, although his civil servants had been told there were some problems but had lacked curiosity as to their nature. Leading the virtue signalling is Oxfam International’s executive director Winnie Byanyima, who is organising a high level independent inquiry, as is the Charity Commission. Will they answer the question “Who knew what and when?” I am sure they will work out “What had we best cover up in order to protect our own interests?” And I guess there is also “What are the chances of Oxfam donors and taxpayers getting value for money out of these inquiries?”
17 February
As will soon become clear to the people running Oxfam, it’s not the crime – it’s the cover up. They had best be dusting off their CV’s. Ask Richard Nixon and soon hopefully Donald Trump. This week’s mini-series Trauma on ITV dealt with a surgeon’s error, which cost a young man his life. The victim’s Dad moves heaven and earth to make the surgeon admit his mistake, going so far as to threaten the surgeon’s daughter with a knife. Hopefully the Charity Commission will be as robust in their investigation.
Yesterday Mark Goldring, the CEO of Oxfam GB said the scale and intensity of the criticism against his organisation are out of proportion to its level of culpability.
He bought a page of the Guardian to say “WE ARE SO SORRY.” This ranks with Tony Blair’s apology for the slave trade in terms of futility.
18 February
It’s time to call out Andrew Marr for unfair treatment of interviewees on his Sunday morning programme. Whereas last week at the end of his chat with Penny Mordaunt he murmured sotto voce “that was very good”, at the end of today’s discussion Damian Hinds, the new Education Secretary was dismissed with a brusque “thank you for talking to us”. Possibly he felt that it wasn’t very good. Hinds spoke about the new independent review of higher education which only the naivest viewer would see as anything other than kicking the many issues into the long grass. Then when challenged on a specific case of a primary school cutting staff he resorted to the “Jeremy Hunt Defence” praising the wonderful people working in our schools and cherry picking statistics that tell us it’s all going very well.
19 February
Gone are the days when a senior politician goes on the radio or TV to make a speech and the audience is agog to hear what momentous events have happened or are planned.
This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German government a final note…
You know the kind of thing.
Today’s government press release tells us that Theresa May will announce an independent review of tuition fees and student finance on Monday.
For the Tories it’s a no win. There will be plenty of smoke and mirrors but they are faced with Angela Rayner reminding young people that Labour will abolish tuition fees and bring back maintenance grants.
The Tory defence on this one is that ever more people are going to university – riddle me that. They could start by asking the young people themselves and might discover that they go to university because there is nowhere else to go and they might as well put off the evil hour of futile job search by a couple of years.
20 February
To date Harvey Weinstein has been accused of sexual harassment by 80 women. The NYPD are building a case so that they can arrest him. Trial by media is not a new thing and these days platforms like Twitter makes it easy to jump on the bandwagon with one’s own allegations.
In the last few days Brendan Cox has been dismembered by social media. I will not go into the statements which have been made about him.
I must admit that I was a little disturbed by the alacrity with which he established himself as a media personality so soon after his wife’s death. It’s like when Jimmy Savile was unmasked. Afterwards everyone had spotted something wrong.
On Twitter his demise has been politicised by the trolls who point to his friendship with some Labour politicians like Jess Phillips and others who have made positive statements about him. They compare his treatment to what was afforded to Toby Young. There are significant differences beyond the relative seriousness of the allegations against Cox. For a start Toby Young‘s indiscretions were out there as fact, whereas Cox’s are not yet established, however strong the circumstantial evidence. Secondly Toby Young was being appointed to a regulatory body and I don’t think even his staunchest supporters would say that was appropriate.
I am a great fan of investigative reporting and I don’t write in support of Weinstein or Cox, but rather of trial by due process rather than by internet troll.
21 February
In his book “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72”, Hunter S Thompson recounts an anecdote involving ex-President Lyndon Johnson. In a tight contest for election as a Texas Senator, LBJ had instructed an aide to put about a rumour that his opponent had carnal knowledge of pigs. His aide objected that nobody would believe it to which LBJ replied:
I know but I want to hear the sonofabitch deny it.
I was reminded of this in 2015 when Isabell Oakeshott and Michael Ashcroft published Call me Dave with its anecdote of David Cameron inserting himself into a pig’s head at the Oxford University Piers Gaveston Society. Jeremy Corbyn criticised the media’s handling of the accusations:
The media treatment of any politician over unsubstantiated allegations, be it David Cameron, me or anyone else is wrong.
For several days now the Telegraph, the Sun and the Mail have alleged that Jeremy Corbyn spied for Czechoslovakia in the 1980’s. The BBC helpfully shows the front pages on their news and political programmes.
