Stephen Pollard

This is what happens when you compare Donald Trump to Jeremy Corbyn

When you tweet as often as I do, you learn to take the rough with the smooth. Even though it has led to death threats (dealt with by the police) I overwhelmingly enjoy it. I like the immediacy of it and I like the interaction.

Best of all, I learn from it.

And yesterday I learned something loud and clear. To be accurate, I had something confirmed that I and many others have long thought: that, at least on social media, much of the support for Jeremy Corbyn is akin to a cult, with the Labour leader worshipped as a god-like creature who cannot be criticised.

Yesterday morning, I read President Trump’s statement in reaction to the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which he condemned ‘this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.’

It struck me – as it has many others – that in refusing to condemn the white supremacists by name, and equating them with those who were demonstrating against them, he was employing the same form of words, and using the same political wriggle, that Jeremy Corbyn had done in his statement about Venezuela when he said: ‘What I condemn is the violence that has been done by any side, by all sides, in this.’

The parallels seemed interesting. In both cases – Charlottesville and Venezuela – there is no grey area. No decent politician should find it difficult to come down on one side in either case. Any politician – any human being – with a shred of humanity and decency should not have to think twice about condemning the behaviour of either the white supremacists in Charlottesville or the Maduro regime in Venezuela. But for President Trump and Jeremy Corbyn, that has indeed proved impossible, each instead blaming respectively ‘many sides’ in Charlottesville and ‘all sides’ in Venezuela.

And so I tweeted this, with a link to a story pointing out President Trump’s equivocation: ‘Read his words: Trump is the mirror image of Corbyn on Venezuela.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in