jeremy corbyn Archives

Thursday

1 Jun 2017

Did Jeremy Corbyn forget to unlock Diane Abbott’s talent?

Reading Jeremy Corbyn’s latest election document on the perennially hot potato of race, it was hard to know whether to shudder or snigger. Hearing that only Corbyn ‘can be trusted to unlock the talent of black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people’, my dirty mind was irresistibly drawn to the story told in the recent biography of the Glorious Leader of how he ‘showed off’ a naked Diane Abbott to the rest of Chess Club – sorry, his comrades in the socialist struggle – way back in the street-fighting, free-loving 1970s. According to a helpful nark in Rosa Prince’s book Comrade Corbyn: ‘One Sunday autumn morning…we were out leafleting. And for

Patrick West

Sticking up a ‘Vote Labour’ placard is an exercise in virtue signalling

To judge by the number of Labour placards outside people’s houses at the moment, you’d be forgiven for thinking the party is heading for a romping victory. Sure, you will see some ‘Vote Conservative’ placards dotted about here and there. But for the most part, putting up political posters is now predominately a left-wing pastime. This is certainly the case in the urban heartlands of England’s three big cities, London, Birmingham and Manchester, where the rare Conservative posters that have made an appearance are often defaced or torn down. Perhaps surprisingly, ‘Vote Labour’ posters are most conspicuous in the wealthier parts of our cities. In Crouch End, a prosperous part of North London, you can’t

James Kirkup

Ignore all the bluster, the Tories will still win

This is the first general election since 1997 where I have not primarily been employed as a journalist, covering the story of the campaign and its participants. Of course, I’ve still been writing about it, but from a certain distance. I miss some of the peculiar entertainments of the political circus, and some of the freaks and wild animals that provide those entertainments. But by and large, it’s rather nice to be watching things from a little way off. Especially because that distance allows me to say things like this: a lot of journalists, and a lot of politicians (especially Conservative ones) have gone stark raving mad and are talking

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Should the Tories be panicking?

A YouGov poll suggesting we could be heading for a hung parliament caused a furore in Westminster yesterday – but should we believe it? The Times defends the estimate in its leader this morning, saying that while it’s right to treat the poll with ‘scepticism’, it says ‘the figures are based on interviews with many thousands of people and (uses) sophisticated statistical techniques’. The results might be ‘surprising’, the paper concedes, but that’s ‘precisely why they need to be scrutinised’. Admittedly, there are a few ‘caveats’: ‘the model takes only a snapshot’ – and voters ‘can still change their minds’. But one thing is clear: ‘the direction of travel’. The

Bruce Anderson

Rosé-tinted glasses

It was a typical bank holiday. Usual English weather: glorious, until you leave home without a brolly. Then fickleness supervenes — just like the opinion polls. I was pressed by anxious enquiries. ‘You’re supposed to know about these things. There’s no chance of Corbyn winning, surely?’ On the assumption that enough of the sovereign people are still in their right wits, I was able to sound reassuring. But as I did so, a memory came back: Quintin Hogg in 1964, proclaiming that anyone who voted Labour was stark, staring bonkers. These days, that would be called a gaffe. The once and future Lord Hailsham was famous for gaffes. As he

Chris Mullin

Corbyn for PM?

‘The news that Harry Perkins was to become prime minister went down very badly in the Athenaeum.’ Thus begins my novel A Very British Coup, written 35 years ago and, with the narrowing gap in the opinion polls, suddenly topical again. Since Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader it has been reprinted twice and, earlier this year, an e-book promotion sold 2,500 copies in a single day. The hero of my novel, Harry Perkins, is a former Sheffield steel worker who was brought to life in a subsequent TV adaptation by that wonderful actor Ray McAnally. The platform on which he was elected was more radical than Corbyn’s, although some of

Hugo Rifkind

Jeremy Corbyn’s one true virtue

Enough of all these vital, apocalyptic, existential elections. They don’t half wear you out. The Scottish referendum was vital and apocalyptic, so they said, because the wrong decision would have seen Britain crack like a plate, and Scotland spiral off into insane debt, and residual Britain fade in geopolitical importance. Or, on other side, Tory rule for a millennium, which no Scot could ever want. Hmmm. Then the 2015 election was vital and apocalyptic, too, because Ed Miliband… Ed Miliband… Hang on. What was the big problem with Ed Miliband? There definitely was one. Ah yes, his dad hated Britain. Also he was incompetent. Didn’t even know how many kitchens

