As the Liberal Democrats celebrate their win in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, other parties are licking their wounds. The Tories narrowly missed out and now must deal with the realities of being the governing party with a working majority of one. Labour meanwhile came a distant fourth – only just managing to hold on to their deposit.
Corbynistas have struggled to keep their vitriol in check since Jo Swinson was elected as the leader of the Liberal Democrats and today was no exception. Did Labour join in the celebrations (along with the Remain alliance) that the Tories had lost a seat? Think again. Instead the Corbyn outriders were out in force to attack… the Liberal Democrats:
I am a Labour Party member.
I voted Remain in 2016.
I support Jeremy Corbyn.
I want a Labour Government.
I could *never* be a Lib Dem.
I have a conscience.
I do not back austerity.
I strongly support democracy.
I will fight until my last breath. #LabourGovernmentFirst— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) August 2, 2019
This is just par for the course:
The Worst People on Twitter: A Handy Guide
Block, mute, move on. Don't waste your time & energy engaging in their salty tantrums. pic.twitter.com/Cq2FFpqWK7
— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️🌈🍉 (@TheMendozaWoman) July 29, 2019
Swindon decided to mark the election of the Lib Dem’s first female leader by tweeting, ‘Swinson is covered in the blood of austerity.’ While on Saturday, the Labour party itself echoed the foaming language and published a Swinson attack video scored with ominous music and claiming that she represented the ‘same old Tories in disguise’.
A number of progressives took issue with the tone of the attacks. Former Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith argued that the ‘attack on Jo Swinson seems to be going down like a cup of cold sick with Labour members on my timeline and Facebook. Wrong timing, wrong target.’ LBC’s James O’Brien also took issue with the increasingly aggressive mob-like attacks on the MP. He said, ‘It’s not permitted to be cautiously optimistic or even ambivalent about her, failure to condemn and castigate is evidence of ideological impurity and will not be tolerated.’
These measured criticism were enough to spark outrage from Corbynite pundit Aaron Bastani, who published a video on his alternative left-wing site Novara Media called, ‘Why Are ‘Moderates’ So…Weird?’ Their supposed weirdness, according to Bastani, stems from their inability to fall one side of the black and white divide between Corbyn’s Labour and the austerity-tainted Lib Dems.
Note, this is the same Bastani who suggested Israel could be behind the Salisbury poisonings and said, ‘the poppy appeal is grotesque… it’s racist, right, it’s white supremacist.’
If we’re meant to consider Swinson and her defenders weird, Mr S wonders what we should make of her critics…
Comments