Wednesday

31 May 2017

The Spectator

After Theresa May’s missteps, a Corbyn victory is no longer inconceivable

On the eve of the US presidential election, experts at Princeton university decided that Donald Trump had a 1 per cent chance of being elected. Before the last general election, Populus, the opinion poll firm, gave David Cameron a 0.5 per cent chance of winning a majority. Much is made of the need to look at ‘the data’ when considering political arguments, but so often it is a wildly inaccurate guess with a decimal point at the end to give an aura of scientific specificity. So when we read that Jeremy Corbyn has just a 17 per cent chance of becoming prime minister, this does not mean that the election

Steerpike

Will the BBC election debate prove ‘a bridge too far’ for Corbyn?

Oh dear. Although a YouGov poll out today suggests a hung Parliament is a very real possibility in this election, Mr S suspects that some Corbynites are still getting slightly ahead of themselves. With Jeremy Corbyn making a last-minute decision to take part in tonight’s debates, Paul Mason has taken to social media to praise his comrade’s decision. The former Channel-4-economics-editor-turned-revolutionary tweeted a video clip of the wartime film A Bridge Too Far. In this, Lt. General Horrocks — played by Edward Fox — briefs his XXX Corps on Operation Market Garden: ‘Now, gentlemen, I’m not saying that this will be the easiest party that we’ve ever attended, but I still wouldn’t

James Forsyth

Corbyn piles pressure on May by agreeing to BBC debate

Jeremy Corbyn has just announced that he will be doing the BBC Election debate tonight. This means that all the UK-wide party leaders will be there apart from Theresa May. Corbyn’s move is clever politics. He has little to lose, and by turning up, he’ll be able to accuse May of being both too scared to defend her record and of arrogantly taking the voters for granted. It will enable him to continue his attack on her leadership style, an attack that has more of a chance of succeeding following her social care U-turn. May being asked about why she isn’t doing #BBCDebate is the televisual equivalent of haemorrhoids for

Lloyd Evans

Jeremy Corbyn survives his trial-by-sofa

It started with a fib. Jeremy Corbyn endured a trial-by-sofa on BBC One last night and he was asked if there were ‘boys jobs’ and ‘girls jobs’ in his household. He shook his head. Which is a total porkie. He’d parked his missus at home while he answered questions on prime-time television. A clear division of labour. Boys speak up, girls shut up. The presenters were so soft on him they might have been members of his campaign team. Maybe they are. He was allowed to dodge the awkward issue of Brexit. ‘What’s the biggest thing you’ve changed your mind over?’ ‘What’s the biggest change in my life?’ he mused,

Tuesday

30 May 2017

James Kirkup

Corbyn wants a kinder politics. Try telling that to some of his fans

Jeremy Corbyn must be furious about his interview with Emma Barnett on Woman’s Hour. Not because of the contents of that interview, because presumably he doesn’t mind people thinking he doesn’t have a clue how he’d fund his promise of state-provided childcare. After all, if he thought stuff like that was important, he’d have taken 30 seconds to read the brief about his own policy before announcing it, right? No, I mean he must be furious about what happened after that interview, and happened to Emma. Within minutes, she was subjected to the full spectrum of abuse online from people unhappy about a journalist doing her job and asking a politician

Brendan O’Neill

Jeremy Paxman has become a national bore

So who came off worse in The Battle for Number 10, last night’s Channel 4 / Sky stand-off between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn? It was Jeremy Paxman. May and Corbyn were paragons of patience and sense in contrast with this oafish, boorish barker of rude and even pointless questions. Watching Paxo was squirm-inducing. He’s the angry drunk uncle who ruins every barbecue by yelling ‘BALLS’ at anyone who disagrees with him. I’m convinced Corbyn or May would have instantly won tens of thousands of new voters if they had told him to bugger off. It’s amazing how knackered Paxman’s schtick felt. Did we really lap this guff up in

Alex Massie

Jeremy Corbyn must have been the most secret peacemaker of all

I suppose that if you are under thirty, Northern Ireland seems a place far away and it must be difficult to imagine a time when news from the province was a regular feature of the BBC and ITV nightly news bulletins. The Good Friday Agreement, for all its imperfections and awkward compromises, settled something that now belongs to something close to ancient history. A YouGov poll last month suggested only one in five voters thought they knew even a fair amount about Jeremy Corbyn’s history with Sinn Fein, the IRA, and the wider republican movement. The young can be forgiven their ignorance. But there are many people old enough to remember what

Steerpike

Watch: Jeremy Corbyn’s Diane Abbott moment

Oh dear. Jeremy Corbyn put in his best media performance of the campaign last night. But things have taken a turn for the worse this morning. Jez popped up on Woman’s Hour to unveil the party’s plans to give free childcare to parents. The only problem? Corbyn had no idea how much it would cost. The blundering Labour leader did his best to play for time but ended up asking the presenter what his flagship policy would cost: Here’s how it unfolded: Emma Barnett: How much will it cost to provide un-means tested childcare for 1.3million parents? Jeremy Corbyn: Erm, it would cost. Erm, it would obviously cost…a lot to

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Labour’s nasty manifesto shock – and Merkel’s Nato blunder

Jeremy Corbyn defied his critics by coming across well during last night’s debate and Labour is continuing to enjoy a revival in the polls. But the Labour leader is still facing a tough time in the press: Take a look in the small print of Labour’s plan for government, says the Daily Mail, and there’s a nasty shock waiting for you. The ‘Land Value Tax’ – which has been ‘highly praised by Jeremy Corbyn’ could ‘add more than £2,500 to the annual council tax bill’, according to the Tories. And it’s clear, says the Mail, that LVT would hit those with gardens the hardest. More worryingly though, the proposal ‘would

Ross Clark

Jeremy Corbyn now finds the IRA question easy to answer

A week ago, in the immediate aftermath of the Manchester bombing, it would have been impossible to imagine that Jeremy Corbyn, rather than Theresa May, might benefit most from the interruption in the campaign. Corbyn is supposed to be weak on security and vulnerable to his terrorist-supporting past. Meanwhile, May stood to gain from the switch off the subject of social care, where she was fumbling badly. Yet after last night’s Channel 4 debate it is beginning to look a little different. The concentration on security and terrorism is beginning to play into Corbyn’s hands. He has been challenged so many times on the subject that he has worked out

Sean O'Callaghan

The Labour movement must denounce Jeremy Corbyn for his IRA lies

The ongoing argument about Jeremy Corbyn’s support for the ‘armed struggle’ of the Provisional IRA is vacuous and circular. Very few people endorse every single action of any group they support, but Corbyn and his circle were always there to lend their support, particularly when the Provisionals were in difficulty. There are thousands of Labour supporters, in both islands, who were involved in this area over many years, and who know that Corbyn and a small group of extreme leftists in Britain made common cause with the most extreme violent nationalists in Ireland, in order to advance what they saw as revolutionary struggle. From the Socialist Workers Party to the

Monday

29 May 2017

James Forsyth

Corbyn turns in one of his best media performances

Jeremy Corbyn turned in one of his most assured media performances in the Sky / Channel 4 ‘Battle for Number 10’ programme. Answering questions from the audience, Corbyn was confident and kept his temper under some hostile questioning. He took every opportunity to return to his key messages. He framed them in a reasonable, rather than ideological manner. Now, this is not to say that Corbyn was telling the whole truth. On Northern Ireland, he suggested that all he had ever wanted was a peace process and a dialogue. But his activity at the time was far closer to sympathy for the IRA, then support for a peace process. It

Alex Massie

Scottish Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn problem

At one of Lord Ashcroft’s focus groups recently, participants were asked what jobs they thought might suit politicians if they were not, well, politicians. In Edinburgh, one respondent unkindly suggested Nicola Sturgeon would make an excellent traffic warden. For her part poor Kezia Dugdale – I’m afraid ‘Poor Kezia Dugdale’ has become the accepted form of labelling the Scottish Labour leader – was reckoned to be just the sort of person who would thrive working in a pet rescue centre. There are many times that must seem preferable to leading the Labour party in Scotland. For the whole of this campaign Ms Dugdale has suggested that the very last thing